Just a quick note to apologise for the lack of blogging activity recently. Apparently being under-employed is surprisingly busy. In between working, volunteering, and studying, I will try to find time to write something more substantial soon. I am hoping this will be tonight, but there is the small matter of the Champions League final that may get in the way. Anyway, here’s a couple of videos relating to the Champions League, about the two best finals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mf8SC_UASg
I retain a belief that football is a great unifying force for good. Whilst I accept that there are footballing rivalries and hooliganism, football also does an emormous amount of good too. As if proof of the point of the force of the sport, I found this article which serves to indicate the influence of football. The upcoming elections are important ones, as is every election in a democratic society. That football is trying to encourage as many people as possible to vote can only be a good thing.
The general hypocrisy of the great British public never ceases to amaze me. Over the course of the past week we have had the revelations about MP’s expenses. These revelations have caused uproar, and quite rightly so. Some of the abuses of the system that MP’s had made were startling and shocking. In essence though, they had been playing the system, and had been doing so for many years. They were exploiting loopholes in the law which meant they could claim for all sorts of things for all sorts of homes. The public have reacted with fury to the way MP’s have abused a system designed, in its origin, to help the MP’s living away from home.
Which is why I’m really annoyed about this story. Here is a loophole that the landlady has jumped through to avoid the smoking ban, and increase numbers back into her pub. Having listened to the person who ‘found’ this loophole on the radio this lunchtime, I grew increasingly annoyed as he showed no awareness of the hypocrisy with which he was surrounding himself. On the one hand he showed himself to be critical of the MP’s who had been exploiting loopholes, but on the other, he was proudly boasting that he knew of at least another couple of such holes to be exploited (naturally enough, he didn’t want to reveal them). There were many smokers who rang, texted, or emailed the radio to show their support for the landlady and her cause. Many thought that declaring a pub a “research centre” was a good idea as it allowed people to smoke inside. There was simply a complete lack of wider understanding. It is, at least according to a proportion of the public, fine for the public themselves to exploit loopholes in the law, but not for MPs. I can only repeat my opening thoughts. Hypocrites.
As a historian, this question is one which poses problems. In essence the answer is simple, learn from the mistakes, but never repeat them. In the real world though this is somewhat more difficult to achieve. Instead the solution seems to be to live in the past, using it as a justification for the now, when, in reality, it is far from any such thing.
As someone who not long ago finished university, I still have friends who are currently plodding their way through another set of exams. It is for this reason that I make no apologies in the two cases in point which I wish to use to illustrate my point.
The first comes from the Birmingham University Conservative Future blog, which can be found here. The people over on this blog, of whom, I will admit, I either do not know, or know by name or sight alone; write about, naturally enough things pertaining to the Conservative way of thinking. The trouble is, this invariably leads back to a certain individual, whose shadow sits long on the political landscape. Margaret Thatcher is a name which is as synonymous with political divisions as it is with miners, or the Falklands. Those over on BUCF, perhaps unsurprisingly, seem to write about her and her legacy, with almost metronomic regularity.
Now I do not have a problem with posts about her in small doses, she did divide the nation with her actions. However, the regularity with which she is held up and talked about by those on the site is, for want of a better word, boring. Perhaps more valuable would be a stringent analysis of why the Conservatives, despite Brown’s continuing failings, are failing to impress as the other option. I still see the Conservatives winning the next general election, but smaller groups such as UKIP, the BNP, the Green Party etc will be much better represented than ever before, and I think, certainly in the case of the BNP, this is a political failing of the mainstream parties. For now, the Conservatives seem to be content to ride on the wave of Labour’s self-destruction to the election. This is reflected in the blogging of the folk on BUCF, which seems, to my mind at least, to ignore the larger political issues of the moment in exchange for Labour bashing (which, as fun as it may seem, is counter-productive in the long run).
All of which leads my nicely onto the next problem. Hopping over the political spectrum to the folk at Birmingham University Labour Students, I find a similar problem. They too are stuck lauding over past success in exchange for neglect of current predicaments. In their case, the past success is much more recent, but still, to my mind, is barely enough to hang their hopes on. The minimum wage, undoubtedly a good thing, seems to be left high and dry as the one thing that Labour now really has left following twelve years of government. Their record on child poverty is in tatters, unemployment is now no better, legacies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ireland have all been left, but we wait to see how soon these may fall apart in volatile areas of the world. It is entirely questionable as to whether healthcare has improved all that much, and whilst there are some shining lights in education, there are really not that many. There was a general enjoyment of success whilst Britain was riding a wave of optimism and big spending in the early years of the government, but this has spectacularly fizzled out as we have hit the ‘bust’ section of the cycle. Labour too has had the misfortune of being the party in power at a stage where increased litigation has forced in the country down a route of increased bureaucracy, something the wider public seems to be growing increasingly frustrated with. All of which inevitably spell curtains for the party as the British government, and this is before we hit the media problems which have dogged the party in recent times. Those on the blog though seem to be ignoring the problems. There is rarely any comment about negative Labour headlines, something I feel is to the detriment of themselves and their readership.
