The People's Republic of Birmingham

Dedward

2010-10-06T22:59:00.004+01:00

Today saw the Conservative party conference come to an end, the first party conference to be held in the city by a party in power. There were some interesting announcements as might be expected for a newish government, including the proposal to end universal child benefit and speculation that a married couples allowance would be reintroduced to help offset some of the unfairness of the change.

Meanwhile last week saw the biennial Labour party conference in Manchester which included the announcement of Ed Miliband as leader, beating his older brother David by 0.1%. David did not seem to take the defeat graciously, particular as he challenge Harriet Harman for applauding Ed when he claimed the Iraq war was wrong. This was proof that Ed was the correct choice for the party: David, throughout the campaign, often failed to answer serious questions and kept a very safe, Blairite line on policy and announcements. Winning the party nomination requires a person to enthuse the grassroots, but all David seemed concerned with was continuing failed New Labour ideology. While Ed may well move back to the centre now he has won the nomination, he demonstrated he understood where the party was now and where the problems lie. We may have an interesting few years ahead.

Delhi Jealousy Belies Little Britain

2010-10-03T11:29:00.005+01:00

Today marks the start of the Commonwealth Games, but so far all we have heard from the British media is how it has been beset by problems. One cannot help feeling there is a touch of the old colonialist attitude towards the reporting of the build up to these games: how dare those darkies believe they can hold a successful international competition! An excellent article by Mick Hume makes this point.

This of course follows on from the criticism of Beijing 2008 which, I can guarantee, in two years time will have provided a better competition than our overrated dump of a capital (what else did Seb Coe mean when he said London would not match the Beijing Olympics). Want to see how well we can organise things? How about a major golf competition in Wales which has been delayed by the surprising element of weather. Who would have though there would be rain in Cardiff in October? Not the organisers of a British hoster Ryder Cup.

And if Britain is so great at hosting major international sporting events as the BBC and other media outlets are so quick to have us believe, what did Olympic president Jacques Rogge mean in 2002 when he said the Manchester Commonwealth games had gone a long way to restoring Britain's credibility in terms of hosting big sporting events.

Parking Cube

2010-10-01T21:56:00.005+01:00

Reading this article on the new high-tech car park at the futuristic (Borg - sorry it had to be said) Cube complex in central Birmingham reminded me of the car park in the original Bullring that heralded the future. As the following article quotes the idea was simple:

Motorists left their car with a uniformed member of staff who would then drive it into a huge lift serving each of the four floors. It stopped at a level with spaces and the car would be driven out onto a trolley, then pushed to the nearest available space where it would be placed.

Unfortunately the idea was too labour intensive and was abandoned after three days, leaving the car park empty until it was demolished to make way for the new Bullring. Hopefully the Cube's version, said to be the largest car park stacking system in the UK, will be more successful.

Jasbir Authi drew a similar comparison in the Birmingham Mail yesterday.

Merry Christmas One and All

2009-12-25T22:54:00.001Z

The People's Republic wishes its readers a happy and holy Christmas. May you enjoy the festive period with your family and friends.

Climate Changed Mind

2009-10-15T22:28:00.007+01:00

I was slightly disappointed that the topic for the third Blog Action Day ended up being Climate Change, as I was under the impression that was the same as the topic chosen on the first blog action day two years ago. In fact I was wrong and it was actually about the Environment, which is obviously very similar. I used the day two years ago to urge more political progress on the issue of Global Warming. However, in the last two years, I have grown increasingly sceptical about it.

Sensationalized stories like this one from the supposedly unbiased BBC do not help. As pointed out on the Stirrer forum, all I need to do is rearrange and juxtapose a few sentence to show what nonsense it is.

This route is usually frozen but rising temperatures in the region caused by global warming have melted much of the ice allowing large ships to go through.

But the once impenetrable ice that prevented ships travelling along the northern Russian coast has been retreating rapidly because of global warming in recent decades.

The passage became passable without ice breakers in 2005.

Both ships left South Korea in late July, negotiating the passage off north-eastern Siberia behind two Russian icebreakers.

World Half Marathon Championships

2009-10-11T22:43:00.005+01:00

It was a rather strange site waking up this morning to see some of the top half-marathon runners racing past my house but it was certainly an exciting and welcome one. The course was quite disruptive to people living in South Birmingham particularly if one happened to be, as I did, cut off by the course but had been picked to provide a potential record breaking time. Unfortunately that did not happen on this occasion (not helped of course by Paula Radcliffe having to pull out at a late stage) but I understand the winner of the international female race broke her own personal record.

BNP Suicide Bomber?

2009-09-28T22:36:00.003+01:00

West Midlands Regional organisor Mike Bell has been well and truly caught with his pants down. After years of denying the BNP have any links to nazism and proudly boasting that his family had "a pround history of opposing the Nazis in both world wars" (sic) and of collecting money for the Royal British legion, he was photographed this week at a Neo-Nazi Rock concert in Germany where he was the headline speaker. His reaction on the Stirrer forums was really quite disturbing:

prod, probe, attack, destroy me , just be aware that the preservation of the martyr within me will live on.You will all see me very soon unleash the wrath of gods heil Odin, Heil Thor.I shall go down in flames,remember my name it will be etched into your memories forever.You will be part responsible,an unwanted trophy which you will have to take the credit for.

Now, what does this remind you of?

California Day 9: Wal-Mart

2009-08-21T23:18:00.003+01:00

With the plane leaving for Britain at 14:30, there was not much we could do on our final half-day in the US. After ensuring we were pretty much packed we headed to Wal-Mart to buy some bits and pieces for the folks back home. Then it was the long drive back to the car rental place at the airport to drop off our trusty Canyonero which had served us so well. We nearly got charged for the scratches that were on it despite the fact it was like that when we got it (and the diagram pointing it out had been marked wrong). We passed the security checks relatively quickly and after reading up on the history of the Pacific Baseball League from the display at the airport, we finished the holiday as we started it with some pizza and a couple of beers.

The flight back was relatively uneventful. I had hoped to watch a few films but only managed to watch the Start Trek one which was decent enough. I did manage to get some sleep though, which proved to be useful as although we arrived back just after midnight California time it was 10:30 in the morning when we arrived in the UK. My only explanation for the missing ten hours was that we were abducted by aliens. As everyone on the plane lost this amount of time as well, I can only conclude this is more common than many people think.

California Day 8: The Beach

2009-08-20T22:05:00.007+01:00

Our last full day in California was spent relaxing, firstly at the hotel recovering from the epic journey to Yosemite and then to Half Moon Bay, a nearby beach which also took us near the airport which would prove useful for the final journey home. The unfortunate thing about the beaches in California is they proved not to be suitable for swimming; this beach had unpredictable waves which made it dangerous, while our trip to Santa Cruz had a notice of potentially contaminated water. Not a patch on Barmouth...

The evening saw us go back to the Cheesecake Factory for a goodbye meal with out hosts. The restaurant was filled to the rafters so we had to wait for a table. As with Fuddrockers on Tuesday we got one of these fascinating gadgets which flashed and buzzed when our order or in this case our table was ready. The wait, however, allowed me to nip to the mall and buy some stuff from a rapidly dwindling amount of dollars. When we got back to the Cheesecake Factory I ordered the amazing Eggplant Sandwich which was not necessarily amazing, but was not bad.

California Day 7: Yosemite

2009-08-19T22:16:00.007+01:00

It would have been a crime to come so close to Yosemite National Park and not visit and day 7 was the day we set aside for the two/three hour drive. It was fortunate we had three drivers registered to use the car as it turned out we would need all of them. The journey was pretty interesting leading us to a variety of roads including country roads that we had not encountered in the US yet. At one point we had to stop at a railway crossing for 10 minutes while a very, very long goods train went past.

It cost $20 to enter Yosemite in a family car and this was the point I took over the driving. We headed to Curry Village where we briefly thought about renting a tent for the night before dismissing it and renting a boat to take out to the stream instead. It was literally a case of three men in a boat but the low water level and our combined weight meant we had to get out a couple of times to push it. We reached the other end an hour or so later and took a shuttle back to Curry Village where we stopped of for a quick snack at the Taco/ Burrito bar before climbing towards the first waterfall (Vernal) on the half-dome day hike.

The website says it is a walk of moderate to strenuous difficulty. I wish I had visited the website first as I would have been better prepared. I went up in black jeans, a t-shirt and trainers ("pub wear") with the temperature near 100 degrees Fahrenheit when everyone else was in hiking clothing. My friends were not much better prepared with one of them going up in in little more than plimsolls. It was far and away the most tiring thing I have ever done and there were times when I thought it might have been my final destination. I was absolutely cream-crackered when we got to the footbridge and that was only halfway there, although it was arguably the hardest bit because after that the steps started. Steps as high as my knee with pensioners and kids doing this. Going up was bad enough but I did worry how I was going to get back down (although actually it turned out to be a lot easier). Carrying a bag did not help and we had to share the burden which I think was fair because it contained our only water bottle that we supped from regularly. Our boy in plimsolls nearly slipped on a few occasion on the descent but managed to keep his balance, unlike the lady we saw on the way up who had large cuts at her knees after what must have been a particularly bad fall. The top of the waterfall was impressive though and I would not mind attempting the full trek to the top of half-dome in better shape with the proper gear. Maybe the ascent turned me mad.

When we got back down we decided we had enough time to see the giant sequoia at the other end of the park. It took us an hour to drive there and by the time we made the walk the sun had set and none of the photos I took came out. It was pretty scary walking through that part of Yosemite in the dark in the knowledge that there were bears about. An hour there meant it was an hour to drive back, and we had to fill up at a self-service petrol station we passed in the park. We got back to the Valley and managed to catch a glimpse of the nutters ascending El Capitan at night, who spent the time in the dark hanging off the edge of a cliff shining torches at each other. After two hours driving I had to finally give up the wheel to member one of team Le Mans and fell asleep for the other three hours back. We reached home at nearly two which perhaps meant we would have been justified in staying over.

Yosemite is an amazing place which quite literally will take your breath away. I might have a convenient excuse that I live too far away to justify going back and completing the half dome trail. One would have to be incredibly fit to do it, but Yosemite will inspire you to give it a try.

California Day 6: Mount Diablo

2009-08-18T21:45:00.003+01:00

Time to take our 4X4 up some rugged terrain: we spent the morning driving to the top of the tallest local mountain, Mount Diablo which may have initially been a mistranslation of thicket! The views from the top were indeed impressive and with binoculars one could see San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. We had to pay $7 to take the car to the top of the mountain, but the price does not allow you to take home any momentos from the state park as we found out when we were prevented from taking some cones as big as coconuts back in our car.

The afternoon was spent lazing about the pool back at the hotel before going out in the evening to a burger place near to where we went on the first night. Fuddrockers is a bit like McDonalds but different; the burger comes in a cob, the fries are wedges, and the smallest size is a third of a pound (as compared to a quarter pounder in a British MD). You can put the salad and ketchup on yourself. After this meal fit for a king (or kings), we went to an electrical store that I was prevented from going into on the first day due to a cotton candy gummi bear ice cream problem. I had not missed much as it reminded me of Curry's digital on Highgate Middleway although it probably did have a wider variety of goods including DVDs, Games and musical instruments.

We planned to move on to some Go-Karting later on but ended up playing another round of mini-golf.

California Day 5: San Jose

2009-08-17T21:51:00.005+01:00

We were back on the BART on the morning of day 5 to get to San Francisco Airport in order to pick up the car we had rented. Once at the station we managed to quickly get on the Sky Train, which connects the various terminals at the airport with the car hire place. When we finally got past the queue and the bureaucracy we found a red Ford Escape waiting for us in the carpark. Working out how to drive the thing was interesting; obviously US cars are all automatic and do not really have a handbrake, and we found the brakes on this car were quite shall we say responsive. We headed over to San Jose which is on the way to Pleasanton, where we were staying.

San Jose lives in the shadow of the much more famous San Francisco, but is actually a city with a bigger population (just smaller than the size of Birmingham). The problem is there is not much to attract tourists. There are a lot of Art galleries and museums, and we amused ourselves in the shop for the Tech Museum of Innovation for a bit before walking around downtown San Jose. It was absolutely dead but very clean, and the parking only cost us $7 for the whole day. We ate some sandwiches/ paninis in a European-style cafe in the city centre and walked back through the Plaza de Cesar Chavez past some undesirables who had not been there when the mounted police had rode through earlier. I was amused to see a bus to Alum Rock.

After driving home we relaxed back at the pool in the hotel while waiting for our friend to get back from work. After a quick drink at the hotel, we set off out again this time to an American Mall which I will describe as a slightly posher version of the Bull Ring. We decided to go back to the Alehouse after and because I had managed to catch a cold at the beach on Saturday I volunteered to be the designated driver. This meant I got behind the wheel of the behemoth that was the Ford Escape for the first time. I found it quite easy to drive, not having to worry about the gears and with wide roads and no overtaking lanes, it proved relatively easy. I managed to get to the Alehouse and back without killing anyone, so overall it was a successful day.

California Day 4: Biking the Bridge

2009-08-16T18:54:00.006+01:00

Day 4 took us back into San Francisco to do the very touristy thing of biking the Golden Gate Bridge. Having struggled to make it out of the car park, we spent some time at Lori's Diner to eat fries and milkshake (not a good combination). We ended up at Blazing Saddles to rent some bikes, where I found out riding a bike is harder than it looks. I ended up on a tandem with a more experienced cyclist - what fun we had (although not as much as the group who had rented the three person cycle)! We cycled across the bridge up to Sausalito where we had a short snack (a cheeseboard) before catching the ferry back to San Francisco. Unfortunately, due to the size of the queue of cyclists trying to get on it, we were unable to get on the ferry that took us back to the place we rented the cycles from and ended up taking one to the ferry terminal which was allegedly five minutes down the road. I'm not sure how you were supposed to get there in five minutes but it certainly was not by bike. The ferry did, however, give us some impressive views of the city and Alcatraz island.

In the evening we ended up having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory because everywhere else was closed. The Cheesecake Factory offers a lot of dishes, but surprisingly for the amount of choice, I struggled to find anything I wanted on the menu before I settled for a spaghetti bolognese. The portions here were huge (they offer you a box to take home anything you have not eaten) and we received some typically brilliant American service from the waiter. A couple of people braved the cheesecake for pudding despite the large portions, although I do not believe we were able to finish these off between us. We got home a bit early anticipating an early start, as we had to pick up the 4x4 we had rented on the Internet from San Francisco Airport in the morning.

California Day 3: Santa Cruz Beach

2009-08-15T20:01:00.003+01:00

Day 3 saw us waste the morning attempting to hire a bigger car but we came to the conclusion that there was not anything suitable available in the car hire places we went to and that in any case we probably would not need one until Monday when our current driver was back at work. For the afternoon, we drove to Santa Cruz beach but struggled to find parking. Three of us left the our two friends to find somewhere to park and had a walk round what could only be described as the the US version of Blackpool - and to be honest, it was not that much better. We managed to buy the equivalent of a cornetto from a local shop which was far bigger than any similar ice-cream I had ever purchased from a fridge in Britain, and a beer from a local bar which seem to be in short supply in the US. While at the bar, we heard that our friends had managed to park on the pier and were waiting to meet us. I managed to buy a genuine American hotdog on the pier and thought I was being ripped off until I realised that US prices do not include the dreaded sales tax. Underneath the pier we saw some sea lions:

After a brief walk/ rest on the beach we decided to move to a quieter location. We found a small cove just past a railway track further down the coast which we stayed at until sunset.

We drove back along the coast and in the evening went out and, having heard of our problems trying to find a bar earlier in the day, were driven to the local alehouse near our hotel for the first time. I had a rather hot chilli dish with sourbread and sampled a couple of what would I guess be described as real ales in Britain. Of all the things we missed from Britain in the US, I guess it was the local watering hole which left the biggest gap.

Califonia Day 2: San Francisco and Baseball

2009-08-14T21:52:00.005+01:00

Prior to the beginning of our holiday, my friends who were already in California had booked tickets for the baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies for the evening of 31st July. It was therefore an easy decision to spend our first full day in San Francisco prior to the match in the evening. Our driver had taken the car to work, so we got to San Francisco using the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which runs for part of the route along the centre of the highway. One frustration was that the ticket machine only gives change up to $4.95, but I later found out that there was a change machine behind the ticket machine. Doh!

We got off at Powell Street and decided to take the San Francisco Cable Car to Fishermans Wharf. The Cable Car is like an old-fashioned tram that can get up and down the roads on the steep hills that are part of San Francisco (the film Bullitt is set in the city). The queue was incredibly long and a couple of us left it to buy a day ticket from the local booth (which quaintly, uses a scratch-card style system to choose the date one is travelling on, similar to the West Midlands daytripper cards for buses and trains back in the 80's). The ticket also allowed travellers to use other Muni transport in San Francisco. Back in the queue, we were harrassed by beggars and buskers which did not make for a great first impression of the city. When we finally got onto the Cable Car, it was rather overcrowded. For the first (and possibly only) time in my life, I got off at Fishermans Wharf with an appreciation for Travel West Midlands.

We wandered around Fishermans Wharf where I caught my first glimpse of Alcatraz and Clam Chowder in a bread bowl (although the latter really is an East Coast dish). For some reason, we finally settled for pizza for the third time in three meals. We spent some time walking around San Francisco, including the Ghirardelli shop in the square and an interesting street on a hill with a rather winding road that I am sure people were driving down just for the sake of it.

We got back on the cable car (past a non-threatening busker that looked like Michael Moore with a showman bunny sidekick) and ended up walking through the San Francisco business district, where a bunch of cyclists suddenly seemed to be cycling through the city. We unsuccessfully tried to get on the bus N or P to get the the AT&T park where the Giants play, before realising it was actually an old-fashioned (or should I say new-fashioned) tram and getting on it halfway towards our destination, not before we had walked past the Bay Bridge, however, an impressive bridge in its own right taht holds its own against the more famous Golden Gate bridge.

