Own Goal

Feminists used to challenge the cultural priority of football.

That priority arose entirely out of the process in the 1990s whereby the game was changed from a working-class pursuit into one in which chavs performed like monkeys for posh boys.

But now, it is scarcely, if at all, an exaggeration to say that British feminism could not survive the upholding of Ched Evans's appeal.

Tens of thousands of people who could not find Sheffield or Oldham on a map have been enticed into the extremely undemanding process of signing online petitions that presuppose the earth-shattering importance of this person and his doings.

Imagine if that amount of energy had been diverted into something that really mattered.

As, not very long ago, feminists would once have said.