COMMENT: Why no memorial for Emily Davison?

This weekend, alongside the ubiquitous Jubilee "celebrations", Epsom racecourse will host the Derby. One of the pinnacles of the horse racing calendar made all the more significant by what happened 99 years ago.

On Derby Day in 1913, Emily Wilding Davison stepped out from behind the railings at Tattenham Corner into the path of Anmer, one of the king's horses as part of the campaign for "Votes for Women". She died four days later from her injuries. Davison was the only suffragette to die in pursuit of the campaign.



Shockingly the Epsom racecourse has no memorial to Emily Davison - no plaque or statue, nothing to identify the place where she stepped out in front of the galloping horses. Her selfless act of protest, and one of the most significant acts of protest in recent British history, is forgotten by the race horsing community, the racecourse owners or even Epsom council. and yet there are statues of horses that won the Derby (including one who won the race as recently as 1991 and whose statue was erected in 1995).

I used to live near Tattenham Corner and find it shocking that so much money was pumped into the tiny, under-used rail station (because the Queen uses it once a year) and not a single penny was put towards anything to mark the 1913 protest.

Surely it's time for a monument at Tattenham Corner? A blue plaque perhaps? Something to mark one of the most heroic acts of campaigning for civil rights this country has ever seen.

Next year is the centenary of Davison's death, the lack of appropriate recognition is something that needs to be addressed in time for that anniversary.

COMMENT: F1 Bahrain Grand Prix

So it looks like the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead tomorrow despite protests in the country itself continuing and an increasingly vociferous opposition from human rights groups and left wing political parties. 

I still can't decide what would be the right thing. 

Yes, Bahrain has an oppressive monarchy that has violently squashed opposition and, yes, the Bahrain government is guilty of all sorts of human rights violations but should that mean a car race, organised by a private company and not representing any national teams, be stopped? I still don't understand the double standards of those opposed to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Why speak out against Bahrain hosting a race but not China? To be taken seriously surely there has to be a consistency in outcry?

How many countries are without human rights violations?

I mean, should a nation that has beaten and kettles protestors, had five days of riots last summer during which the police lost control of many city centres, and have a proven record of institutional racism in the police be allowed to hold a Grand Prix?

Yes, in an ideal world sport should be able to operate outside of politics, particularly when the teams competing are private rather than national, but, of course, the world isn't ideal and politics circles sports events like a pack of rabid hyenas. 

I guess my biggest fear, after the idiot at the Boat Race, is that a protestor will have an "Emily Davison" moment during tomorrow's race.  Where would that leave Formula One, international sport and, consequently, this summer's Olympics?