We managed to get to the AT&T park in time and quickly worked out that an innings is over when three people are out. Baseball is a strange game, and my prior belief that it was rounders for girls was only tempered by the fact I have seen how much more competitive the girls at the school I work for play.

Baseball is an intriguing game, but surprisingly for a US sport I have to say that I don't think it is as exciting as the British version, cricket. Many people believe soccer will never be big in the US because the yanks will never see the excitement of a nil-nil draw (and to be honest, neither do I). However, Baseball scores are more similar to football than to cricket, which is much more high-scoring. I think culturally, baseball is too embedded in the American psyche to be under an real threat from cricket, in particular, Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League which I can see one day turning into a true world series with clubs participating from all over the world. The Test-loving purists will hate it, but I think it would be great to see cricket competing commercially with its sister American sport. With India's ascent to superpower status and with its burgeoning population, surely this is only a matter of time?

For the record, the Giants lost 5-1 in the only game they lost in this mini-series to the Phillies. The Giants have never won the World Series since the franchise moved to San Francisco. Will the Birmingham City of baseball be lucky enough to win it this year? On the current evidence it is unlikely - but then again, what would I know?

California Day 1: Arrival

2009-08-13T21:49:00.005+01:00

Thursday July 30th 2009 turned out to be the longest day of my life, quite literally. After taking the tube from where I had been staying to Heathrow, we managed to check-in on time (save some minor passport trouble) for the 10 hour Virgin Atlantic flight to San Francisco. We set off around 11:30 BST and arrived around 14:30 local time at the other end. I mentioned the in-flight entertainment in my previous post so I will not bore you by repeating it here. Once we got to US immigration, we were asked the standard questions and had to give the relevant fingerprints on the electronic reader (NB: They want four fingers, not your forefinger). We were picked up from the airport and driven to our hotel/ apartment where we stayed briefly before going out to dinner. We ended up going to a pizza place in the evening and I had a bottle of Samuel Adams to go with it. One of my friends had warned me that we would not be served by anyone with an American accent, and while this was true in the pizza place (with the obligatory ID check for the beer which I passed with my British driving license), it was not true at the Ice Cream parlour where I was given some traditional, polite American service by an American (How you guys doing today?). I like to try things I would not normally get at home while on holiday, and I think I blended in well asking for blue Cotton Candy flavoured ice-cream topped with Gummi Bears (although I did chose the small portion which might have revealed my foreign origins). Gummi Bears proved to be a rather time-consuming topping, so I did not manage to take full advantage of the visit to the shops nearby. We ended the day with a round of mini-golf before heading home.

A Trip to California

2009-08-12T22:27:00.006+01:00

Two weeks ago, I set off for an overnight trip to London to stay at some friends' place before flying from Heathrow on a trip to California the next day. Over the next week or so, I hope to recount the experiences of my first trip to the USA and specifically to its most populous state.

One of the regular topics on this blog is the overcentralisation of the country in the capital and Heathrow, in particular the decision to build a third runway, has been criticised previously. There were no direct flights from Britain's sixth busiest airport direct to San Francisco, and the indirect flights were as expensive as the direct flights from Heathrow. As such, I was forced to use the busiest international airport in the world despite my disdain for it (although I was also travelling with some friends who were based in London). Even more worrying, originally it looked like we would be flying by BA from a BAA airport; a recipe for disaster if ever there was one. However, our incompetence meant that we missed the cheaper BA flight and ended up flying Virgin Atlantic - a blessing in disguise in my opinion. While BA epitomises the third-rate Thatcherite-Blairite capitalism of privatisation of a publicly-owned service to monopolist profiteers who run it down to the point that it is now a dodgy pension fund which does a bit of flying on the side, Virgin Atlantic represents capitalism at its best; entrepreneurs building a business from scratch and delivering a decent product to attract the masses. Let me say, the flight did not disappoint either; having not flown long-haul since the early 90's, I was amazed at the choice of food and entertainment, over 60 movies and numerous tv shows, numerous games that can be played some against other passengers and even a phone, e-mail and text-message service from the flight (the latter for a premium of course). Discussions with my friends who are temporarily staying in California seemed to confirm that Virgin was indeed better than BA in this respect.

However, flying from Heathrow still left me with the problem of getting to London for a mid-morning flight, which being a weekday could have proved rather expensive had the friends I was flying with not generously offered to let me stay over at theirs. This left me with the option of getting to London by train either pre-booking via Virgin trains for £7 each way, or using the £19.50 super off-peak with Chiltern railways. Unfortunately, Virgin trains tend to be closer to BA than Virgin Atlantic, and the risk that I would miss the train back to Brum by flight cancellations meant I was prepared to pay more for the slower but more flexible ticket by Chiltern trains, which has the added advantage of leaving via the far superior Birmingham Moor Street Station rather than the overcrowded concrete mass that is Birmingham New Street. The Chiltern line is really two local services; a local service from Birmingham Snow Hill to Leamington Spa, and one from Bicester to London Marylebone. Hence the train left packed and pretty much emptied by Bicester, only to fill up again the closer we got to London. We seemed to stop at a ridiculous amount of stations (I think it was 27) meaning the entire journey took 2 hours 14 minutes instead of the 1 hour 24 it would take from New Street to Euston. Once in London, I had to face the tube.

Life would be a lot simpler for the majority of the country if we used the extra capacity at regional airports rather than putting all our eggs in the baskets of London airports and in particular, London Heathrow.

Bobby Robson 1933-2009

2009-08-10T22:21:00.004+01:00

Sir Bobby Robson was the first England football manager I remember, starting with his ill-fated campaign to win the 1986 World Cup (failing to qualify for the 1984 European Championships was before my time). England were on the verge of being knocked-out after a loss to Potugal and a draw with Morocco before a Gary Lineker hat-trick defeated Poland 3-0 in the final group game. An identical scoreline defeated Paraguay in the second round, with another two goals by Mr Lineker which would take him 5/6ths of the way towards the Golden Boot he won that year. An infamous quarter-final against Argentina, the first match between the two sides since the Falklands war, saw a moment of genius and a moment of disgrace by Diego Maradona send England home; Argentina went on to lift the trophy for the second time.

In 1988 an equally disastrous start saw England fail to recover from defeats to Ireland, Holland and the USSR to go out in the group stage. Bobby Robson was continually villified by the national press, which continued into the 1990 World Cup where another slow start saw draws against Ireland and Holland. Mark Wright scored to beat Egypt in the final group game 1-0 and England topped the group. They went on to beat Belgium (in the last minute of extra-time!) thanks to a David Platt goal, and Cameroon in the quarter-finals after two Gary Lineker penalties. This took England to the first (and only) World Cup Semi-Final since 1966, in which the Germans broke English hearts by winning the penalty shoot-out after Gary Lineker cancelled out a freak free-kick which went in after being deflected off Paul Parker. For the second time, Robson's England had been knocked out of the World Cup by the eventual winners.

Normally the national job is the pinnacle of a managers career but if anything Bobby Robson went on to greater things while the national team seemed to go the other way. PSV, Sporting, Porto, Barcelona and Newcastle awaited Robson in his twilight years, with success being achieved at each club. His translator at Sporting, a certain Jose Mourinho, went on to become assistant manager with him at Porto and Barcelona, and has turned out to be a half-decent manager himself. Newcastle would probably give a lot for him to be back as manager.

What I will always remember Robson for, however, was how he conducted himself with the utmost grace and integrity in the space of some vicious attacks from the national press (a situation which only got worse for his successor Graham "the Turnip" Taylor). Despite, post-86, qualifying for every international tournament he could have, and getting us to our best result in a World Cup on foreign soil in 1990, my impression is he was never truly appreciated by the "experts" writing the football columns in the national press. These same experts villified him at the beginning of the 1990 World Cup before claiming, with Paul Gascoigne maturing a little in four years time, England would have a great chance of winning the tournament outright in 1994. Of course, England never qualified for the World Cup in 1994, and Paul Gascoigne never played in a World Cup again. His biggest problem was that he was not Brian Clough. Everyone thought Old Big Ead should have been the manager when Robson was appointed. As such, the gutlessness of the FA overshadowed what Robson achieved for the England national team, which, save a dodgy World Cup win in 1966, was probably more than any other manager of the three lions could claim to have achieved.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

2009-06-26T22:42:00.003+01:00

Back in the eighties, a kind of inflation started taking place when describing musicians. First we simply had stars. Then superstars. Pretty soon we were talking about megastars. I do not think we ever got as far as hyperstars, but if we had, surely Michael Jackson is one of the few who would have deserved this description. How many people can bring down twitter and google on the news of their death?

Undoubtedly a musical genius, he will also be remembered for his overall strangeness and allegations of child abuse. Having lost his childhood to the world of music, he spent his adulthood trying to regain it. Perhaps this also expressed itself through his sexuality; certainly his actions always laid him open to criticism.

Hopefully, however, he will be remembered for his music and his worldwide appeal. No-one could unite people through music quite like Michael Jackson. His death is a real loss to many people across the world, and he will be sorely missed.

Birmingham Stands Alone

2009-06-14T16:45:00.006+01:00

So there we have it. A week ago today, the BNP gained two seats in the European parliament in their most high-profile victories to date. Despite getting less votes than they did in 2004, they gained a bigger proportion of the vote in the North West and Yorkshire & Humber to take the last seats, allocated by proportional representation, in both. I do not think we should be so sure that an increased turnout in future elections under a likely Conservative government will necessarily happen; both the North West and Yorkshire & Humber were part of the postal voting experiment in 2004 designed to increase Labour turnout. We may have to turn to the opposition to the BNP which exists in this country to get them out in five years and remove the stain of electing them sixty years after British troops landed in Normandy in an attempt to remove fascists from Europe. European elections will become more exciting than they ever have.

It was not all bad news, however, as BNP no 2 Simon Darby got nowhere near getting a seat in the West Midlands constituency. The sixth seat went to UKIP, with the potential seventh, should Lisbon be ratified, going to a third Tory. Next would have been the BNP, but the population in the region is not big enough for us to get any more representation. Perhaps we need a few more immigrants?

This leave Birmingham, unlike London, Manchester and Leeds, free of fascist representation at any level, which is quite funny given the national press have tended to think we are one of the most likely places to elect Nazis. Just like Britain in 1940, Birmingham now stands alone as a bastion of freedom in the fight against fascism. Let us not underestimate how much fascists can damage the reputation of a city. Richard Barnbrook, elected to the London assembly under PR with just over 5% of the vote, has undermined England's 2018/22 bid for the World Cup and potentially embarrassed the Queen by attempting to take Nick Griffin to Buckingham Palace with him; both a direct consequence of his election. If it had been any other city other than Our Glorious Capital! no doubt the press would have been sneering. Perhaps all future events to promote the country should take place away from London to stop this happening in future. All we need is a major city that has refuted fascism at the ballot box at every opportunity.

How about Birmingham?

Green Day?

2009-06-07T12:18:00.003+01:00

On their website, the BNP have been talking up their chances of getting some seats in the European elections. Having analysed the local election results and assuming local votes will also translate into European votes (with a couple of other caveats), they believe they will get between 1 and 4 seats (one or two in the North West, one in the North East and one in the West Midlands).

For the West Midlands:

Average BNP vote: 12.6 percent. Result: One possible Euro BNP seat. (This result could be boosted by the fact that the best BNP-supporting areas in the West Midlands - Stoke, Sandwell, Dudley and others - did not have local elections on Thursday, meaning that large numbers of BNP voters are not reflected in this average figure.)

Leaving aside the facts that an increased UKIP vote, local votes do not necessarily translate into european votes and there were no local elections in BNP stronghold areas, the signs look ominous. Will the fascists really win four seats on the anniversary of Winston Churchill's "Fight them on the Beaches" speech?

Possibly not. I reported on the political betting website that turnout seemed to have been good in Sparkbrook, a predominantly Muslim area. This was despite the fact that Respect were not standing in the European elections and there was no council election (Respect have all three councillors in Sparkbrook). Newsnight also interviewed some Sikhs on election day who came out to vote to stop the BNP. Anecdotal evidence suggests that BMEs may have come out to vote in higher numbers in an attempt to stop the BNP.

The Green party may be key. Salma Yaqoob has called for Respect voters to vote for the Greens in the absence of a Respect candidate. The combined Respect/ Green total at the last European election would have beaten the BNP by .1%. The Green Party had "Say no to Racism" as their strapline on the ballot paper. I am pretty confident that Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP will get one seat each in the West Midlands constituency, with the Conservatives getting two. I believe the final seat will be a tossup between a third Conservative, second UKIP, or maiden BNP or perhaps possibly Green. It will be very close. I just hope that people exercised their right to vote.

We Will Fight Them at the Ballot Box

2009-06-02T21:07:00.004+01:00

Thursday will see the 69th anniversary of one of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches. Thurday will also see the European elections takes place, with the big three parties bracing themselves for a kicking from the electorate due to the expenses saga. One of the parties hoping to benefit are the BNP, who are tipped to win one or two seats in the North West and West Midlands constiuencies. Readers of this blog will be under no illusions; despite its best efforts to clean up its image, this is still essentially a racist, fascist party. Don't believe me? Take a look at its section 2 of its constitution:

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2009/04/03/constitution-of-the-british-national-party-bnp/

Their leader, Nick Griffin, has continually denied the Holocaust ever took place, calling it the "Holohoax".

Recently, in guidance sent to his party members he claimed black and asian Britons do not exist; the correct term for such people is "racial foregners". The manual describes the BNP's "ultimate aim" as the "lawful, humane and voluntary repatriation of the resident foreigners of the UK".

There is absolutely no doubt that immigration is a big issue for people living in Britain today. The question is, are the beliefs expressed above representative of what the British people think, or has the debate been hijacked by racists in an attempt to turn legitimate grievances against government policy into a wider attack on anyone who is different?

For quite some time I have believed there is a need for the immigration debate to be deracialised. While I do not support them, I was glad to see UKIP park their tank on the BNP's lawn with this party political broadcast on Friday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8074734.stm

It is a question of space, not race, says television cook Rustie Lee on the UKIP European election leaflet. It is more important than ever not to confuse race and immigration. While the issues may be related, they are not the same.

Brew Coup to Unseat Whitby

2009-05-17T21:17:00.003+01:00

You may not have noticed it, but at the moment a coup is taking place in Birmingham that will culminate tomorrow at 5.30pm. Randal Brew, a Conservative councillor for Northfield, fed up of the lack of consultation from the current Council Leader Mike Whitby, has challenged him for the top job at the city council as originally broken by the Stirrer. With nearly one in ten unemployed in the city as a result of the economic crisis, Randal plans to deflate us out of recession by cutting 3000 jobs at the City Council, famously the biggest local authority in Europe and twice the size of the European Commission - a plan which is sure to enthuse the nasty party who would, if they chose Brew, look to be going down the route of Thatcher rather than the liberal Conservative traditions of Joseph Chamberlain which made this city what it is today.

The ruling self-styled "progressive partnership" Conservative-Lib Dem coalition (ConDem for short) who run the city are famously opposed to an elected Mayor which would "concentrate too much power in one persons hands". They prefer the current system which would allow 49 Conservative councillors to elect the leader behind closed doors; presumably the Liberal Democrats will not get a choice. Meanwhile, Birmingham's 750,000 strong electorate will only be allowed to make our views known next May when a third of the council seats will be up for grabs, which means little is likely to change and in any case we might be slightly distracted by the general election, which is likely to happen on the same day. Nice to see democracy is alive and kicking in Birmingham, eh?

Targetting Benefit Thieves

2009-05-10T12:24:00.001+01:00

I am fed up with the journalists swallowing the MPs excuses that it was "within the rules" What rule allows you to claim expenses on a house not in your constituency or in London? As politicalbetting points out:

1971 Guidelines:
The Additional Costs Allowance reimburses “for expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred when staying overnight away from their main UK residence…for the purposes of performing Parliamentary duties. This excludes expenses that have been incurred for purely personal or political purposes.”

The Green Book 2009:
Members are cautioned against instances “where they may appear to be vulnerable to criticism or accusations of impropriety.” It also reminds MPs that their conduct should be placed concepts of “selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership.”

What has gone on is nothing short of benefit fraud. I expect to see MPs fined, imprisoned and generally made and example of. Perhaps a few could appear on the next government benefit fraud hotline campaign with a white circle around them and a finger pointing at them.

Should we be phoning this hotline (0800 854 440) with the evidence coming out and shopping our MPs?

Insuring Future Custom

2009-04-23T20:58:00.004+01:00

Two years after purchasing my house, I finally got round this week to switching the home insurance to a cheaper deal (effectively halving my bill). I was dreading phoning up the old insurance company to cancel it, expecting the hard sell to keep me. I was pleasantly surprised that they did not bother and allowed me to cancel without even putting up a fight. Against the generally received principles of capitalism (at least prior to the recent problems) this actually gave me a rather favourable opinion of the company, and makes it more likely that I will consider them in future.

Of course, being a deal that was negotiated through the estate agents, perhaps they just realised they had got what they could out of me and were happy to move on to the next mug. Nevertheless, well done Groupama. Other companies would do well to consider your tactics themselves.

How to Get Away with Murder

2009-04-15T22:43:00.003+01:00

1. Join Her Majesty's Constabulary

2. Lose control in a high-pressure situation and, directly or indirectly, lead to the death of at least one innocent, law-abiding citizen

3. (Key step) Slander and libel those whose death you have been responsible for. (Do not worry, they won't be able to defend themselves)

4. Get your mates in the judiciary to limit the terms of the 'independent inquiry' (snigger)

For some fine examples of this technique, see Hillsborough, Menezes and Tomlinson.

Written on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

City of God

2009-04-07T22:51:00.003+01:00

Friday saw the announcement that the Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nicholls, will replace Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to become the most senior Catholic in England and Wales as Archbishop of Westminster. It follows a recent tradition of Birmingham being a training ground for seniority in the clergy, after John Sentamu took up the position of Archbishop of York from the Anglican equivalent back in 2005. I guess no-one can say Brum is a godless city.

