I honestly struggle to get my head around this sort of thing. In the fifties and sixties, ports like Liverpool were the scene for the importing of records, often Rhythm and Blues records by black artists, brought back by sailors returning from America. In many cases, no one could be certain whether the artists involved were black or white - it didn’t matter, people just liked the music for what it was. Kids that were into this music were the foundation for the Mersey sound where, almost exclusively white bands would use cover versions of records the sailors brought back as filler for albums (or even singles in rare cases) and when someone like the Beatles were behind it, a huge audience were introduced to music and artists they were unfamiliar with.

Dusty Springfield was in a trio which sang “family orientated” drivel most of the time, but as soon as she went solo, it became apparent that she had a superb R and B voice which earned her a great deal of money and fame. However, she gave an awful lot back in the way she promoted black music and artists who were both grateful to her for the exposure she was given them and respectful of her talent - I’d say that respect stemmed from the fact that she entirely “got” the music, almost entirely by black artists, she was publicising on her TV show.

Dusty Springfield also spoke out against apartheid in the sixties, we’ll before it became “fashionable” to do so, yet the way some talk, she shouldn’t have been allowed to - it’s absurd!

On the other hand, football is a part of life that could certainly do with the sort of reaction we’re seeing directed at Cheryl Cole. Although things seem to be improving, albeit way too slowly, in terms of black managers and coaches, the game is like a throwback to the seventies and eighties when the emerging African nations were uniformly coached and managed by white men because, bluntly, blacks were considered far too thick to understand the complexities of the game. Such thinking persists to some extent today’s day yet people get all worked up the colour of someone presenting a show dedicated to celebrating black music!