Perhaps it is me, floating around in my idealistic bubble, but I think I would prefer to discuss the problems, agree that there are some, and work out what the party can be doing to overcome these problems. I feel that public acceptance of the problems would be a start, and is certainly better than anonymity. Both sides at the ‘grass-roots’ level of the party perhaps have to move out of the realm of comfort blogging and start considering the bigger issues, which, sooner rather than later one would guess, will become their problems.
With the end of the Premier League season approaching, three teams naturally find themselves struggling to stay afloat. West Brom look certainties to go down, and although Mowbray’s attacking instincts are commendable, I’m still not sure whether they are realisitic for a newly promoted side in the division. However, I hold no fear for West Brom, one of a few yo-yo clubs at the moment, and I think that, providing that they hold onto their better players, they will bounce back again pretty quickly.
Instead it is Newcastle for whom I fear the most. I think now they will go down, as I cannot see them picking up the requisite number of points to keep them up. If they are relegated, the club will sink in the manner of Leeds, Charlton and Southampton (all recently Premier League clubs who find themselves either in League One, or joining it next season). Newcastle are club prone to turmoil, it seems poorly run from the top down, and there is nothing Alan Shearer could realistically have done to prevent the collapse. It is a longer term problem within the club than simply a season full of bad results indicates. They will continue to struggle I think, over the course of the next two or three seasons, and may very well be rubbing shoulders with the teams in League One sooner than they will be back in the Premier League.
Of course, there are two teams already heading to the Premier League to replace West Brom and probably Newcastle. Birmingham City, who, if I’m honest, have not impressed me much this season in footballing terms, have secured second spot in the Championship and make an immediate return to the Premier League. It is however Wolves who have finally pulled clear of the chasing pack, finishing seven points clear of Birmingham as the top scorers in the league. It has truly been a roller-coaster season for Wolves fans, the thrills of last autumn were followed by the pains of early spring. Even as recently as April 6, when the team lost to Birmingham, the fans were still muttering that automatic promotion would not be achieved. However, for the team which had remained top since October, avoiding defeat in the final five games meant that the other clubs simply could not stand the pace and fell away (Cardiff in spectacular fashion). Wolves deserve to win the Championship, there is little question about that. For the team though, the hard work starts now.
As the dust settles on one of the most unpopular budgets for a long time, the battered red briefcase waved by Chancellor Alistair Darling seems indicative of the Labour party itself. Battered and increasingly unpopular, the budget, along with the party, has proven to be far from the reassuring comfort that is needed during a time of economic plight. Instead we are told of, in the best case, simple hikes in the price of fuel and alcohol offset by a variety of incentives, and in the worst, a class war.
Now I’m not sure of the strength of the latter case, although it is easy to see where the critics are coming from with such a point. The increase in taxes to offset the substantial, and increasing debt is painful reading for most who happen to drive, drink, smoke and earn. The BBC’s simplistic calculator works out that I will be roughly £80 worse off next year, if all else remains constant.
Reading various responses to Darling’s budget has been interesting, those left-wing writers, whilst stopping short of praising the whole thing, do at least champion the case for taking money from the rich. Polly Toynbee in the Guardian writes that “Taxation is the only easy way to restore a very small measure of sanity to the unjust rewards of the rich” and such a view is supported by Jonathan Freeland, who tells goes on to tell us that “Darling’s wasn’t a swashbuckling performance, but under almost impossible circumstances it was surely the best that could be done“. The general concurrance is that Darling has reignited the embers of a dying class fire. There seems to be an acceptance now of the impending fate of this government. The measures have been put in place. The legacy has been left, and the pieces are there to be picked up by a Conservative government. This may not have been inspiring stuff, but politically and tactically it was marvellous. In years to come historians will look at this budget as the beginning of the left-wing fightback, begun before they had even been removed from office.
Naturally the right-wing are up in arms about the budget. The right-wing focus lies away from the class issues though. For those on the right side of the fence there is a simple problem. The numbers don’t add up. For Jeff Randell of the Telegraph, melodramatism conveys the point: “A ball-and-chain of spirit-sapping debt has been clamped to the nation’s future“, and this is taken further by Camilla Cavendish in The Times (incidentally the only newspaper for which you need capitalise “The”) who wrote “we got growth forecasts that were fantasy even by forecast standards“. And the point is a good one. The figures, from the guy who is meant to be in charge of this sort of stuff do not seem right, and do not fall into line with any forecasts by other equally (if not better) qualified people. 2032 is the early estimate of when things might return to a ‘normal’ level. That’s if we haven’t destroyed ourselves in a nuclear rage induced by poor stock markets.