Many people have commented that Vincent Nicholls is an ambitious man, who made a mistake by making it too clear he wanted the role. I have only met him once, at a Mass for Healthcare workers at St Michael's Church in the city centre, where I got the impression he was a deeply humble and spiritual man. I wish him well in his new role.

Facebook: the Private Government Database

2009-03-25T22:31:00.001Z

Now I am convinced someone in the higher echelons is reading this blog!?

When Will the Aquatic Ape Theory Appear on the Horizon?

2009-03-04T19:19:00.004Z

Watching Horizon last night about whether humans could unlearn their naked shame, I found myself amazed at exactly how complicated some of the theories have got that explain why we are a naked, bipedal, big-brained ape when the much ridiculed aquatic ape theory is a lot more elegant at explaining so much of humanities features. Having read the Descent of Woman, the aquatic ape theory explains:

a) that we became hairless to help us move through water
b) why humans and human babies in particular have a natural propensity to swim and dive
c) why we have a subcutaneous layer of fat (namely to replace the primary function of fur: to keep us warm)
d) why we walk on two legs (to keep our head above water stupid)
e) the origins of Ophidiophobia (humans often think of snakes as 'slimy' but in fact their skin is dry. Are we confusing them with far more poisonous eels?)
f) the origins of the hymen (to keep out water)

and possibly many more. Given how many hoops the scientific community have to jump through to justify the 'sweat-cooling theory' for example, I really cannot understand why the aquatic ape theory has not been gained more traction. Can it really be because it has mainly appeared hitherto in a treatise on feminist evolutionary theory?

One problem with evolutionary theories is that they can explain much but predict little. As a result, a lot of nonsensical theories can be proposed by so-called serious scientists. Is Elaine Morgan the misunderstood Darwin of our time?

ID Cards by the Back Door?

2009-02-16T19:23:00.004Z

Perhaps someone in the government is reading this blog.

I once pondered whether Facebook was a private sector solution to the ID card: people sign up to it involuntarily, it is free and the government (or Facebook) can keep tags on what you are doing and who you are in contact with.

It seems I was in the right area, but had the wrong website. The government are using Twitter.

While creating the Twitter account for this blog (feel free to follow me!) I decided to follow the Downing Street Twitter site to see what the government were up to.

They immediately put me on their follow list!

Unperturbed, I put out my first tweet claiming the ProBrum's presence on Twitter was another step towards independence. That should put the wind up the London-based navel-gazing ruling elite bastards.

Let it Snow

2009-02-02T21:40:00.002Z

I am not sure what it is about snow that excites me. Maybe it brings back memories of snowball fights and snowmen when I was younger. Or maybe it is because the familiar and commonplace look so different just for a while. Perhaps the whiteness of snow symbolises a purity and cleansing of the world; a rebirth of sorts . Whatever, it is a welcome change from the drudgery of daily life.

Calling all budding actors...

2009-01-23T17:42:00.004Z

I have been asked by e-mail to advertise the following event which may be of interest to any West Midlands-based budding actors who read this blog. Please note that event has nothing to do with this blog and you should always take the appropriate precautions when submitting any details over the internet.

The Rage Ensemble present their next production

Our Country's Good

May 14th - 16th 2009 @ a Birmingham theatre

Now casting !! - Casting day Saturday Jan 31st - Open Workshop
audition 11am - 5pm, Birmingham, contact for further details.

YOU MUST BE 16+ (older than school leaving age)

The Rage Ensemble is Back!!!!!!! - an amateur arts organisation run by
Rage giving people of all ages the opportunity to work with
professionals to create productions using film, theatre, music....

We are putting on a production of 'Our Country's Good' and we need YOU!!!!!!!

A professional director will work with the cast to create a fantastic
show in one of Birmingham's premier theatres. The play will be
rehearsed at a central location, three evenings a week, culminating in
a fantastic opportunity to perform at one of the city's finest venues.

All 22 parts are to be cast, and that's where we need your help. If
you are based in Birmingham, and are an amateur actor, or are looking
to gain some on-stage experience, or are just looking to make new
friends and have some fun, come along to the open audition.

Register your interest by contacting us via our website
www.ocg.rage.org.uk with a picture of yourself (it can be any picture,
it's just for reference purposes) your name and age and we'll get back
to you with more details.

This is going to be a fantastic experience for all involved. If you
are interested in volunteering 'behind the scenes,' contact us with
your interests.

Contact us via www.ocg.rage.org.uk

A New Dawn

2009-01-20T19:20:00.009Z

For a man renowned for his use of words, Barry did not half bungle the Oath of office.

Highlight of the inauguration speech:

"we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Headline from Blair's victory speech; let's hope this "one" is the real deal

Update 21/10: It seems I have been a bit harsh on Barack

Bloody Useless State-Head

2009-01-19T19:38:00.004Z

Tomorrow will be George W Bush's final day as President and this is my tribute. The defining moment of the Bush presidency was of course September 11 2001. I will never forget that after Bush was told a second plane had hit the World Trade Centre, he sat aound for five minutes reading "The Pet Goat" because nobody had told him what he was supposed to be doing.

Conservative leadership at its best.

Heath-Go

2009-01-18T11:08:00.003Z

The decision to build a third runway at Heathrow is another example of bad London-centric government. There are arguments a lot wider than the simplistic environmentalism vs the economy dichotomy perpetuated by the government and the green lobby; there are some specific issues about the very positioning and nature of Heathrow as well.

Heathrow is based on a Hub and Spoke model, which is fine if you are flying packages around the world, but goes against the trends of passenger flights over the years. For example, when I used to fly to India in the 80s I used to have to take a coach to London, a plane to Bombay International, a taxi from Bombay International to Bombay Domestic and finally a plane from Bombay Domestic to Goa. The whole journey used to take around two days. The last time I did this journey in 1999, I flew direct from Birmingham International to Goa and it took eight hours on a charter flight (only double the time it once took me to get home from work on the infamous day the gritters of Birmingham went missing). I have not flown from Heathrow since 1990 and from London since 1994. Now that I have got the option, I want to fly from Birmingham (or somewhere else relatively closer). For example, in 2006 I flew to Munich and it took around an hour. It would have taken me four times as as long to get into London to make that flight.

Ignore the Airbus A380, Boeing (who actually make money rather than being subsidised by the European governments) have been concentrating on smaller planes for more tailored flying and the budget airlines tend to be the most successful at the moment, flying full planes to smaller airports.

Heathrow also lies in an awful position to the West of London meaning flights come in and go out over Greater London to the continent which is far from ideal. A new airport (as some have suggested) on an artificial island at the mouth of the Thames Estuary would in my mind be a better solution.

A new runway at Heathrow is set in the old business mentality. An alternative would be to develop the smaller regional airports to take more of flights and/ or a high speed rail link as the Conservatives have suggested. I would like to see Heathrow closed or scaled down with a new purpose built airport replacing it. Yet again the rest of the country is being ignored while the government defends the one-trick wonder British economy that is the financial sector in London. A new airport would be a brave decision, whereas a third runway is just the easiest one.

As for the governments argument that they want to defend British jobs during the current economic crisis, given that it will take around five or possibly more likely ten years for the new runway to be built, one wonders how long they expect the credit crunch to continue.

Adapted from my comments on the Stirrer Heathrow new runway and terminal approval thread.

The True Meaning of Winterval

2008-12-30T18:42:00.006Z

Sometimes, the People's Republic gets it wrong. One of these times, and the one that has caused the most damaged to my beloved Birmingham, is a tongue-in-cheek write-up about the politically correct Brummie creation (myth) that is known as Winterval. Back when I started this blog in 2005, I pointed out that if we were to set aside a day for Winterval, it should be the 28th December, which was in 1998 a Bank Holiday Monday in place of the Boxing Day which fell over the weekend, and was based on an Ed Doolan show joke back then where people were moaning about their bins not being collected. Sadly, I have to report that some people have quoted this post (on a forum no less!) as proof that Birmingham did abolish Christmas back in 1998 and replaced it with a Winter Festival - Winterval if you like - so as not to offend the Brummie ethnic minorities (of which I am one). Repeat after me:

Birmingham City Council never - I repeat never - abolished Christmas in favour of a new festival called Winterval in an act of political correctness gone mad.

Here are some posts testifying to this truth:

http://pigsonthewing.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/winterval-the-truth/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterval
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2008/12/28/debunking-the-winterval-myth-a-creed-for-christmas/
http://humanistsforlabour.typepad.com/labour_humanists/2007/10/its-early-octob.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/08/religion.communities

Happy belated Winterval everyone!

'Pool Romp to Title Win

2008-12-29T15:04:00.005Z

It remains to be seen whether Manchester United's World Club Cup jolly will end up costing them the Premier League, but it certainly ended their Promroiship chances as they failed to play and take advantage of Liverpool's below average 32 point haul yesterday, handing the Reds the Promroiship title for 08/09 (for the rules and the reason we finish at Christmas, see here). Every winner of the Promroiship so far has gone on to win the Premier League in the same season. Will Liverpool's 18 year title famine come to an end with a Premier League and Promroiship double?

If so, the signs may not be so good for Arsenal's Champions League quest, as they blew a top four Promroiship finish on the final day after their one-nil win over Portsmouth featured as the penultimate match last night. Will the Promroiship table top five be indicative of their final Premier League positions this season?

With Liverpool and Manchester United finishing in the top two in the Promroiship this season, it looks like the Beeb, like the ITV Champions League crew, have lost their camera crews somewhere around the M62. Everton and Manchester City finished 10th and 11th respectively, although the latter's position may be undermined by the fact that in 20 rounds they only appeared on MOTD seven times - my instinct is that their needs to be at least 10 appearances on Match of the Day to be confident about the position of the team in the table, as it was generally after this number of games that the table tended to settle down.

At the bottom Steve Bruce made a prophetic comment about being last on Match of the Day last night (or was it a self-fulfilling prophecy?) which was apt as Wigan ended bottom of the Promroiship by a clear three points. In fact Wigan were in the bottom two for the entire season, and were placed bottom of the Promroiship table in 16 weeks out of the 20. The teams beginning with W took three of the bottom four places this season, with Middlesbrough ending second bottom for the second season running. Of course, as Motty might say, 'M' is a 'W' upside down, so it may not be unrelated.

There will be a full analysis of these results later in the week, but ProBrum congratulates the scousers on their maiden Promroiship win. Go out and paint the town red Stevie G... oh sorry, I see you already did.

Promroiship Results December 28th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Newcastle v Liverpool.......32
Fulham v Chelsea............40
West Brom v Tottenham.......48
Blackburn v Manchester City.24
West Ham v Stoke ...........24
Everton v Sunderland........16
Arsenal v Portsmouth........24
Bolton v Wigan..............16

The Promroiship - FINAL TABLE 08/09

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............667.....15....44.5
Manchester United......484.....13....37.2
Chelsea................371.....10....37.1
Aston Villa............363.....10....36.3
Arsenal................614.....17....36.1
Tottenham Hotspur......309......9....34.3
Hull City..............493.....15....32.9
Portsmouth.............327.....11....29.7
Stoke City.............455.....16....28.4
Everton................331.....12....27.6
Manchester City........193......7....27.6
Fulham.................463.....17....27.2
Sunderland.............454.....17....26.7
Bolton Wanderers.......448.....17....26.4
Newcastle United.......334.....13....25.7
Blackburn Rovers.......420.....17....24.7
West Bromwich Albion...416.....17....24.5
West Ham United........278.....12....23.2
Middlesbrough..........381.....17....22.4
Wigan Athletic.........271.....14....19.4

Liverpool Lead with One Round to Go

2008-12-28T16:47:00.005Z

Tonight we will find out who will win the 2008/9 Promroiship title after a full fixture list on Boxing day sorted the men from the boys. Manchester United closed the gap slightly on leaders Liverpool but it looks as if the scousers have sown up the Promroiship title, remaining over seven points ahead of their North West rivals. The week's big movers were Manchester City, who moved up four places after appearing first in only their sixth Match of the Day appearance of the season, although being involved in a six goal match meant they only bagged 40 points. Chelsea and West Brom picked up a huge 60 points each after appearing third on MOTD, moving Chelsea into the top four and West Brom up a place to 18th. Arsenal and Aston Villa consolidated their top five positions after appearing second on the Beebs flagship footie show, capturing 50 points in their exciting 2-2 draw. Tottenham dropped three places to seventh after their goalless draw against Fulham appeared last on Match of the Day, netting only 10 points. Wigan remain bottom after their 2-1 win over Newcastle appeared fourth-last on the Beebs flagship footie show, after two matches where less goals were scored, and bagging the teams only 10 points each. Surprisingly given a full fixture list, all teams managed to gain a positive number of points this weekend.

Promroiship Results December 26th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Manchester City v Hull City....40
Aston Vila v Arsenal...........50
Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion.60
Liverpool v Bolton Wanderers...40
Portsmouth v West Ham United...10
Stoke City v Manchester United.40
Wigan Athletic v Newcastle.....10
Middlesbrough v Everton........20
Sunderland v Blackburn Rovers..20
Tottenham Hotspur v Fulham.....10

The Promroiship Table after Round 19 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............635.....14....45.4
Manchester United......484.....13....37.2
Arsenal................590.....16....36.9
Chelsea................331......9....36.8
Aston Villa............363.....10....36.3
Hull City..............493.....15....32.9
Tottenham Hotspur......261......8....32.6
Portsmouth.............303.....10....30.3
Stoke City.............431.....15....28.7
Everton................315.....11....28.6
Manchester City........169......6....28.2
Sunderland.............438.....16....27.4
Bolton Wanderers.......432.....16....27.0
Fulham.................423.....16....26.4
Newcastle United.......302.....12....25.2
Blackburn Rovers.......396.....16....24.8
West Ham United........254.....11....23.1
West Bromwich Albion...368.....16....23.0
Middlesbrough..........381.....17....22.4
Wigan Athletic.........255.....13....19.6

Play it Again, Sam

2008-12-26T15:31:00.005Z

With only two rounds of the Promroiship to go with one tonight and one on Sunday, I can barely contain my excitement. Just like Kevin Keegan last year, big Sam made an immediate impact in the Promroiship as well as the Premier League with Blackburn's match against Stoke City featuring first and bagging joint maximum points. It did not raise them from fifth bottom, however, unlike Stoke who were the weeks big movers up two to tenth. The Claret and Blue derby solidified both Villa and West Ham's fifth and fourth bottom places respectively, but failed to move them up. Fulham dropped two places after their 2-1 victory over Boro was deemed worthy of last on Match of the Day. With all 20 teams playing on Boxing day, and 16 in Sunday, Promroiship-wise, there is still plenty to play for over the Christmas break.

Promroiship Results December 20th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City...35
Hull City v Sunderland..........20
West Ham United v Aston Villa...35
Bolton Wanderers v Portsmouth...20
Fulham v Middlesbrough..........15

The Promroiship Table after Round 18 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............595.....13....45.8
Manchester United......444.....12....37.0
Arsenal................540.....15....36.0
Tottenham Hotspur......251......7....35.9
Aston Villa............313......9....34.8
Chelsea................271......8....33.9
Portsmouth.............293......9....32.6
Hull City..............453.....14....32.4
Everton................295.....10....29.5
Stoke City.............391.....14....27.9
Sunderland.............418.....15....27.9
Fulham.................413.....15....27.5
Newcastle United.......292.....11....26.5
Bolton Wanderers.......392.....15....26.1
Manchester City........129......5....25.8
Blackburn Rovers.......376.....15....25.1
West Ham United........244.....10....24.4
Middlesbrough..........361.....16....22.6
West Bromwich Albion...308.....15....20.5
Wigan Athletic.........245.....12....20.4

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T22:20:00.003Z

ProBrum wishes all his readers a very happy Christmas. Enjoy yourselves!

Incredible Hull Boost Reds Title Chances

2008-12-14T19:27:00.006Z

Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Promroiship thanks to a thrilling four goal draw with Hull City that was deemed worthy of featuring first of Match of the Day. Rafa Benitez believes Liverpool have an 80% chance of winning the Premier League if they are top after Christmas; ProBrum gives the Reds a 95% chance of winning the Promroiship given how far they are ahead now. Manchester United had an entertaining no score draw with Harry Redknapp's new club Tottenham which only featured fifth but bagged the same amount of points, lifting the Red Devils into second and Tottenham up three places to fifth. At the bottom, Blackburn's result may have threatened their Premier League survival hopes, but losing 3-0 to relegation rivals Wigan gave them more exposure on Match of the Day and lifted them above West Ham who did not play. The result was not enough to lift Wigan of the bottom, however, but they did close the gap to West Brom to 0.1 points.

Promroiship Results December 13th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)
Liverpool v Hull City.........48
Aston Villa v Bolton .........24
Wigan v Blackburn Rovers......40
Sunderland v West Brom........24
Tottenham v Manchester United.48
Middlesbrough v Arsenal.......24
Manchester City v Everton.....24
Stoke City v Fulham...........14

The Promroiship Table after Round 17 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............595.....13....45.8
Manchester United......444.....12....37.0
Arsenal................540.....15....36.0
Tottenham Hotspur......251......7....35.9
Aston Villa............278......8....34.8
Portsmouth.............273......8....34.1
Chelsea................271......8....33.9
Hull City..............433.....13....33.3
Everton................295.....10....29.5
Fulham.................398.....14....28.4
Sunderland.............398.....14....28.4
Stoke City.............356.....13....27.4
Bolton Wanderers.......372.....14....26.6
Newcastle United.......292.....11....26.5
Manchester City........129......5....25.8
Blackburn Rovers.......341.....14....24.4
West Ham United........209......9....23.2
Middlesbrough..........346.....15....23.1
West Bromwich Albion...308.....15....20.5
Wigan Athletic.........245.....12....20.4

Rovers Return for Reds

2008-12-11T17:45:00.007Z

Have Liverpool effectively won the Promroiship? Although with the scoring system we use and the fact that it is averages rather than total points we rank by, the Reds have been leading since Round 7 up to a lead of just over 10 points in week 12 and while the gap has narrowed somewhat recently they have been leading by around 5 points (and usually significantly more) since Round 9. Another first on Match of the Day saw them extend their lead at the top, although Manchester United and Sunderland received the most points this week after featuring second with a one goal match, a result that sees the Red Devils move up two places and Sunderland four. The big losers were Manchester City, whose fourth appearance on Match of the Day saw them feature last and resulted in them dropping six places to 15th.

