The 8.57 to Leeds
So I'm on the train heading down to Leeds. Me and my old house mate have tickets for Elland Road to see the last game of the season against Gillingham. Oddly enough I was at Elland Road for the last end of season game too. As I remember rightly a certain Ipswich centre forward scored a last minute goal to send them down to League 1. This was shortly followed by the unsightly spectacle of the entire Ipswich Town football squad running for their lives as ten thousand very angry yorkshiremen pursued them off the pitch. I have to say that if our central defenders had utilised the pace they demonstrated in that occasion during the rest of season perhaps we wouldn't have finished in mid table obscurity.
Cont...
posted by Benjamin Nakizo @ 10:14 am
2 Comments:
After the game we're both heading back up to Edinburgh to participate in tomorrow's 'Great Edinburgh Run'. So far I (read my gullible friends) have raised £130 for 'Save the Children'. They do marvellous things around the world, but I chose them particularly because they have operations in Afghanistan. So despite their (sensibly well hidden) Christian roots I decided they were one horse worth backing. So I thank everyone silly enough to assist in my self flattery.
Not so long ago Leeds were in the Champions League. Now they hoping to finish in the League 1 play off zone. Leeds decline is an astonishing story of how power and money corrupt. Their management team were guilty of a series of catastrophic corruption blunders that saw the once mighty giants fall so low. Funny how quickly things can change. When Leeds were competing in the Champions League the idea of Boris Johnson as London Mayor seemed ludicrous. In fact, less than 12 hours after his election, it still seems ludicrous.
But I take great comfort that there are over a million Londoners that are capable of seeing through the seemingly persistent prejudice against 'Old Britain'. Eton educated toffs, and the British system of values they personify, have for so long been offensive to men of fashionable taste. Ethnics appear to view the British Empire as an evil like no other, despite the obvious benefits it has brought them. While the liberally educated and trust funded children of this land think themselves to cool to admit that traditional British values perfectly encapsulate all they pretend to cherish. They would rather vote for Ken. A man so hung up on his own power that he will pose with leaders of big business one day, and corrupt dictators the next - doing whatever it takes to put himself in the spot light. That such a media whore fell to the sword of the Evening Standard is a magnificent justice.
I really hope Brown is unable to recover from Thursday's elections. I have my reservations about Cameron, I am afraid that he has a hard line, right wing edge that he is covering up. He also too euro-sceptic for my tastes. Yet I believe he will inject a much needed sense of change and dynamism into our public and private sectors, and for that alone he is well worth a vote. It doesn't help that I can't stand the Labour cabinet. Whenever I hear Harriet Harman or Jacqui Smith on TV I can't help but cringe. Both strong and highly ambitious females they have this strict school teacher mannerism to them that I hate. It always sounds like they are telling the country off for not doing exactly as they say. Ugh. And there isn't a single independent thought between them, they both seem dedicated to parrotting party line, and doing whatever it takes to push their careers and in a bid to overcome whatever feminist complex they suffer from. And as for Alistair Darling? I just feel sorry for him. "Here you go Darling" said Brown, "have this expertly crafted economy that I, Brown the magnificent, have been carefully nurturing for a decade".
Poor guy.
Anyway. As my train pushes on ever deeper into Labour's traditional heart land and the carriage fills up with ever more high spirited Leeds supporters I'm going to continue proudly reading my book by none other than Boris Johnson himself.
It's slowly becoming cool to be posh once again. And about time too.
I am sure you will be the first to faint at the merest mention that I have witnessed in myself a distinct shift toward the virtues of David Cameron. The removal of the 10p tax band was, for me, a gross oversight by Labour. True, there is under-reported data that suggests around 10 million families would have been better off after the changes - with respect to additional benefit alterations and a reduction in income tax.
However, politics is very much a game, as you rightly say. Reading a book on the criminal justice system, there is an interesting quote taken from a piece by an ex Law Lord. He notes that far from upholding a 'true' impartiality and liberty, the CJS has always best legitimised itself by leaning toward the views and inclinations of the public majority (the [lower] middle classes), irrespective of the discrimination and marginalisation such actions may cause as a result.
The same is true of politics and an is an approach espoused by none other than Aristotle. Thus, despite the fact Brown's tax changes may well have caused a net benefit to a great many poor families, he should unfortunately have realised the great political capital in keeping the system as it was.
I also hasten to add that neither Camera or Clegg have come out in favour of re-assuming the 10p tax band should they come into power. This is something also oft overlooked in current debates on the issue.
While Brown's proposed system (in its original incarnation) may arguably have benefited those less well off, the structure of the proposal was far more complex than that before it. As you and I both agree, bureaucracy and officious overheads must be removed in order to make efficiency gains and reductions in unnecessary public expenditure. It is perhaps odd that as a left-centre man I am not jumping over the chance to better help to proletariat, but I feel that focussing on elements of financial and operational asphyxiation within the welfare state is far more utilitarian in the long-term.
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