For the Tories, there is little they can do. The acceptance seems well spread. Labour are burning out. They seem to be resigned to losing the next election and this budget has done nothing but add to this feeling. The Tories just have to maintain their course. They do not need to over-react, nor, it seems, do they need substantial policy. They just need to be there for the country when Labour has proven itself not to be. This will come within the next year and the General Election. Then there is the trouble of picking up what has been left. The long term game is being played here, by both parties. Labour’s game has just begun, but for the Tories, plan A (which generally has involved letting Labour burn themselves completely) quickly needs replacing, otherwise the “oh crap, what the hell do we do now” sketch will write itself all too easily when David Cameron steps through the doors of Number 10 as the country’s leader.
As I made the journey to and from the delightful old city of York last week, my train took me past various towns, villages and cities all with delightful reminders of the two sides of Britain, which co-exist peacefully alongside each other, even though they should have no right to.
Passing through Sheffield revealed the ugly side of Britain. The approach to the station was littered with the various trainside power boxes, steep walls and concrete posts. On all of these things, and much more someone had scrawled their tag, “Bloodaxe”. Bloodaxe, or perhaps Mr Bloodaxe (I’m sorry, but I have difficulty in associating such a title with a female creator), had, very methodically it seems, made the effort to tag every little thing within about a mile either side of Sheffield station. These were not crafted examples of graffiti at its undoubted best, but instead were simple name scrawls, placed as an act of rebellion against…something. What, I’m not quite sure, but there must be the thrill of doing something wrong which drove Mr Bloodaxe to lazily scribble his self-appointed gory label on everything you could see. It did not look good, it did not look clever. In fact it quickly got boring. Aside from the commitment this vandalistic individual showed to the cause of tagging, there was nothing creative or impressive about the work. It just seemed so very pointless.
By way of comparison, we passed through or by some villages which reflected a more traditional view of England. The rolling hillsides and slowly meandering rivers and streams that seem more fitting in a Wordsworth poem all passed by and proved stark contrast to the world of Mr Bloodaxe. The tranquility (as best it was with a train ploughing through it) was remarkable in comparison to the hustle and bustle of town stations. The apparent slow nature of time as you see a tractor pushing its way through a field is heightened further as you compare it to the cars and buses pushing their way through the crowded streets of inner cities. Even York, as picturesque as it is, has this trouble. For other, uglier towns, bustle and blunder seem the perfect fit for the imperfect world.
Train journeys frequently provide contrast, and whilst travelling northwards, this was brought home even more as the train dived in and out of cities and countryside. Whilst it is possible that this is not the most scenic of routes, it was an interesting trip to the casual observer.
It’s been a busy week for football this week. As I’m now sat watching the second FA Cup semi-final instead of finishing an essay, I thought I would do at least some writing.
Yesterday’s semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea was an interesting tie. Won late on by Didier Drogba, the tie was played in the shadow of the Hillsborough tragedy (of which I have previously written), with presentations made to members of the Hillsborough families. The teams were meant to play wearing black armbands as a sign of respect. Yet Arsenal played the first half armband-less. Which was a point of criticism undoubtedly. Until Chelsea came out in the second half, without their armbands. They did, it appears, somehow jump onto the Arsenal players arms at half-time. This seems both bizarre, and slightly disrespectful. Was there only one set of black armbands at Wembley yesterday? I had always thought that the armbands were little more than black tape, so why would there need to be ‘proper’ bands? Did the FA simply forget the second set of bands? Whatever way you look at it, only having one set of armbands is distinctly unprofessional from the FA, and two teams could have simply made do with the traditional tape, as opposed to apparently sharing the armbands.
Secondly, briefly, I’m becoming more and more convinced that the next Manchester United manager will be David Moyes, who, to my mind, has many of the same traits as Sir Alex Ferguson, and who has proven himself consistantly with hardly any money at a high standard.
Finally, I cannot finish a football related blog on this day without mentioning the success of my own team. Wolverhampton Wanderers have been promoted to the Premier League two games before the season ends. Barring any freak results, they will go up as Championship Champions too. It has been a roller-coaster season, our autumn was brilliant, our winter less so. Our spring has been necessarily strong, and our summer will be exciting. Sitting atop the league since October, Wolves have proven themselves to be the best team, scoring the most goals and having the league’s top scorer in our ranks. Congratulations to Wolves, and here’s hoping for a solid season next term!
Yesterday was an extremely emotional day for football fans across the country. Wednesday promises to even more emotional. It is 20 years since the Hillsborough tragedy killed 96 Liverpool fans, and forced the Football Association into taking decisive action in regards to stadium safety.
As I sat watching Match of the Day last night, it was painfully apparent that the scars are still raw for those who were there. Alan Hansen, Liverpool’s captain twenty years ago, talked about how he had been affected by the event, and what it still meant to him. Mark Lawrenson sat beside him and could add nothing more.
Hillsborough was a national tragedy which still holds significance today. People who do not necessarily follow football know about Hillsborough and the significance of it. The event should not, and never will be, forgotten.
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