Promroiship Results December 6th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)
Blackburn Rovers v Liverpool....42
Manchester United v Sunderland..56
Hull City v Middlesbrough.......35
Newcastle United v Stoke City...21
Bolton Wanderers v Chelsea......28
Arsenal v Wigan Athletic........28
Fulham v Manchester City........14

The Promroiship Table after Round 16 (08/9)
Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............547.....12....45.6
Arsenal................516.....14....36.9
Aston Villa............254......7....36.3
Manchester United......396.....11....36.0
Portsmouth.............273......8....34.1
Chelsea................271......8....33.9
Tottenham Hotspur......203......6....33.8
Hull City..............385.....12....32.1
Everton................271......9....30.1
Fulham.................374.....13....28.8
Sunderland.............374.....13....28.8
Stoke City.............332.....12....27.7
Bolton Wanderers.......348.....13....26.8
Newcastle United.......292.....11....26.5
Manchester City........105......4....26.3
West Ham United........209......9....23.2
Blackburn Rovers.......301.....13....23.2
Middlesbrough..........322.....14....23.0
West Bromwich Albion...284.....14....20.3
Wigan Athletic.........205.....11....18.6

The Thatcher-Blair Endgame?

2008-12-10T19:28:00.006Z

The government owns 58% of RBS, and 100% of Northern Rock, both previously private banks.

Meanwhile, we pay water rates to a private monopoly. Six private energy firms control the market for gas and electricity. The railways are run as essentially private monopoly enterprises. Air Traffic control and defence research is part privatised. There has been increasing privatisation of schools and the NHS, including PFI where money for capital projects is borrowed from the private sector (at rates higher than we would have been able to borrow from the government). The telecommunication industry is completely in private hands, despite BT's dominance stifling competition.

It's a funny old world.

Tiresome-Tees Derby

2008-11-30T19:19:00.004Z

There were some signs that the Promroiship was settling down this week. The only two teams to climb a place were Middlesbrough and Newcastle, who played out a gormless bore draw of such tiring proportions that the commentator on Football Focus claimed they did not even deserve to feature last on Match of the Day. Feature last they did, however, and gained the second highest number of points this week after Aston Villa and Fulham's goalless draw featured second in the running order. The Beeb really could not win this week as fate conspired to prove the Promroiship scoring system is far from perfect.

Promroiship Results November 28th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Sunderland v Bolton ........25
Aston Villa v Fulham........45
Wigan Athletic v West Brom..25
Stoke City v Hull City......25
Middlesbrough v Newcastle...30

The Promroiship Table after Round 15 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............505.....11....45.9
Arsenal................488.....13....37.5
Aston Villa............254......7....36.3
Chelsea................243......7....34.7
Portsmouth.............273......8....34.1
Manchester United......340.....10....34.0
Tottenham Hotspur......203......6....33.8
Hull City..............350.....11....31.8
Manchester City........ 91......3....30.3
Everton................271......9....30.1
Fulham.................360.....12....30.0
Stoke City.............311.....11....28.3
Newcastle United.......271.....10....27.1
Bolton Wanderers.......320.....12....26.7
Sunderland.............318.....12....26.5
West Ham United........209......9....23.2
Middlesbrough..........287.....13....22.1
Blackburn Rovers.......259.....12....21.6
West Bromwich Albion...284.....14....20.3
Wigan Athletic.........177.....10....17.7

Bore Draws, Higher Scores

2008-11-22T23:08:00.004Z

Manchester City may have appeared in only their third MOTD this season, but they rose 9 places this week and got a massive boost to their Promroiship hopes after featuring first in the running order. Their opponents, Arsenal, featured first for the fourth time in five weeks and narrowed the gap on title rivals Liverpool, who featured in the penultimate match after taking part in a no score draw. Taking part in a no score draw was not a problem for Aston Villa and Chelsea, who rose 4 and 5 places respectively, the latter after gaining a massive 63 points for appearing second. Middlesbrough can feel the most aggrieved after appearing fifth on Match of the Day despite taking part in a four-goal match in a low scoring week, a result that sees them drop into the bottom three.

Promroiship Results November 21st 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Manchester City v Arsenal...49
Chelsea v Newcastle United..63
Portsmouth v Hull City .....28
Aston Villa v Man United....49
Middlesbrough v Bolton......14
Liverpool v Fulham..........35
Stoke City v West Brom......21

The Promroiship Table after Round 14 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............505.....11....45.9
Arsenal................488.....13....37.5
Aston Villa............209......6....34.8
Chelsea................243......7....34.7
Portsmouth.............273......8....34.1
Manchester United......340.....10....34.0
Tottenham Hotspur......203......6....33.8
Hull City..............325.....10....32.5
Manchester City........ 91......3....30.3
Everton................271......9....30.1
Fulham.................315.....11....28.6
Stoke City.............286.....10....28.6
Bolton Wanderers.......295.....11....26.8
Newcastle United.......241......9....26.8
Sunderland.............293.....11....26.6
West Ham United........209......9....23.2
Blackburn Rovers.......259.....12....21.6
Middlesbrough..........257.....12....21.4
West Bromwich Albion...259.....13....19.9
Wigan Athletic.........152......9....16.9

United Thump Stoke, Bore Beeb

2008-11-20T19:25:00.003Z

Arsenal's great Promroiship run continues after their defeat to Aston Villa ensured they topped the Match of the Day Running Order and jumped into second place in the overall competition. Villa rise 7 places as a result. Fellow North London rivals Tottenham's resurgence under Harry Redknapp continued as they climbed to fourth this week after their loss to fellow Londoners Fulham was deemed to be worthy of second place on MOTD. United will be disappointed with being shown fifth despite thumping Stoke 5-0. It appears their inaugural Promroiship title is slipping away to North-West rivals Liverpool who featured third. Newcastle and Wigan played out a 4 goal draw that achieved no points after ending up as the penultimate match on MOTD; a result that sees Wigan drop to the bottom and gives some credence to the theory that MOTD running order can be influenced by alphabetical order. They would have done better if they had lost 3 - 0 to a team like Chelsea, as West Brom will testify.

Rumours have it Manchester City might play on Saturday next week... have their owners finally realised they are Muslims and not Seventh Day Adventists?

Promroiship Results November 15th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Arsenal v Aston Villa............64
Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur.......48
Bolton Wanderers v Liverpool.....48
West Bromwich Albion v Chelsea...32
Manchester United v Stoke City....8
Blackburn Rovers v Sunderland....16
Newcastle United v Wigan Athletic.0
West Ham United v Portsmouth.....24

The Promroiship Table after Round 13 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............470.....10....47.0
Arsenal................439.....12....36.6
Portsmouth.............245......7....35.0
Tottenham Hotspur......203......6....33.8
Hull City..............297......9....33.0
Manchester United......291......9....32.3
Aston Villa............160......5....32.0
Everton................271......9....30.1
Chelsea................180......6....30.0
Stoke City.............265......9....29.4
Bolton Wanderers.......281.....10....28.1
Fulham.................280.....10....28.0
Sunderland.............293.....11....26.6
West Ham United........209......9....23.2
Newcastle United.......178......8....22.3
Middlesbrough..........243.....11....22.1
Blackburn Rovers.......259.....12....21.6
Manchester City........ 42......2....21.0
West Bromwich Albion...238.....12....19.8
Wigan Athletic.........152......9....16.9

Baggies Bottom After Saturday Fixtures

2008-11-13T17:11:00.003Z

Round 12 of the Promroiship saw third place Manchester United regain some ground on leaders Liverpool after losing to Arsenal in the first match. Second-placed Portsmouth slipped slightly after appearing as the last match containing three goals, and ending up with the lowest points haul this week along their opponents Sunderland. Wigan and West Brom swap places at the bottom despite getting thirty points each this week by virtue of West Brom having played more matches: 30/11 leaves less than 30/8. It would be simpler if everyone played on Saturday like they used to. After 11 round (excluding 1 midweek MOTD) Manchester City have only played on Saturday once.

Promroiship Results November 8th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Arsenal v Manchester United.......42
West Ham United v Everton.........30
Liverpool v West Bromwich Albion..30
Sunderland v Portsmouth...........24
Hull City v Bolton Wanderers......30
Wigan Athletic v Stoke City.......30

The Promroiship Table after Round 12 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............422......9....46.9
Portsmouth.............221......6....36.8
Manchester United......283......8....35.4
Arsenal................375.....11....34.1
Hull City..............297......9....33.0
Stoke City.............257......8....32.1
Tottenham Hotspur......155......5....31.0
Everton................271......9....30.1
Chelsea................148......5....29.6
Sunderland.............277.....10....27.7
Bolton Wanderers.......233......9....25.9
Fulham.................232......9....25.8
Newcastle United.......178......7....25.4
Aston Villa............ 96......4....24.0
West Ham United........185......8....23.1
Blackburn Rovers.......243.....11....22.1
Middlesbrough..........243.....11....22.1
Manchester City........ 42......2....21.0
Wigan Athletic.........152......8....19.0
West Bromwich Albion...206.....11....18.7

Liverpool Concede Late, Go Top

2008-11-08T18:17:00.004Z

Apologies for the delay in last weeks Promroiship update, I have been rather snowed under recently.

Liverpool may have blown their lead at White Hart Lane, but an exciting finish meant they appeared first on Match of The Day and extended their lead over second place Pompey in Round 11 of the Promroiship. Tottenham also climbed six places as a result, narrowing the gap on North London rivals Arsenal whose shock defeat at Stoke improved their Promroiship position. Man Utd and Chelsea lost ground with high scoring matches, despite featuring third and fourth respectively, with the Blues dropping four places. Everton were the days other big losers, as they dropped two places after featuring last on Match of the Day following their 1-0 victory over Fulham.

Promroiship Results November 1st 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool....56
Stoke City v Arsenal.............48
Manchester United v Hull City.... 8
Chelsea v Sunderland.............16
Portsmouth v Wigan Athletic......24
West Brom v Blackburn Rovers..... 8
Middlesbrough v West Ham United..16
Everton v Fulham.................16

The Promroiship Table after Round 11 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............392......8....49.0
Portsmouth.............197......5....39.4
Manchester United......241......7....34.4
Hull City..............267......8....33.4
Arsenal................333.....10....33.3
Stoke City.............227......7....32.4
Tottenham Hotspur......155......5....31.0
Everton................241......8....30.1
Chelsea................148......5....29.6
Sunderland.............253......9....28.1
Fulham.................232......9....25.8
Newcastle United.......178......7....25.4
Bolton Wanderers.......203......8....25.4
Aston Villa............ 96......4....24.0
West Ham United........155......7....22.1
Blackburn Rovers.......243.....11....22.1
Middlesbrough..........243.....11....22.1
Manchester City........ 42......2....21.0
West Bromwich Albion...176.....10....17.6
Wigan Athletic.........122......7....17.4

Yes We Can

2008-11-05T17:42:00.005Z

The term historic has been bandied about too much over the past few years. I am off the opinion that something can only be historic once it has happened and we understand the full impact of the event. The election of the first African American to the position of US present may well be an historic event and it is interesting to note down our feeling while it is happening, but history will often portray a different version to what actually happened.

I have had to read an awful amount of nonsense from Conservatives and Liberal hawks over the past few months telling me that McCain, and not Obama will win the election (although to be fair both backtracked before election day). Let this be a lesson to everyone who blogs! It is easy to give glib partisan statements about current events and they can come back to haunt you.

Commiserations to John McCain. The guy is a true gentlemen who also deserved to be president and would have been better placed to lead the country after the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, he was not able to be himself during this campaign after taking some very bad advice from his campaign manager. If he had the result would have been closer.

I believe Obama's election, despite his inexperience and liberal voting record, is a direct consequence of George W Bush's failures. Finally we have something to thank him for. I do have one worry though. The expectations of the Obama presidency are now so high it may be impossible to meet them, particularly as the previous incumbent has left the country in such a mess. In 1997, I remember such a mood of optimism pervading Britain after Blair routed the Tory government of 18 years. This was eventually to be dissipated over ten wasted years as Blair held the mandate but failed to deliver, culminating in him bombing a defenceless third world country so his rich American friends could appropriate its economic wealth. I hope when Obama met Blair earlier this year he did not take his advice to seriously. If he did, he could put Americans off politics forever.

High Draw Lowers Score

2008-10-30T16:07:00.008Z

The mid-week round of Premier League fixtures gave us a rare Match Of the Day which featured every team in the division for the first time this season. This meant those at the top of the running order had the potential for big points provided that they did not get involved in a high scoring match and those last on Match of the Day needed a no-score draw to avoid losing points overall.

As it turned out Arsenal and Tottenham blew their chance to improve their Promroiship position with a 4-4 draw which, while appearing first on Match of the Day, only netted the teams 20 points. Compare that to Liverpool and Portsmouth who scored 80 points after the 1-0 victory for the Reds appeared second on MOTD, catapulting Portsmouth into second from eighth and slightly reducing Liverpool's gap at the top mainly due to the fact Pompey have only appeared four times on Match of the Day this season thanks to European commitments. West Ham climbed off the bottom by virture of playing Manchester United and netting 60 points this week. Steve Bruce's problems were magnified as Wigan replaced them at the bottom. Manchester City dropped a massive eleven places after only their second Promroiship appearance this season.

Newcastle and West Brom were last on Match of the Day and got negative points because they played the day before. Detractors of the Promroiship may claim this makes it unfair but I am sure matches on previous days have been intermingled in the past (althought they are very unlikely to appear first). Consider the following: would Manchester United have appeared last if they had played in the only match on the night before?

Promroiship Results October 29th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur......20
Liverpool v Portsmouth...........80
Manchester United v West Ham.....60
Hull City v Chelsea..............40
Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers...10
Stoke City v Sunderland..........40
Bolton Wanderers v Everton.......30
Middlesbrough v Manchester City..10
Fulham v Wigan Athletic.......... 0
Newcastle United v West Brom....-20

The Promroiship Table after Round 10 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............336......7....48.0
Portsmouth.............173......4....43.3
Manchester United......233......6....38.8
Hull City..............259......7....37.0
Chelsea................132......4....33.0
Everton................225......7....32.1
Arsenal................285......9....31.7
Stoke City.............179......6....29.8
Sunderland.............237......8....29.6
Fulham.................216......8....27.0
Newcastle United.......178......7....25.4
Bolton Wanderers.......203......8....25.4
Tottenham Hotspur...... 99......4....24.8
Aston Villa............ 96......4....24.0
Blackburn Rovers.......235.....10....23.5
West Ham United........139......6....23.2
Middlesbrough..........227.....10....22.7
Manchester City........ 42......2....21.0
West Bromwich Albion...168......9....18.7
Wigan Athletic......... 98......6....16.3

Hull, United Lose Ground on Leaders

2008-10-26T15:54:00.004Z

I don't think there could be too many complaints about the Match of the Day Running Order last night. Hull's amazing rise to joint top in the Premier League was followed by title rivals Manchester United dropping points at Everton. The Tyne-Wear derby featured third, which no doubt infuriated those from the North East (except those of course from Hull), with the other match appearing last. Thanks to Europe only four matches participated in the Promroiship this week, undermining the competition as most clubs (except for West Brom) lost points on their average as a result of the low scoring week.

The changes are of course temporary as there are a midweek round of fixtures this week which will feature on a special Wednesday Match of the Day.

Promroiship Results October 26th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

West Bromwich Albion v Hull City...28
Everton v Manchester United........28
Sunderland v Newcastle United......20
Blackburn Rovers v Middlesbrough...20

The Promroiship Table after Round 9 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............256......6....42.7
Hull City..............219......6....36.5
Manchester United......173......5....34.6
Arsenal................265......8....33.1
Newcastle United.......198......6....33.0
Everton................195......6....32.5
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Portsmouth............. 93......3....31.0
Fulham.................216......7....30.9
Chelsea................ 92......3....30.7
Aston Villa............ 86......3....28.7
Sunderland.............197......7....28.1
Stoke City.............139......5....27.8
Tottenham Hotspur...... 79......3....26.3
Blackburn Rovers.......225......9....25.0
Bolton Wanderers.......173......7....24.7
Middlesbrough..........217......9....24.1
West Bromwich Albion...188......8....23.5
Wigan Athletic......... 98......5....19.6
West Ham United........ 79......5....15.8

Fight Night

2008-10-20T19:37:00.002+01:00

It seems local MP John Hemming and my former local councillor Martin Mullaney are having some trouble with the BNP.

Promroiship Scoring System Vindicated

2008-10-19T14:08:00.007+01:00

We have had to wait 27 rounds, but finally we get a week where it is justified to show the top four in the first four matches on the BBC's flagship footie programme - according to the Promroiship scoring system that is.

With the big four being involved in matches containing 4 to 5 goals each, and the rest being goalless draws, all the teams involved in the Promroiship this week got a comparable number of points and the highest scoring match was the first no score draw shown between Fulham and Sunderland. I have said previously that if the big four were as entertaining as the hype that surrounds them (by the objective measurement of number of goals in matches they are involved in), the Promroiship would take this into account and they would be fighting it out with the rest in an open competition (unlike the Premier League). Manchester United dropped a place after their four goal match only featured fourth on MOTD, with Arsenal and Chelsea also losing ground. Wigan managed to get themselves of the bottom leaving West Ham nearly four points adrift. Liverpool continue to lead the table justifiably given their rather exciting comebacks this season. Will this be the year Liverpool win their first Premier League (and Promroiship) title?

