A young man from Birmingham presents a podcast about Conspiracy and Racism in his city. There is a little too much about the young man included, for Macdara’s tastes; the present writer has less appetite for impulsive twenty-something Brummies than Serial’s American producers do. But Hamza Syed is certainly likeable, and on the right side; a Good Man.

In the course of his disquisition, he asks himself, his listeners, the world, whether there could be another community in the city that could be subjected to Conspiracy and Racism? The keen historically-minded listener answers in the affirmative, and looks forward to a thoughtful exploration of the similarities and differences between the treatment of Irish people in the recent past, and the treatment of Pakistani people and other Muslims today. 

But the question is not answered in the affirmative, and this man loses the opportunity to make a comparison, to establish solidarity, to add further historical consideration to his reflections on his own Britishness. In fact in demonstrating this ignorance, he proves his Englishness, reminding the present writer of some lads from Guildford that he once met while travelling. Guildford, like the Guildford Four? But they did not know what this meant; in the storied history of Guildford, the Guildford Four evidently do not feature. The Guildford Four, Birmingham Six and Maguire Seven were released within the lifetime of those lads, and of Syed. But the enemy has changed and to the injustice those men and women suffered is added the insult of being forgotten in the country in which their persecution took place. In which case the lessons of these cases—these crimes, committed by authorities up to the highest level—have not been learnt.

Those, like Syed, who would challenge the worst behaviours of the English state first must see how their own ignorance is a weapon they were given to use against themselves and others.