1        England is still a little way off the top table yet.  You need to be a blind optimist to believe we could have beaten France or Argentina (or Brazil, for that matter).  Indeed, we had our chance against France and, true to our standing as “plucky Brits”, failed.

2        Harry Kane’s penalty taking is not infallible.

3        On their day anyone can beat or lose to anyone.  The success enjoyed by the Arab teams, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and especially Morocco, along with Japan and Cameroon make the point.

4        Politics and Human Rights roared in like a lion at the start and then, well, stopped roaring.  It was pushed to the sidelines by the football as Qatar and FIFA hoped it would be.  It was the most riveting and entertaining competition in my lifetime, notwithstanding the 1970 World Cup illuminated by the brilliant Brazilians.

5        What we have yet to learn necessitates some uncomfortable introspection and self-analysis.

Once imperialism consisted in armies of colonial powers with muskets and canons unsurprisingly subduing and subjugating people armed with spears.  It still exists in economic form – ownership of the means of production, distribution, aid with conditions etc.  What we do not yet recognise is cultural imperialism – the export of “superior” Western liberal values.

LGB… issues might be viewed as human rights issues by ourselves but what we have bumped up against is that universally they aren’t.  By and large the media in much of the developing world has taken the view that Qatar has championed the right to determine their own values and laws without the arrogant intercedence of Western liberalism

We are not yet ready to accept this and it will be uncomfortable doing so.