Promroiship Results October 18th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Liverpool v Wigan Athletic...35
Middlesbrough v Chelsea......28
Arsenal v Everton............28
Manchester Utd v West Brom...21
Fulham v Sunderland..........42
Aston Villa v Portsmouth.....35
Blackburn v Bolton...........28

The Promroiship Table after Round 8 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............256......6....42.7
Hull City..............191......5....38.2
Manchester United......145......4....36.3
Newcastle United.......178......5....35.6
Everton................167......5....33.4
Arsenal................265......8....33.1
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Portsmouth............. 93......3....31.0
Fulham.................216......7....30.9
Chelsea................ 92......3....30.7
Sunderland.............177......6....29.5
Aston Villa............ 86......3....28.7
Stoke City.............139......5....27.8
Tottenham Hotspur...... 79......3....26.3
Blackburn Rovers.......205......8....25.6
Bolton Wanderers.......173......7....24.7
Middlesbrough..........197......8....24.6
West Bromwich Albion...160......7....22.9
Wigan Athletic......... 98......5....19.6
West Ham United........ 79......5....15.8

The Theory of Relativity

2008-10-15T20:00:00.001+01:00

When I found out that the topic for Blog Action Day this year was Poverty, I simply could not get out of my mind the debate between relative and absolute poverty.

In politics there are two types of poverty; absolute poverty, the kind preferred by the right, and relative poverty, the kind feted by the left. Absolute poverty is poverty as most people understand the word; starvation, lack of housing and other basic amenities. Basically being classically poor, similar to the characters in the novels Dickens writes. Relative poverty is based on having household earnings of 60% of the median. In Britain, thanks to socialism and the welfare state, absolute poverty of the kind seen in Charles Dickens novels generally does not exist anymore. Leftists now concentrate on alleviating relative poverty by good old fashioned mechanisms like taxing the rich to give to the poor. In other words, wealth redistribution.

The right-wing have a lot of problems with this. Firstly, taxing the rich (productive) to give to the poor (lazy) means there is no incentive to work. They point to all those single mothers who live in council houses provided by the state producing babies the rest of them support while a wailout of bankers (that is the official collective term) create wealth in the city funding it (until that is they get greedy for short term game and the state has to bail them out before western civilisation collapses). Secondly, they object to the term poverty. The poor are not starving like the good old days of unregulated Victorian capitalism, they own many mobile phones and wear designer clothes. They are actually rich thanks to western capitalism. The fact that a the child of working class parents has a 1 in 10 chance of getting to University compared to the 8 out of 10 children born to middle-class parents getting to University passes them by. Thirdly, the definition of relative poverty means that if a lot of rich people come to the country, the number of people suffering relative poverty can go up. I have always had a slight problem with this, because I was under the impression that rich people leave this country to live as tax exiles elsewhere, and that the majority of immigrants coming here could not speak English and leeched of the state. If this is true, immigration would reduce relative poverty, not make it worse.

I have mellowed a bit over the years and am not as left-wing as I was in a previous incarnation. I understand the ideas of modern right-wing politics, the theory of incentives and how a well meaning government can actually make things worse. For example, there is an interesting theory that Gordon Brown's disastrous abolition of the 10p tax rate was actually a measure designed to target child poverty. After all, if you raise taxes for the poor, and give money back to those with families, those with children will end up relatively better off than those without. Maybe relative poverty is not such a good definition after all.

It used to infuriate me when the right belittled the idea of relative poverty. After all, most of them had never experienced it. It got me thinking: what is the key problem behind poverty in this country. I decided the problem was the lack of social mobility. It is more true today than any time in post-war Britain that a child will end up in a similar position in society to that of their parents. That is real poverty. The poverty of aspirations amongst the relatively poor.

Of course, we should be glad that we do not suffer the old-fashioned type of poverty much anymore in the West, and that many people in the world famously live on less than one dollar a day (cost of living differences aside). I am proud to live in a city which pioneered the Drop the Debt campaign 10 years ago when the G8 summit came to town.

I hope one day I will see a world with no absolute poverty, and a Birmingham with none, relatively speaking.

Liverpool Top as United Drop

2008-10-14T19:10:00.003+01:00

Only four games featured on Match of the Day in the week before the international weekend causing some real problems for the big guns in the Promroiship as a multiplier of 4 leads to weekly points scores well below the season average. As a result, Manchester United relinquish top spot to Liverpool who did not play, and despite featuring first Arsenal's average decreased slightly as well. It was not all bad news though, as Sunderland's appearance in the first match, along with West Brom and Wigan all improved their season averages, presumably because they feature so low on Match of the Day when the fixture list on Saturday is fuller.

Worth pointing out is that after seven rounds of the Promroiship, Manchester City have only featured on Match of the Day once. Unbelievable.

Promroiship Results October 5th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Sunderland v Arsenal...........32
Blackburn v Manchester United..28
West Brom v Fulham.............28
Wigan v Middlesbrough..........24

The Promroiship Table after Round 7 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Liverpool..............221......5....44.2
Manchester United......124......3....41.3
Hull City..............191......5....38.2
Newcastle United.......178......5....35.6
Everton................139......4....34.8
Arsenal................237......7....33.9
Chelsea................ 64......2....32.0
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Fulham.................174......6....29.0
Portsmouth............. 58......2....29.0
Stoke City.............139......5....27.8
Sunderland.............135......5....27.0
Tottenham Hotspur...... 79......3....26.3
Aston Villa............ 51......2....25.5
Blackburn Rovers.......177......7....25.3
Bolton Wanderers.......145......6....24.2
Middlesbrough..........169......7....24.1
West Bromwich Albion...139......6....23.2
West Ham United........ 79......5....15.8
Wigan Athletic......... 63......4....15.8

Arsenal Rise After Loss

2008-10-08T19:31:00.008+01:00

I am behind on a couple of weeks of the Promroiship due to the Conservative Party Conference posts and being generally busy. We should be back up to date after the international weekend.

Arsenal's loss to Hull City may not have done their Premier League hopes any good, but it gave the match first spot in the Match of the Day running order on 27th September moving them from tenth to sixth in the table. In a week with a near maximum eight matches, West Ham had another miserly haul of points after the London derby between them and Fulham was deemed only to be worth penultimate place on MOTD. The Merseyside derby appeared third, perhaps surprisingly behind Newcastle's loss to Blackburn which keeps moves the former to fourth. Manchester United continue to lead the table despite appearing fourth in only their second appearance on Match of the Day, but Liverpool have closed the gap on their great northern rivals.

Promroiship Results September 27th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Arsenal v Hull City..........56
Newcastle v Blackburn........48
Everton v Liverpool..........48
Manchester United v Bolton...40
Stoke City v Chelsea.........32
Aston Villa v Sunderland.....16
Fulham v West Ham United..... 8
Middlesbrough v West Brom....16

The Promroiship Table after Round 6 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Manchester United...... 96......2....48.0
Liverpool..............221......5....44.2
Hull City..............191......5....38.2
Newcastle United.......178......5....35.6
Everton................139......4....34.8
Arsenal................205......6....34.2
Chelsea................ 64......2....32.0
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Fulham.................146......5....29.2
Portsmouth............. 58......2....29.0
Stoke City.............139......5....27.8
Tottenham Hotspur...... 79......3....26.3
Sunderland.............103......4....25.8
Aston Villa............ 51......2....25.5
Blackburn Rovers.......149......6....24.8
Bolton Wanderers.......145......6....24.2
Middlesbrough..........145......6....24.2
West Bromwich Albion...111......5....22.2
West Ham United........ 79......5....15.8
Wigan Athletic......... 39......3....13.0

The Challenge for Cameron

2008-10-02T17:06:00.003+01:00

As the dust settles on the 2008 Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, our final in a series of guest posts from Conservative Bloggers is from West Brom Blogger, that rare breed of a Sandwell-based Tory. He takes a look at what challenges Cameron has faced and still needs to face in preparation for forming a future government.

New Labour! New Britain! New Labour! New Britain! That was the cry back in 1994 as Tony Blair proclaimed, “the whole ideology of conservatism has failed”.
After more than a decade of failed social democratic experiments and an economy in the grip of its worst crisis in 60 years; the same could probably be said today of Labour’s “third way”. The grand coalition of working and middle class voters that swept New Labour to power in 1997 is preparing to sweep it back out again. If the polls are to believed, the Tories will form the next government; Mr Cameron will be our next Prime Minister.

For over a decade, a broken Tory party—stuck with its core vote in the polls ever since ERM —has been the central fact of British politics, enabling New Labour to dominate the centre ground unchallenged. But it was the arrival in 2005 of a relative unknown in the form of David Cameron as Conservative leader that changed all this. Cameron reckoned that the central debate of politics had changed. “The great challenge of the 1970s and 1980s was economic revival. The great challenge in this decade and the next is social revival.”

Cameron recognised the need to reposition the party; to decontaminate a brand that was still suffering from the fallout of the 1990’s. Just as New Labour appeared to publicly swallow de-regulation and free markets, Cameron forced the Tories to swallow Labours commitments on public service reform and social liberalism. He brought the parties less obvious support for tackling climate change (it was actually Mrs Thatcher that was the first global leader to recognise the threat of a changing climate) to the fore, and spent an enormous amount of time talking about marriage, families and children. He has promised to fix “a broken society”, with plans for new workfare schemes and a Swedish style voucher system for schools. Cameron has positioned the Tories as the party of society, while presenting Labour as the party of the top down mechanistic state.

Some of this has been famously transparent (remember the huskies?) he has been accused of putting spin before substance, and up to a point his critics have had a point.
Cameron has presented a narrative rather than a clear policy portfolio. Up until now, that has been understandable, Labour has a habit of nicking the best ideas, but the rude interruption of a global economic crisis causes Cameron a dilemma as well as an opportunity. Cameron may have expected that as PM his task would be to do something about our frayed social fabric but if he wins the next election he will take the helm of a nation in economic trauma. And here lies the rub of the problem for Dave, trust. Just before the last general election, Labour led on trust to run the economy by 22%; at the start of the summer we were ahead by 12 points. Then came Black Monday and the near collapse of HBOS, now the polls suggest Gordon Brown is ahead on trust. We may be beginning to reclaim the ground that once looked as impregnable as it was vital but we have not yet convinced enough voters that we would be better at running the economy.

Cameron and Osborne have been understandably cautious. Osborne has seen fit to develop Labour's approach rather than break with it; tweaks rather than an overhaul. But with the current economic crisis being likened to the great crash of 1929, that’s not good enough. It won’t be the crash that causes the long term problems but the flawed policy responses that follow it. What we need now is a clear break, a clear alternative to Gordon Brown’s financial mismanagement.

One thing Cameron is not short of is ammunition; Brown's much-touted economic stability was built on the rickety foundations of a credit and house-price boom. Cameron will need to push home the fact that while Gordon talks about the need for more "transparency in the city" he engages in 'off the balance sheet' PFI accounting practices which would have corporate executives brought before a court of law. That while Brown now criticises the "irresponsible behaviour" in they city, he didn’t care about the debt or the "irresponsible behaviour" when it actually mattered, he didn’t care about the house price bubble; he just reaped in the extra taxes.

But its not enough just to find fault with Labour. If we are to look like the government-in-waiting, then Cameron will need to appear statesman like. A crisis presents politicians with an opportunity; Cameron must seize the one presented by the current financial turbulence to espouse the sort of tough medicine, good house keeping economic policy reminiscent of the Thatcher years. We have to use our spot in the lime light to spell out how we would handle the crisis.

Cameron needs to make clear that the Tories don’t stand for nationalising banks or subsidising failure. While we want innocent savers to be protected we wont stand for the poorest in society being forced to bail out the mistakes of the some of the wealthiest; that we don’t stand for socialised fat cats.

Andrew Allison has already made the case for lower taxation. Public mood on tax is on our side; a recent poll for the Telegraph suggested that the public is far more concerned about the overall tax burden than than it is fearful of the consequences of spending cuts. The Lib Dems have already proven that they understand this, Cameron must not ignore the issue.

This conference is vitally important for the Conservative Party. David Cameron has already done the hard work of ‘de-toxing’ the Tory brand, but the party cannot hope to ride to victory by simply standing on the sidelines as the Government flails. By the end of this conference the public must understand the alternative on offer.

Planning For Change, Working Together

2008-10-01T17:52:00.010+01:00

The third in our series of guest posts during the Conservative Party Conference comes from fellow BlogPower member ThunderDragon, a prospective Conservative councillor for the Three Rivers District Council. He casts an eye over the proceedings and background of the Conservative Party Conference.

The tagline of this years Conservative Conference is “Plan For Change”. Change, moving forward, a new start. That is what this conference was meant to show – the Conservative's setting out their plan for their future government. However, events have rather overtaken them.

They have set out several policies and points of principle, such as:

Freezing council tax;
Giving schools budget freedom;
Scrapping authoritarian child databases;
Not releasing prisoners early just because;
Pledging to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty; and, quite possibly most importantly
Not matching Labour's spending plans if the country can't afford it.

But this has been totally overtaken by world events: the economic crisis caused by Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. And so the mantra of the Conservatives yesterday has been less “plan for change” and more “let's work together”, by not “playing politics” with the economy.

This is an immeasurably responsible response in this economic climate. Any other response would have been extremely irresponsible. Yet it does rather undermine the “plan for change” motto, and rather allow the Conservatives to be associated with “more of the same”.

Unfortunately for the Conservatives, their conference has been overcome by the crisis, meaning that the plans for change that they have put forward have failed to dominate the headlines like they otherwise would have. However, they are out there, just not anywhere near as highly publicised in the media. What this will do is mean that the impression that the Conservatives are policy-lite will continue, and unfairly.

Publish Post

The Conservatives are planning for change, but able to work with other parties when necessary for the good of the country.

A Letter from the Conference

2008-09-30T19:19:00.006+01:00

In the second of our series of guest posts during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, PragueTory writes a letter giving us an insight into the theme and mood of the delegates and a personal take on how the conference is progressing. This post was delayed from yesterday because PT was in a rather long conference meeting looking at the effects of alcohol. By the sound of him on the phone, he appears to be a real expert in this subject matter.

Dear Brummie Republic,

The conference opens with a sense of euphoria – how could it be different as members from all over the country meet old friends and share their success stories? On a personal level, my conference started very well on Sunday night because the event that I helped organise in Brindley Place for Birmingham University’s Young Conservatives for which we expected maybe 40 attendees attracted well over 200 visitors.

The average age of the attendees is substantially lower than for other year’s conferences and I’ve either got better at spotting political celebs, there’s more of them about or the layout of the ICC makes it harder for them to hide – I think it’s a mixture of all three.

But being at conference in Birmingham in 2008 has been a sobering reminder that the Conservatives are still in opposition. It is completely impossible to remain objective about how the conference is being perceived from the outside, but it is of course not ideal from a PR perspective that far more significant news events are taking place at the same time. As I receive tidbits from the maelstrom of financial chaos in the wider world, I can’t help but think that the opposition’s conference must look like an irrelevance at best. And I think many other delegates feel the same. And whilst it’s great to hear some of the brilliant policy ideas that we have ready, it’s frustrating that we are still probably 18 months away from having the chance to improve public services and do more to support families and children.

On the fringes, you can see the appetite for radicalism amongst ordinary delegates is high. In particular, Douglas Carswell MP and Dan Hannan MEP’s newly published The Plan – 12 Months To Renew Britain is selling like proverbial hotcakes. I imagine its strategy to move power away from Brussels and London to the regions will appeal to Brummie Republicans!

Best Wishes

Praguetory

Lower Spending and Lower Taxes

2008-09-28T16:02:00.005+01:00

Today we have the first in a series of guest posts that will run for the duration of the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. The posts will be on the broad topic of the state of Conservative party and conservative politics in Britain today. Today's post is written by Andrew Allison, a conservative libertarian and fellow Blogpower member from Hull, who believes in small government with a passion.

Lower spending and lower taxes. There’s no other way.

I have been thinking all week about what to write. Quite naturally one wants to be witty, but also get a serious point across. What to write though? You have no idea the amount of times I have written something down, only to delete it almost immediately. Then serendipity shone through in the guise of a very blunt Yorkshireman called Adrian.

Adrian, a man in his early fifties, told me a story. After Margaret Thatcher took on the unions and union membership started to dwindle, Adrian’s father told him if Labour is elected to office again, the welfare state will have to be much larger, as this is the only way Labour will garner votes for re-election.

This was very prophetic. The only person in Britain who thinks tax credits are wonderful is Gordon Brown; but then he needed tax credits in order to make more citizens dependent on the state. Instead of freeing more people from the burden of income tax, he takes their money, gets them to fill out page after page in forms, processes them through the bureaucratic machine, and then gives them some of their money back. “What a nice man! We are so better off thanks to him. We must vote Labour and keep those nasty Tories out.” This is what Labour hoped and it was largely successful.

Labour are quite happy to leave people on incapacity benefit. Instead of working hard to get them back in to work, it is much easier to keep them on the poverty line, dependent on the benevolent Mr Brown.

The challenge facing the Conservative Party is clear; or at least it should be. Sticking to Labour’s tax and spending plans will not work. No true conservative could think that. Public spending in the UK is too high. Money is wasted at an alarming rate. Taxes are too high and at a time when we all need a break as we work our way though the credit crunch, they need lowering; and I don’t mean by a penny or two. We can start by raising the personal tax allowance to around £10,000 and in a stroke take those who are paid the minimum wage out of direct taxation. This is radical and our opponents will criticise us for not being able to balance the books; not that Labour have managed that after Brown’s profligate spending and borrowing spree. But it needs to be done and it can be done, however it requires a huge shake-up of Whitehall and a large reduction in government spending and waste. For any doubters, the Taxpayers’ Alliance has all the facts and figures on how your money is wasted. You may be shocked.

It is only by being radical that the Conservative Party can get a positive mandate from the voters. Britain is crying out for change. They are tired of failed Labour policies. They want something different. It is our job to deliver.

The Conservative Party are Coming to Town

2008-09-26T19:27:00.007+01:00

Next week Birmingham holds its most important political event since the G8 Summit 10 years ago. The Conservative party are coming to Brum and holding their Autumn Conference in the city. To celebrate this event, next week I will be holding a series of guest posts from Conservative bloggers who will be hoping to convince the West Midlands and the wider country that they are ready to replace Labour in number 10 come the next election.

Being Conservatives, the views you will read on this blog between the 28th September 2008 and 1st October 2008 are unlikely to represent the views of the People's Republic of Birmingham - as you might have guessed from the name! I hope my readers will find these posts entertaining and thought-provoking; please feel free to add a comment to say whether you agree or disagree and join in the debate.

Of course, I will be more than happy to hold a similar series of guest posts for the other main parties should they wish to hold their Autumn Conferences in the city. If that is not an incentive for them to come to Birmingham, I don't know what is :)

Guest Post Line-up
Andrew Allison - http://andrew-allison.blogspot.com/
Prague Tory - http://praguetory.blogspot.com/
The Thunder Dragon - http://thethunderdragon.co.uk/
West Brom Blogger - http://westbromblog.blogspot.com/

PragueTory has written a guide to Birmingham for the conference goers here.

Spin City

2008-09-24T17:43:00.008+01:00

I do worry about the BBC sometimes. Last Thursday Frank Luntz held one of his controversial focus groups on Newsnight to discover what floating voters think of the main party leaders. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. For some bizarre reason, however, they decided to hold it in Manchester.

Frank Luntz justifies it with the following opening:

"If you examine the election results from the last 50 year, the Conservatives could win the south, but still not win the election; Labour could take the north but not form the government; it's places like Manchester which make the difference (my emphasis)"

He then goes on to say that the focus group contains left-leaning voters from Manchester, presumably in order to discern whether they are any more likely to vote Conservative and hence form a path for the Tories to government.

The problem with this is his opening statement is poppycock. As Mike Smithson points out on Political Betting:

For me the programme was a massive missed opportunity - Luntz cannot come cheap and these things are costly to set up and make (his emphasis). Yet they chose to hold amongst existing and wavering Labour supporters in Manchester where, we were told, all the participants came from. If the producers had checked they would have discovered that there’s not a seat in city in the list of the top 200 Conservative targets. The main action will be two LAB-LD scraps. In Withington Labour will be hoping to regain the seat lost last time and Manchester Gorton could go on an 8.25% swing. Surely they should have found a location more relevant to the CON-LAB battle?

Anthony Wells has also previously noted in an article from 2005 (reproduced in comment 160 of this Political Betting article - I cannot find the original)

The increasing geographical concentration of the Conservative vote is more of a problem, while boundaries changes mean that the number of seats in the South is increasing and falling in the North, the Tories cannot win with the South alone. At the next election the Conservatives are likely to need about 115 seats to gain a majority - on my current calculations only 47 or so of their most winnable seats will be in the South East, South West, London or Eastern regions. The regions with the most target seats will likely be the North-West and West Midlands, both regions where the Tories went backwards at the election. The Conservatives cannot win without turning round their position in the North. While the undeniable fact that the Conservatives are irrelevant in many of the major cities - Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool for example - is not a great problem, the Conservatives can easily win without any MPs in these cities, they do need urban seats in places like Birmingham, Bolton, Leeds and Dudley.

To further back this up, a recent survey of marginal seats did not hold one poll in the Manchester area.

The reality is that it is nonsense to suggest, as many media outlets including the BBC and ITV do, that Manchester is an important target for the Conservatives at the next election. I assume when political journalists for these organisations hear the word "North", they automatically default to the only place in t'North they know - Manchester - and claim that it then becomes an important battleground for the Tories. The reality is that Manchester, politically at least, is irrelevent to who will form the next government.

Which makes it even more puzzling why Labour are holding so many of their conferences in there. In 2006, they decided to move away from Blackpool to host their conference in the city, followed up this year and they plan to be there again in 2010. Presumably the excellent conference facilities are the main reason they are holding so many conferences there, but one cannot help feeling they are missing a trick. In the US for example, the Democrats recent conference venue in Denver, Colorado and the Republicans venue of St Pauls-Minneapolis, Minnesota were picked due to their importance as swing states. Although the political map has changed somewhat from when these venues were chosen, with Minnesotta and nearby target Wisconsin looking like solid Democratic territory in 2008, the Democrats choice of Denver looks set to carve a path to the White House using current opinion polls; wins for Barack Obama in the Kerry states plus Iowa, Colorado and nearby New Mexico give him 273 electoral votes, three more than the 270 required.

The Conservatives will also be hosting their conference in the Manchester next year. If Anthony Wells above is to be believed, Leeds might have been a more sensible choice provided they could find a conference facility in the region up to the required standard.

Ferrari Internationale d'Automobile

2008-09-23T17:26:00.005+01:00

So. Lewis Hamilton and McClaren have lost their appeal over the drive-through penalty given to him during the Belgians Grand Prix for not giving up his advantage. It was predictable, because you cannot appeal drive-through penalties. However, the penalty was still wrong.

It would have been justifiable if Kimi Raikkonen, the driver he overtook, had finished the race behind him. However, Raikkonen crashed out soon after and so the event was inconsequential to the result of the race. Instead, by giving him a 25 second penalty, they hand the race to Ferrari driver Felipe Massa who did not lose out from the manoeuvre. The same Massa who won the race before despite being illegally released into the path of Force India's Adrian Sutil. The same Massa who did not get a drive through penalty for this as is usually the case, but got fined $10,000, despite risking the lives of the crew in the pit lane. In the GP2 race beforehand, Karun Chandhok received a drive-through penalty after being released into the path of another competitor. What was the stewards reasons for not punishing Massa? Apparently, “Unsafe release from pit stop, although no sporting advantage was obtained”. What has sporting advantage got to do with a rule based on safety!? And why was "no sporting advantage obtained" not given as an excuse for allowing Lewis Hamilton to keep his win in Belgium?

I've said it before on this blog time and time and time again, that the FIA is biased towards Ferrari. Maybe it is time to move on to a proper sport.

F1 = Ferrari First

Liverpool Held and Hold On

2008-09-21T17:02:00.003+01:00

Liverpool's bore draw with Stoke City may have damaged their Premier League chances, but it did little harm to their Promroiship chances giving them 40 points despite ending up third in the Match of the Day running order. Only five fixtures meant that most of the teams at the top ended the week with a lower average, with Arsenal and Fulham actually dropping places to teams that did not play this week. The teams at the bottom managed to close the gap with the leaders however, particularly West Ham, who managed to net 30 points with an uncharacteristic start to the programme. Not a particularly high score for the first match, but better than their average to date.

Promroiship Results September 20th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

West Ham United v Newcastle...30
Bolton Wanderers v Arsenal....25
Liverpool v Stoke City........40
Sunderland v Middlesbrough....25
Blackburn Rovers v Fulham.....25

The Promroiship Table after Round 5 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Manchester United...... 56......1....56.0
Liverpool..............173......3....43.3
Aston Villa............ 35......1....35.0
Fulham.................138......4....34.5
Hull City..............135......4....33.8
Newcastle United.......130......4....32.5
Chelsea................ 32......1....32.0
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Tottenham Hotspur...... 63......2....31.5
Everton................ 91......3....30.3
Arsenal................149......5....29.8
Portsmouth............. 58......2....29.0
Stoke City.............107......4....26.8
Middlesbrough..........129......5....25.8
Sunderland.............103......4....25.8
West Bromwich Albion... 95......4....23.8
Bolton Wanderers.......105......5....21.0
Blackburn Rovers.......101......5....20.2
West Ham United........ 71......4....17.8
Wigan Athletic......... 39......3....13.0

The ProBrum Golf Test

2008-09-20T11:50:00.004+01:00

Mike Rennie would wager that British Golf lovers and British euro-sceptics do overlap a teeny bit. It begs the question: who will they be supporting in the Ryder Cup? Can they swallow the hatred for the 12 stars they exhibit for the rest of the year over the three days Europe take on America to see who is the best at spoiling a good walk?

I am sure I read an article on the BBC a few years ago interviewing some prominent British euro-sceptics politicians on this very question. While I guess that many would have no problem supporting Europe, although they may have qualms with the EU flag being used to represent the continent, in this article many pretty much admitted they supported the US over the team with British representatives in, and one said he would prefer to support a US and British team taking on the rest of Europe (despite the fact this would be contrary to the history of the cup, where the UK played the US for the Ryder Cup). Unfortunately even with the aid of Google I cannot find this webpage so I cannot link to it; if anyone manages to find it please let me know.

We have all heard of Tebbit's Cricket Test which questions the loyalties of immigrants to this country. I wonder if there is scope for a "ProBrum Golf Test" which could determine whether euro-sceptics are loyal to their countrymen or their brand of politics?

United Move Top After Loss

2008-09-14T15:46:00.006+01:00

It was a fantastic weekend of Promroiship football with eight matches featuring on Match of the Day, and a similar amount of goals being scored in each match.

Manchester United made their first appearance of the season and went straight to the top of the table thanks to playing North-West rivals Liverpool in a top of the table clash - top of the Promroiship table that is, because Liverpool moved up a place to second after gaining 56 points this week, giving a familiar look to the summit after Round 4. Chelsea and Manchester City entered the table in joint 7th place after their first appearance on Match of the Day this season. Apart from Newcastle and Hull who appeared second in the running order, the other teams struggled this week gaining a maximum of 16 points each, lowering their overall average for the season and benefiting some of the teams who did not play on Saturday. As such, appearing on MOTD with so many other fixtures was generally a disadvantage, although if anything should average out over a season, it would be.. errm.. an average.

Promroiship Results September 13th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Liverpool v Manchester United...56
Newcastle United v Hull City....48
Manchester City v Chelsea.......32
West Brom v West Ham United.....16
Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal......16
Portsmouth v Middlesborough.....16
Fulham v Bolton Wanderers....... 8
Wigan Athletic v Sunderland..... 8

The Promroiship Table after Round 4 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Manchester United...... 56......1....56.0
Liverpool..............133......3....44.3
Fulham.................113......3....37.7
Aston Villa............ 35......1....35.0
Hull City..............135......4....33.8
Newcastle United.......100......3....33.3
Chelsea................ 32......1....32.0
Manchester City........ 32......1....32.0
Tottenham Hotspur...... 63......2....31.5
Arsenal................124......4....31.0
Everton................ 91......3....30.3
Portsmouth............. 58......2....29.0
Middlesbrough..........104......4....26.0
Sunderland............. 78......3....26.0
West Bromwich Albion... 95......4....23.5
Stoke City............. 67......3....22.3
Bolton Wanderers....... 80......4....20.0
Blackburn Rovers....... 76......4....19.0
West Ham United........ 41......3....13.7
Wigan Athletic......... 39......3....13.0

Cameron Right Up My Street

2008-09-13T11:01:00.002+01:00

Earlier this week, I mentioned that both the leader of the opposition and the Prime Minister were in Birmingham. Well it appears that David Cameron was actually a little closer to home and ended up in a cafe on the road where I live. It is not every day that a future(?) Prime Minister visits your neck of the woods - unless of course you live in Westminster.

Birmingham and the Brown Country

2008-09-08T19:14:00.005+01:00

Birmingham hosted a two-hour cabinet meeting today, the first time the British Government has met outside London or Chequers since 1921.

In fact, according to the Telegraph, the leader of the opposition was also in Birmingham today to make a Panorama programme. It has not been nearly ninety years since the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister were both in Birmingham though; this event last happened earlier this year and appears to be slightly more common than previously thought.

What is the reason for the cabinet meeting being held outside London? I think privately Labour realise just how damaging the Conservatives decision to hold their 2008 Autumn conference in the city could be to them electorally. While Labour will have held two conferences in Manchester, by the time the Conservative party conference takes place later this month, they have yet to visit Brum except for the Spring Conference earlier this year.

I do not think it is a bad thing for the government to get outside the capital. Indeed, one of my biggest complaints about the way the UK is run is the fact that our over centralized country is run by diktat by a Westminster bubble. Will a day trip, or series of day trips, from our ruling elite to the rest of the country really change that? I doubt it; what we need is more decentralization and decisions being made by people who actually live in and understand the area they are responsible for.

The Wisdom of Phil Neville

2008-09-07T16:31:00.007+01:00

A weekend of International football means the Promroiship takes a rest this week, but due to the Blogpower roundup I failed to produce a table for the previous weekend so this gives me a chance to catch up.

Followers of this blog will know that Phil Neville's comments that Everton were always last on Match of the Day was one of the reasons I started the Promroiship. It now appears that the BBC are paying slightly too much attention to the verbal diarrhoea of the less talented Neville brother. That can be the only reason Everton v Portsmouth was first on Match of the Day last week ahead of two matches which contained five goals each. It left Portsmouth in second position after their first appearance on MOTD this season, and poor old West Ham bottom despite being involved (goalwise at least) in two pretty entertaining games so far this season. Fulham continue to lead the way despite not playing this weekend.

This weekend did show up a few flaws in the scoring system, with Bolton v West Brom gaining the second highest number of points despite coming last. As they could appear no lower, it does slightly inflate their Promoiship position. Not by much though. If the running order had been decided by number of goals, the first five goal and three goal match would have received the same number of points. The other five goal match, and the other two three-goal matches would have received less than thirty points. This would have shown the bias against those teams relative to the teams involved in matches where the same amount of goals had been scored, but is less fair when being compared with matches with a higher/ lower number of goals, particularly this week when there was not a nice 1 goal difference distribution throughout the matches (ie at least one match with one goal, one match with two goals, one match with three goals etc). Over a season, however, these things should even out.

Promroiship Results August 30th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Everton v Portsmouth.......42
Hull City v Wigan..........24
West Ham v Blackburn.......18
Arsenal v Newcastle........24
Middlesbrough v Stoke......18
Bolton v West Brom.........30

The Promroiship Table after Round 3 (08/9)

Team..................Total...Apps..Average
Fulham.................105......2....52.5
Portsmouth............. 42......1....42.0
Liverpool.............. 77......2....38.5
Arsenal................108......3....36.0
Aston Villa............ 35......1....35.0
Sunderland............. 70......2....35.0
Tottenham Hotspur...... 63......2....31.5
Everton................ 91......3....30.3
Middlesbrough.......... 88......3....29.3
Hull City.............. 87......3....29.0
West Bromwich Albion... 79......3....26.3
Newcastle United....... 52......2....26.0
Bolton Wanderers....... 72......3....24.0
Stoke City............. 67......3....22.3
Blackburn Rovers....... 60......3....20.0
Wigan Athletic......... 31......2....15.5
West Ham United........ 25......2....12.5

Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United have yet to grace us with their presence on Match of the Day this year.

Happy Fifth Birthday

2008-09-04T19:23:00.006+01:00

The new Bullring is five years old... and the bull has changed his colour for the occasion.

Of course, the old one was 2D and used to get mistaken for a dinosaur.

Blopower Roundup: Back to School Edition

2008-09-01T17:02:00.001+01:00

Can you believe it? Another six week summer holiday has come to an end and teachers, students and associated hangers-on find themselves back in the business of nurturing young minds/ having their young minds nurtured or taking advantage of increasing governmental bureaucracy in our education system. With this in mind, I thought I would play the teacher for once and have a back to school themed roundup. Now I appreciate some of you will not have been near a school for sometime, so here is a picture of what children look like just to remind you, courtesy of Lady Macleod.

…

I face a class full of beaming faces, eager to start a new year at the Blogpower School for the Gifted and Talented, based this week in Birmingham. As the name suggests, the school has a lot of very talented bloggers who do not always get the exposure they deserve. Part of this is because they are lazy.

“So I hope you have all remembered to do the homework I set you at the end of last term” I ask expectantly, waiting for some interesting responses.

Some blank faces stare back at me.

“You know, the one where you nominate posts you have read from blogs in Blogpower?”

More blank expressions meet my gaze.

“You know, Blogpower, a community of bloggers that supports each other by reading and commenting on each others blogs”

Again silence. I get that sinking feeling again.

“Surely you are not expecting me to do all the work of researching and reading these blogs for you all on my own?”

What a stupid question.

“Very well”, I say resigned to losing the rest of my weekend and maybe more, “I will research and write a roundup for you of the best posts in Blogpower this week, but the very least you can do is spend some time reading it. There really are some very good posts.”

Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

….

We start the day with an extended form period discussing what we all did over the summer. Guthrum has just got back from holiday and spends his time moaning about what has happened when he was away. Not a great start to the day but at least he is here. Both Tuscan Tony and A Tory have taken their breaks during term time. No doubt I will get the blame if they fail their exams.

Chervil shows me some wonderful photos from her Dad’s garden, while JMB recounts a dinner she had with her wonderful twin. Ellee Seymour tries to convince me she received a cheque from a politician for a good cause, something I find hard to believe until I am assured the politician did not stump up the money. Two Wolves finds it hard to pay attention and starts reading some cartoons. Detention! You can do that in your own time!

Not everyone has had a good holiday however. The Morningstar tells us he has been diagnosed with having diabetes and is very critical of the (lack of) help and advice he is being given over it. This starts Calum Carr of on a rather justified rant of how badly one of his family members had been treated. One of Matt Wardman alter-egos interrupts and lets us know what the actual problems with the NHS are and how we could solve them. He speaks a lot of sense that boy, it is a pity such people never actually get to be health secretary.

We then start a discussion about the Olympics that continues until break. Miss Wagstaff may be Welsh, but she has no problem congratulating Team GB. Tin Drummer uses the opportunity to have a go at Alex Salmond. No Clue cringes at Boris and Britain’s part in the closing ceremony, which start me off on a characteristic moan about the prospect of having the Olympics in London. Calum Carr is particularly worried about the prospect of a GB United team, and its impact on Scotland’s sovereignty in the beautiful game. I tell him not to worry; it’s not as if the Scots are ever going to win anything, is it?

History brings break to a close, and the brilliant Gracchi enthuses us with his thoughts on the English enlightenment. Not everyone is so gifted in this subject however, and Colin Campbell has trouble remembering events in his lifetime. Bob Piper picks up on the theme of the Whigs mentioned by Gracchi and brings us to modern day politics. Suddenly, everyone is a lot more interested.

The Thunderdragon is unhappy with the modern electoral system and suggests some sensible amendments. The move onto politics has clearly upset me, but two students cheer me up by arguing some excellent ideas that are close to my heart. Firstly Ordovicus explains why socialism and decentralisation are not mutually exclusive. The Cornubrian follows this with some thoughts about why Welsh, Scottish, Cornish (and Brummie) nationalists should be republicans. The Thunderdragon, bemused by all this talk of nationalism, blames the idiots who want to define Britishness for helping to get us into this mess. Kizzie is more concerned about the similarities between her native Sudan and Pakistan. Such a clever girl, she has been interviewed twice by the media this week, once by the Arab Press Network and once by the BBC.

This does not move the argument away from politics however and Mike Ion starts to give Gordon Brown some advice on how he can fight back in the autumn. Oh, dear. The unholy trinity start a three-pronged attack on the government. Pub Philosopher believes Darling has lost it. Nick Drew of the Capitalists at Work collective wonders whether Labour is in the pockets of the insurance industry. MJW is more bothered about the state of the roads, and economic incentives to minimise disruption.

Class clown Bob Piper decides this is the point to resurrect a new version of an old joke that has been doing the rounds for quite a few years. The only type of economics Mutley is interested in is Home Economics, but we should remember that is astonishingly advanced for a dog.

The bell rings for lunchtime and I go to the staff room to meet up with some of my colleagues. Mr Starling is wearing his rose-tinted specs today and harking back to a time when the August Bank Holiday was something you could enjoy, unlike this year. Special needs teacher Mr Sackerson seems more concerned with the potential for house price falls. I tell him not to worry and ask him how his class is performing. Very well apparently; Deejay is now up to F in the alphabet, but Café Grendel is having concerns with a different kind of ABC, one involved in childcare. Another student having problems with childcare is Ruthie Zaftig, who has discovered undergraduates can get support but postgraduates cannot. Meanwhile, Crushed decided he does not like happy endings and has rewritten Rapunzel for a modern audience. Such a realist, that boy.

After lunch, I have an RE lesson with the class. As usual, on the first day someone has thrown up and I start by thanking Liz for her act of kindness. Sally in Norfolk pipes up and points out that Liz is not the only one who has performed an act of kindness this week. Welschcakes Limoncello voices her opinion that acts of kindness can be more commonplace and more subtle.

What is that I see? Jeremy Jacobs and Theo Spark looking at girly pictures? In an RE lesson as well? Give me a reason please, boys, why I should not put you in detention straightaway? Mr Jacobs remains silent, but young (bright) Spark claims it is actually a picture of the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. Don’t be so ridiculous, I say, that is an attractive biker chick and everyone knows that conservatives are old fuddy-duddies. Surprisingly, Fake Consultant, our American exchange student, backs him up and starts dishing the dirt on the Republican VP nominee. He clashes with Andrew Allison, who claims that this decision ensures there will be a Republican in the White House next year. Such an imaginative child! However, this appears to be an argument that Question That has some time for, and he reminds me that unlike Florida in 2000, this election in not necessarily a done deal. Matt M remains unimpressed with the position of Vice-President, and brings the discussion back to the part of the anatomy that triggered off the discussion, but suggests using the other function of this important part instead.

Heather Yaxley uses the opportunity to think about what might lower the virility, and possibly the libido, of these lusty young men. Tom Paine moves the discussion from sex onto paedophilia, and gives some very mature views on the subject not normally seen in adults let alone children.

We finish the RE lesson with Matt M exploring the question of the existence and divinity of Jesus. Jams O’Donnell uses his Poor Mouth to tell us that the Dead Sea Scrolls may soon be making an appearance online. Then something really surprising happens. Can you believe it? The bell goes for the end of the day and the children clear off as quickly as possibly, leaving a messy, empty classroom and one exhausted teacher.

So there you go. Obviously as a teacher, albeit only one day, and therefore obviously a leftist socialist loon, I have been incredibly equitable and picked at least one post from everyone who posted in the last week, except for this one by Paulie, which I simply did not know where to put. Everyone’s a winner!

Now bugger off, children. Teacher has a lot of important government forms to fill in.

Olympic Games

2008-08-28T16:10:00.004+01:00

When I heard the target for Great Britain was to finish fourth in the medals table in 2012, I think I might have laughed out loud. Well I am not laughing now.

I do hope other nations do give us an easier ride than our journalists give foreign host cities, however. Four years ago there were questions over whether the civilization that gave us the Collosus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus could finish an Olympic stadium in time. This time, there were question marks about China's human rights record, Tibet and the quality of air which BBC journalists insisted on measuring on a daily basis in the run up to the games with a pocket-sized gadget.

Well, there are some who would argue the war on Iraq meant we should not have got the games, and I have made a list of reasons that could be made to boycott 2012. The way our government are going, quality of air due to a lack of decent public transport and nuclear power stations and lack of human rights could be the main issues for foreign journalists covering the games in four years time. Seriously though, it got me thinking about how another country could be as patronizing in their coverage of us in four years time.

Perhaps the Japanese could use public transport to get to the games in 2012 and hold up a camera to their stopwatch saying something to the effect of

"It is 8:00 on a week day in central London, the richest city in Britain. I have been waiting for a train for 20 minutes and there is still no sign of one turning up. This is how hard it is to earn a living in the fifth biggest economy in the world"

Hopefully he would finish the report before being manhandled out of the station by four burly jobsworth security guards who were concerned that a man with non-white skin was taking pictures on the tube using a camera.

Of course, it is not just London that benefits from the games. The whole country does. That is why Brum's Jewellery quarter has been overlooked and the contract for lapel badges has gone to China. Presumably this will mean more of the £10 billion we are spending on the games can be poured into the construction industry in London, which by some accounts is on its last legs.

A Thriller with the Villa

2008-08-24T16:36:00.004+01:00

Who would have thunk it. A red-blooded Midlands derby came first on Match of the Day yesterday after Stoke beat Villa 3-2 in their first Premier League home match of the season. The Beeb then reverted to type with two of the big four appearing next, with the other two yet to play on Saturday. Hull City went from the dizzying heights of first on Match of the Day last week to last this week. In an astonishing justification of the ridiculously complicated scoring system we now have for the Promroiship, they end of joint eighth out of sixteen on the Promroiship table. Fulham lead the way after appearing first in the first programme and second in the second programme. Using John Motson's predictive theories, we will look forward to them featuring third next week, which would be amazing given a) they are playing Manchester United and b) the match has been postponed due to the Super Cup on Friday night.

The problems of mathematical modelling, eh.

Promroiship Results August 23rd 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Stoke City v Aston Villa...49
Fulham v Arsenal...........56
Liverpool v Middlesbrough..35
Tottenham v Sunderland.....28
West Brom v Everton........21
Newcastle v Bolton.........28
Blackburn v Hull City......14

The Promroiship Table after Round 2 (08/9)

Fulham.................52.5
Arsenal................42.0
Liverpool..............38.5
Aston Villa............35.0
Middlesbrough..........35.0
Sunderland.............35.0
Hull City..............31.5
Tottenham Hotspur......31.5
Newcastle United.......28.0
Everton................24.5
Stoke City.............24.5
West Bromwich Albion...24.5
Blackburn Rovers.......21.0
Bolton Wanderers.......21.0
West Ham United........ 7.0
Wigan Athletic......... 7.0

With Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Portsmouth yet to grace us with their presences on the Beeb's flagship footie programme so far this season.

Remember, thanks to the new rules we are now counting average points rather than total points.

ObaMcCainia

2008-08-20T16:37:00.007+01:00

Our friendly Fake Consultant has been very lucky. In the week he is hosting the Blogpower round-up concerning the subject of ‘How does the World view the US and our upcoming election’, a British conservative blog has been launched to celebrate the special relationship and combat the evil of anti-Americanism.

Good luck to them. Being English conservatives, they will not have a clue. This post is as directed to my fellow conservative countrymen as much as it is to the American audience it was intended for. The following article is the view of a left-leaning son of an Indian immigrant, brought up in the centre of England and having spent all of my life in the city of Birmingham with an above average interest in the presidential race (to the extent that I have put money on it - God bless our freedom to gamble!).

On the first Tuesday in November this year, Americans will go to the polls to elect the fourty-fourth President of the United States of America. At the time of writing, and unless something astonishing happens before the party conventions at the end of August and beginning of September, Barack Obama will face John McCain for the title of leader of the free world.

While reading many conservative blogs in Britain, I am astonished by how many times I have read that this is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is my opinion that either will be a vast improvement on the current “thief-in-chief”, George W. Bush, and I believe this is, or at least will be the opinion of the majority of the British people. “Dubya” is just someone we British will never like; the folksy charm which makes him so popular to the American electorate is an indication to us Brits that he is an intellectual lightweight, someone who had got the Post of POTUS because his father used to be President and he knew the right people. If obtaining status by working hard and using ones talents to the best of ones ability, while overcoming a difficult background epitomises the American dream, George W. Bush is the manifestation of the American Nightmare. It is Britain that is supposed to be the country where the Head of State inherits his position. George W.Bush’s election makes a mockery of the self-evident truths that all men are created equal, with liberty and justice for all.

Barack Obama presidential nomination, on the other hand, may be some evidence that the American dream is alive and well. Despite his colour and his funny foreign name (not to mention his unfortunate middle one), his talents as a public speaker and a politician have lead him to defeat the Clinton machine which the Republicans in all their might failed to derail during the 90’s. Seen abroad as a cross between two legendary liberal American heroes, JFK and Martin Luther King, “Barry Durnham” has inspired many not just in America, but outside as well.

John McCain is not bad either. Someone who fought for his country during Vietnam, stayed on as a POW when offered a way out, whose personal wealth dwarfs that of his Republican presidential rivals and whose adoption of an Asian daughter speaks magnitudes about him (and those who disgracefully used it to slander him in the Republican race for presidential nominee back in 2000), one cannot help feeling that the world would be a better place if war-hero John McCain had been President on that fateful day in September 2001.

One should not underestimate the damage that the winner of this election will have to repair as a result of the policies of the incumbent. Prior to the hated “war-on-terror” (as James Rubin once said, terror is a tactic not an enemy), an isolationist George W. Bush was infuriating the world by ripping up treaties left, right and centre, from Kyoto to preventing nuclear and chemical proliferation, and talking of installing a Star Wars system in a world with only one superpower, all on the back of an election that, out of an electorate of over 100 million, was eventually won by 5 votes to 4. Then September 11th happened. Suddenly everyone was American. While many on the right will have concentrated on the celebrations of the Palestinians and the snide comments of the Iraqi foreign ministry, my abiding memory was of candlelight vigils being held by Iranian students for the innocent American dead. The same Iran was soon to be branded alongside Iraq and that famous supporter of Islamic terrorism, North Korea, as part of the "Axis of Evil". The world tolerated the war on Afghanistan but all the goodwill was destroyed when George Bush decided to finish “his fathers work” and remove Saddam Hussain from power, on what have proved to be trumped-up charges of stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Regardless of all the debates, the issue of whether we go to war with Iraq is now over. We cannot undo the past. What is now important is the future. It is vital that Iraq becomes a stable, representative and accountable state, not, God forbid, so that rich American companies can spend the rest of the century exploiting its natural economic wealth, but because we owe it to the people of Iraq. We destroyed their country, we now owe it to them to rebuild it. So despite the fact that Obama was right to oppose the war in Iraq, I now find myself siding with McCain that America must be prepared to stay there 100 years if necessary in order to keep the peace. Many left-wingers will not agree with me, and say that the occupation is part of the problem. To them I say look at what happened in Palestine and Kashmir after the British decided to “cut and run” following the collapse of the Empire. Those wars are still being fought over 60 years later.

Of course, it is not just about the war. Manmade Global Warming is seen by many in the world as the real issue that threatens the global community over the next century. This will infuriate those generally on the right who claim (compare and contrast with the case for war on Iraq) that it is the left-leaning scientific establishment who are producing trumped-up evidence to support a false theory (well sometimes it is false; other times it can be solved using market solutions, and yet other times global warming will be beneficial to humanity). Thankfully for those of us in the world who clamour for the powers that be to get serious about tackling the problem, both McCain and Obama stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the mainstream scientific community in the war-on-warming. This position will no doubt help heal some of the rifts that have divided America and the rest of the free world.

My uncle once said to me “America is a great country, you can go there with nothing and make something of yourself, but its foreign policy is a load of rubbish”. This statement, more than any, cuts to the heart of most arguments about anti-Americanism (and indeed those in America who ask “if everyone hates us so much why do they all want to come here?”). While it may be the case that some people are jealous of America, or feel it promotes positions that are contrary to their own world view, many so-called anti-American are not anti-American at all. They are anti-American government. Here indeed lies a supreme irony. Many leftists in Europe share a common position with Republican America; namely, that the American government is not good at running things. Right-wing Americans see it in tax legislation, government health programmes and public (state) schools. The rest of the world sees it in the policies of the State department. Our question to the American right is this: if the American government is not fit to run its own country, what makes it fit to run the world? If the Washington elite get it so wrong trying to save American lives with social security, health care and universal education, what makes you think they will get it right in exactly those areas when nation-building in another country, or when destroying foreign lives in a legally questionable war?

We do not hate America. We love it. That is why we are so critical of it. In the words of our Lord, “To whom much is given, much is expected”. When it declared independence, America set a standard for the world that was so high she struggled to keep it herself.

The price of freedom is vigilance. Unfortunately, sometimes one looks so hard one cannot see the wood for the trees. The left in Britain do not want America to change; they want it to go back to its roots.

All men created equal… with liberty and justice for all.

In the same way that the founding fathers of America who wrote this saw no problem in owning slaves, modern America needs to re-assess who this statement applies to. Not just Americans, or her allies, but everyone in the world. Once this “self-evident truth” is absorbed, it may be easier to understand why there is so much vitriol to American foreign policy from people across the world.

In many ways, for us outside America, it is rather irrelevant whether John McCain or Barack Obama becomes the next president. The truth is that despite their apparent differences on Iraq, the reality of the office of the Presidency will decide what happens on the ground. What is more important is that we have a president who got the job because he deserved it, as a result of talent and hard work, not because he was born to rule. A President who has seen and therefore understands the world, not spent most of his life sheltered in his home state which inevitably warps ones world-view (an upbringing that is disturbingly similar to that of a certain left-wing Brummie blogger). Someone who is commited to upholding the principles of the American consitution, not avoid it by legal trickery like placing a camp for POW's outside American soil. The fact that some of the right, both in America and Britain, feel both McCain and Obama are a step down from the big government conservative George W. Bush is evidence enough that they will be an improvement on the current regime that is crying out to be changed. As one of the candidates might put it, this is “change we can believe in”.

(Second) Last on Match of the Day

2008-08-19T19:27:00.003+01:00

It seems like yesterday since the last football season ended, but despite a Euroless summer for the home nations, football fans can look forward to the daily grind of the league and another Promroiship season which promises to tell us once and for all whether Match of the Day is biased towards any Premier League teams. Following the recommendations of the Promroiship Review 07/08, the season will run from 16/08/2008 to 31/12/2008 in order to avoid title/ European/ relegation battles dominating the all-important Match of the Day Running Order. A reminder of the rules for those of you who have forgotten including one new one:

All teams appearing on Match of the Day will be awarded points based on the position of their game in the running order, the number of goals scored and the number of matches appearing on MOTD that weekend. Only Premiership games will count and MOTD2 is not included. Midweek MOTD will also count towards the total. The rules are as follows:

1) Teams appearing in the first match will be awarded 10 points, the next 9 and so on all the way down to 1 if necessary. As there are 20 teams in the premiership, a maximum of 10 matches can be played on any day involving all teams once.

2) Because matches with more goals should in theory come first, 1 point will be taken away for each goal scored in the match. I deliberated a lot about this rule, because a few high scoring matches before Christmas made this potentially unfair, but I think it is the easiest way to factor in "entertainment" at an objective level. In any case, it would not be football if their was not potential for an argument over the fairness of some rule or other.

3) Thanks to security considerations, Sky and European involvement, sometimes there can be very few matches on Saturday and so we need to factor in the number of matches shown. I have decided to multiply the result of the first two rules by the number of matches appearing on MOTD. Obviously the fact that some teams do not play on Saturday adds in some additional unfairness, but I hope that over half a season there will not be too much bias, and we should pick it up week by week if there is.

4) New rule: As last season progressed, those who were following the competition would have noticed that Blackburn and Aston Villa seemed to play fewer matches on Saturday, which put them at a disadvantage, as foreseen by the third point above. So, for the purposes of fairness, the League Table will be based on average Promroiship points per appearance on MOTD - in other words, the total number of Promroiship points for each team will be divided by the number of appearances on Match of the Day that team had over the same period.

With seven games on the first weekend, there was no shortage of premutations for the BBC to play with and they kindly picked Premier League new boys Hull to appear first on their first Premier League Match of the Day. Seasoned Premier League followers of West Ham were probably a bit more disappointed with their position at the end of the programme, the "on alphabetical order of course" derby against Wigan. Why the late kick-off between Sunderland and Liverpool featured earlier despite producing only one goal is a mystery, unless you happen to believe the Beeb are more likely to feature the Big Four earlier on.

Promroiship Results August 16th 2008 (Match of the Day Running Order)

Hull City v Fulham..........49
Everton v Blackburn Rovers..28
Middlesbrough v Tottenham...35
Sunderland v Liverpool......42
Bolton Wanderers v Stoke....14
Arsenal v West Brom.........28
West Ham v Wigan Athletic... 7

The league table does not mean much at this stage, so here it is anyway:

The Promroiship Table after Round 1 (08/9)

Fulham...........49
Hull City........49
Liverpool........42
Sunderland.......42
Middlesbrough....35
Tottenham........35
Arsenal..........28
Blackburn Rovers.28
Everton..........28
West Brom........28
Bolton Wanderers.14
Stoke............14
West Ham United.. 7
Wigan Athletic... 7

With six teams yet to feature on Match of the Day this season.

Yes Hull fans, you are not dreaming; after the first round of the Promroiship you are in second place denied top spot only by alphabetical order.

Dreams are made of this for ever and a day.

England not Alabama

2008-08-16T11:26:00.006+01:00

The Conservative Party Conference is coming to Birmingham in September, but I am a bit concerned that they may not know where our city is. Our Conservative-led council recently published a leaflet encouraging people to recycle featuring the city of our Alabama brothers in the header. I guess the leaflets will now have to be recycled so perhaps it achieved its purpose. This follows on from local Tory MEP's making exactly the same error earlier in the year as reported by the West Brom Blogger.

Just to make things clear guys: we never imprisoned Martin Luther King and Condoleeza Rice was not born in Brum. However, Mahatma Ghandi did visit the city in October 1931 and our most famous right-winger is probably Enoch Powell. Our landmarks include a tall cylindrical tower known as the Rotunda, and the controversial Selfridges building, which has loads of silver disks on a blue background.

Was Not Was

2008-08-12T17:15:00.001+01:00

I'm glad I was not the only one who thought this.

A License to Print Money

2008-08-11T17:01:00.003+01:00

Unlike public sector pay, but like gas and electricity prices, it appears water bills are on course for an above inflation increase. No problem, if you are unhappy with the price or service, you can simply switch to a different company thanks to the wonder of privatisation.

Hang on a minute, we cannot. Domestic water supplies are provided by monopoly providers accountable to shareholders rather than customers. Another botched Conservative privatisation.

Religion and IQ

2008-08-10T17:03:00.004+01:00

I came across this rather interesting post from a member of the Blogpower collective Deeply Blasphemous, who in turn got it from some other blogs... you get the drift. It contains a graph which maps the relative IQ of Christian denominations by how "biblical based" they are, and makes interesting viewing.

Although a Christian, I am not a fan of biblical fundamentalists and have probably less time for IQ tests, the latter because I am not sure what they actually measure. However, from a Christian and biblical perspective, the most relevant verse on this subject is probably Matthew 11:25, which says (NIV):

..."I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."

Perhaps then the Christian view is not that stupid people literally believe in the Bible, but God has chosen the humble to inherit his Kingdom.

It is this philosophy which makes me suspicious of humanist atheists, who tend to be middle-class and live relatively comfortable lives (like the Jewish establishment at the time of Jesus?). If there is any justice in the world (and there is not if evolution is the be all and end all), it would be the meek and poor, rather than those who are "wise in their own eyes" (Proverbs 3:7) who should prosper in the end. This is a central theme of true Christianity, although many strands of the religion have moved closer to the attitude of the religious establishment Jesus so reviled.

Support Staff Beware

2008-08-09T12:04:00.004+01:00

Bin Laden's driver has been given 66 months for "supporting terrorism". He has already served 60 without trial, and will serve 6 months more before... he continues to be held for being an "enemy combatant". Presumably next at Guantanamo bay, we will have Bin Laden's chiropodist and binman up in the dock, striking blows against al-Qaeda where it hurts most; taking out their support staff.

Meanwhile the four surviving members of the supreme court who voted to effectively overrule the will of the American people in the 2000 election are still free and three are still hold their positions in government, despite their judgement which in my mind verges on treason.

Who are the real enemies of democracy?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

2008-08-03T16:19:00.004+01:00

No, it's the Betfair Blimp hovering over the skies of Calthorpe Park thanks to the Third Test between England and South Africa at the bullring of English cricket in Birmingham. Despite the fact that Edgbaston has the best win rate for England out of all six traditional Test grounds, England succumbed to a five wicket defeat as the Proteas did what the Aussies failed to do three years ago and chased down a record total for a fourth innings at Edgbaston of 281. As a result Michael Vaughan, one of the most successful England captains of all time, retired from the position today with Strauss, Pietersen and Flintoff being named as favourites to replace him and Paul Collingwood as One-Day Captain.

Where did it all go wrong for England? After winning the Ashes in 2005 and going unbeaten in Test Cricket the year before it all seems to have gone pear-shaped, with a 5-0 drubbing in the Aussie Ashes and series defeats to India and South Africa on home soil. The biggest problem for me has been the bowling, with the successful five-pronged attack of the 2005 Ashes being abandoned to accommodate a sixth batsman. The fact that England's two best bowlers, Jones and Flintoff have spent much of the time injured has not helped. Harmison was right to be dropped as in my opinion he has done very little apart from the tour of the West Indies where he made his name. Hoggard is brilliant on English soil, but is weak abroad and appears to be unlikely to take his place back from Sidebottom. Panesar has been an improvement on Giles in the bowling stakes, but not in the areas of fielding and batting. Anderson is finally beginning to show his potential and Broad is great with the bat as well as the ball. Perhaps the future will see Broad taking Colly's place but at the moment I suspect the selectors think Broad is too young to be given responsibility with the bat despite the fact he has excelled with it so far.

The captaincy is an interesting one. Freddie flopped in the role in the latest Ashes series and needs to concentrate on his batting and bowling so for me is a non-starter. Strauss is the natural replacement but I guess there is a question over whether he can inspire the team when things are going wrong. Pietersen would be a real gamble, but would the responsibility of captain help or hinder his batting? Ironically, after giving his wicket away for 94 and arguably costing England this Test, the result may mean he gets the captaincy so that he starts to exhibit the traits normally seen in fellow South African Graeme Smith. Alistair Cook deserves a mention as he has been tipped as a future England captain already, but it may be too early for him at this stage of his career.

Whoever gets the captains job, with the Ashes only nine Tests and less than a year away, including a tricky tour to India, England's hope of winning back the Ashes looks slim at this point. As a captain, Vaughan was a tactical genius and will be very difficult to replace. As a batsman on recent form, less so, but perhaps his departure will signal the return to a five-man bowling attack; after all, even poor old Pattinson got a higher average than Vaughan in this series and two wickets to boot.

One Sector Avoids Inflation...

2008-08-01T16:08:00.003+01:00

Despite spending millions of pound on the war on drugs, the price of heroin, cocaine, cannabis resin and ecstasy have fallen according to a report by an independent think tank.

Is there no way we can link the price of drugs to oil? Or perhaps we can get some of our energy companies to deal in this lucrative business; it surely would not take too long for drugs to be too expensive for regular users.

CSB 1980-2007

2008-07-31T14:50:00.004+01:00

Be happy, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 (NIV)

A year ago today I was driving home from work and found that one of the roads I normally use near Cannon Hill Park had been closed by the police as a result of a road traffic accident. In the past week I found out that the person who had died was an old school friend of mine.

When I knew him, CSB was a down-to-earth guy. An optimist, he believed Roy Evans was the man to bring back the glory days to his beloved Liverpool. He knew about value-for-money, once reading my mind when discussing how remakes of classic cars such as the Mini and the Beetle were expensive, and baulking at the cost of a Ferrari cap when I told him it cost £20. As we neared the end of our school days together, he had just started taking part in a Bhangra dance act, telling me how much he had moved on from a wedding he had gone to where he had only known one move.

In Year 8, there was a plank of wood that crossed our rather disgusting school pond. While he was on it, I went on as well and playfully tried to push him in. Of course, i was the one who ended up amongst the mud and the coke cans. If he were around, I would probably comment how ironic it was I outlived him after falling into that mess.

In A House for Mr Biswas, we are told how the main character strives from his humble beginnings to build a life for his family, culminating in him buying his house which he cannot believes he owns. At the end of his book, the character dies, and you are left with a sense that life is futile; after all our strivings, we can take nothing with us.

This post is a tribute to a guy who most of the world will never know, but lives on in the minds of those who did.

Control Our Borders (Sensibly)

2008-07-28T14:37:00.004+01:00

I think this story demonstrates just how confused and pathetic our immigration policies have become. Far from becoming a free-for-all, the reality is that our immigration policy for citizens outside the EU is far too harsh in some misguided attempt to compensate for the fact that we cannot control how many people come to this country from the rest of the EU and in particular the new Eastern European member states. We are in desperate need of an immigration policy which not only controls the number of people who enter the country as many people wish, but is also sensible and sensitive to the needs of non-citizens who have a good reason to be here.

Birmingham Media

2008-07-24T16:21:00.003+01:00

The Stirrer is reporting that Equity is launching a campaign to save the BBC Drama Village in Birmingham as another decision to move the programmes to Salford has been put off. Most of my criticisms of the BBC are not the usual nonsense one will find in the blogosphere that it is biased to the left and the Labour party, but that it fails to represent all of the country in its programming and opinions, a position which is hard to justify because we all pay the same license fee. While I welcomed the move by the BBC to create a new major centre away from London in Greater Manchester, I do not think it is fair that programmes made in smaller BBC centres such as Birmingham and Bristol are being moved to justify its cost; the programmes should be moved from London and more smaller regional centres built. The way things are going, there will be very few BBC programmes produced outside London, Salford and Cardiff. This is hardly representative broadcasting.

Another thing about the BBC is the way it has bought into Brand Manchester, and often refers to its proposed Salford facility as "Manchester" rather than referring to the City of Salford in which it is actually located. On Radio Five Live the other day, they even asked whether the newly promoted Salford City Reds would be changing their name to Manchester! I am confused as to why the BBC want to promote geographical counties rather than proper cities; perhaps many of them are still confused by living in London.

The BBC's proposed flight from Birmingham is not the only one, however. Adrian Goldberg has consistently reported on his Stirrer website how local radio stations are shunning locally produced programmes to broadcast networked shows from London (even BBC WM moved a late night show from the city to Nottingham; Radio 2's late shows which were produced in the Mailbox have moved to London, as has the One Show despite the fact it was successfully piloted in Brum). Birmingham has always been very bad at promoting itself outside the region and the moves over the past few months seem to confirm that the city is seen as a broadcasting backwater.

It is not all bad news however. The steady stream of blows to Birmingham's media has led the creative community to look at the creation of a new radio station in Birmingham, Rhubarb Radio, which is probably going to be loosely based on Resonance FM in London and is hoping to start broadcasting soon from the Custard Factory. And Channel 4 will be opening its new digital media HQ in Birmingham. It seems that while the traditional media may be shunning Birmingham, new media looks set to embrace it. Whether this is the way forward remains to be seen.

TB or GB?

2008-07-14T19:20:00.003+01:00

Mike Smithson wrote an article today at politicalbetting.com today asking the question whether Labour would be doing so badly in the polls if Tony Blair was still leader.

I think it is an interesting question. Personally, I fail to see how they could be any worse, but I struggle to square this with the fact that I much prefer Gordon Brown's inept leadership to Tony Blair's arrogant premiership. In my opinion, Brown's ratings have plummeted not because of the General Election that never was, but because of the 10p tax-rate debacle which goes against everything the Labour party stands for - a policy he more than anyone else was responsible for.

Along with the Iraq war (amongst the liberal wing of the party), and the failure to deal properly with the question of immigration (amongst sections of the white working classes), the 10p tax rate has led to many of those who lean Labour to look elsewhere instead. I remain to be convinced that there is a clamour for a Conservative government, and I would not rule out a 1992-style surprise where the electorate hold their noses and vote for Labour because there is no real will for a Tory administration, although I suspect this may just be wishful thinking. However, unless something changes soon, it is likely that Britain will be heading for a re-run of 1997 in reverse where the Government collapses at the polls leading to at least two terms of a Conservative government. Like 1997, the spread markets are not convinced - but there is a killing to be made if one believes the polls.

Jewish Schools

2008-07-06T16:35:00.003+01:00

A judge ruled this week that JFS, a Jewish school in London, was not guilty of racial discrimination when it refused to admit a Jewish boy because his mother was not born a Jew (she was a born a Catholic but converted before he was born). The judge claimed that the kind of admissions policy in question was "not materially different from that which gives preference in admission to a Muslim school to those who were born Muslim, or preference in admission to a Catholic school to those who have been baptised."

I think this is questionable. There is nothing in Islam or Catholicism (or indeed many strands of Judaism) that requires the mother, father or child to be "born" into that religion on some kind of ethnic basis. After conversion, or reversion, whatever that person used to be is irrelevant and they become a fully paid up member of the religion who in theory at least cannot be discriminated against. I tend to agree with the parent position that the school admission code contained a test "not based on faith but wholly or partly on ethnic origins" - something which is surely against race discrimination legislation?

Of course, it may not be that simple. Unlike Islam and Christianity, which seek to convert all of humanity to their cause, Judaism tends to be a religion one is born into rather than converted to, and has a history based around the ethnicity and traditions of a people. If we considered the refusal to admit a person with a non-Jewish mother as unlawful racial discrimination, we would be attacking the Orthodox version of the religion itself.

My experience of Jewish schools is shaped mainly from the excellent nearby King David Primary School in Birmingham, on which Jeremy Jacobs has written an excellent article on here. My mum always used to tell me that they did not admit Catholics into this school, not for any religious reasons but simply because there were so many Catholic schools in Birmingham to serve the Catholic community, but they welcomed applications from other religions and not least Muslims who were more than happy to apply in the absence of any Islamic schools which only became available relatively recently. I remember going to this King David's on a visit from my Catholic primary in order to learn about Jewish traditions, although to be honest at that age we tended to be more interested in having running races with the pupils of that school during break time than learning the traditions of Passover. Boys will be boys.

The admissions policy of King David Primary probably put a seed in my mind that Jews and Muslims make natural allies, something I still tend to believe and promote today, a position which has become more entrenched as I learn more about the history of Europe and the Middle-East. While there is no doubt the issue of Israel has sullied relations between the two religions in recent years, and there have been periods of intolerance between the religions before then, I believe that these positions tend to be promoted by certain groups for short-term political gain, and are not an accurate reflection of the much more complicated relationship that has existed between the two religions.

Do people have any thoughts on this? Is King David the exception rather than the rule and do I have a warped understanding of the relationship between Islam and Judaism as a result. And is JFS discriminating racially by not allowing in children born to non-Jewish mothers even when they have converted. I would be interested to know what you think.

Hell On Wheels Premiere

2008-07-02T19:24:00.004+01:00

You know when you have made it when you get invited to UK film premiere's... sort off. The following popped into my inbox with the words 'Please forward' so i thought I would give it some publicity.

Birmingham does not often host film Premieres of any kind (George Clooney's 'The Perfect Storm' opened in Star City, while Will Smith set a new record by attending three premieres in one day, including one on the UGC on Broad Street for his film 'Hitch') so supporting even smaller films like this is a worthy endeavour.

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE EUROPEAN PREMIERE OF:

Hell on Wheels

Fresh from Official Selection screenings at festivals across North America and Australasia (including the South by Southwest Film Festival and the San Francisco DocFest), Hell on Wheels is the ass-kicking documentary film telling the story of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect roller derby for the 21st century. Emerging from the Austin music and arts scene, these women create a rock and roll fuelled version of all-girl roller derby that has spawned the derby craze that's sweeping the nation.

Now the UK ’s own Roller Derby league – the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames – present the first European screening at Britain ’s oldest functioning cinema: The Electric Cinema, Birmingham , UK .

Premiere date: 5^th July 2008

Screening times: 1pm and 11pm

Tickets: http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=1324

online press kit and links to images and trailers at:

http://www.hellonwheelsthemovie.com/presskit.htm

2001: The birth of an all-girl roller derby revolution begins in Austin , Texas .

Starting a revolution ain't an easy affair. After overcoming countless hurdles to organize, recruit and train, the rowdy rollergirls known as Bad Girl, Good Woman (BGGW) enjoy a smashingly successful first year, only to find a rift forming among the ranks of the 80 women. Polarized by issues of insurance, finances, and the direction the league should take, disenchanted skaters pull together and collectively bring their grievances to management. Accusations fly, and emotions run high as the two camps face off.

Ultimately, 65 of 80 skaters walk and form their own player-run league. Dealt a near fatal blow, management doesn’t give up. Instead, they recruit and rebuild their league to rebound in dramatic fashion. What emerges from the near-disaster are the Lonestar Rollergirls and the Texas Rollergirls. Both leagues pioneer a modern era of roller derby and inspire thousands of women across the US to follow suit.

Shot over a four year period and utilizing both verite footage and interviews, Hell on Wheels documents the creation of modern-era roller derby’s first two leagues.

The success of the Texas leagues has inspired hundreds of women across the world. Leagues of rollergirls are currently organizing or operating in Los Angeles , New York City, Seattle , Phoenix , North Carolina , Houston , Nevada , Tucson , Kansas City, Dallas , Madison , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Australia , England , New Zealand , Canada and beyond…

Sie können die Deutschen nicht durchstreichen

2008-06-29T17:15:00.006+01:00

Apologies for the lack of updates around here recently. It seems the Promroiship took quite a lot out of me, and combined with Euro 2008 and Twenty20 zonal games which have been taking up a lot of my time, blogging has been on a bit of a back-burner lately.

It was a great weekend of sport last week with Amir Khan fighting in Brum for the first time as a result of pressure from his fans. The fight was one of the most exciting I have ever seen, almost straight out of a Rocky movie, and I felt Khan displayed flashes of brilliance although it was evident that he still has a lot of work to do on his defence. The day before saw Warwickshire beat Worcestershire for the first time in the six years of the Twenty20 competition. The Bears were unbeaten until this Friday, when they lost to a half-decent Northamptonshire team. With the Twenty20 Champions League around the corner, I am just wondering whether the Bears are taking the competition seriously now. They have to be a decent bet to win it outright, but I have said that before.

The jammy Germans. As the BBC commentary-by-cliche team would say, you can never rule them out. Well you can, and I did; and now they are in the final. To be fair I suspected they might make an appearance on June 29th due to the fact they were in the easy half of the draw. Far from being a decent team that has undereachieved since winning Euro 1996 (as the Beeb would have it, although they soon changed their story after their defeat by Croatia), Germany have actually been a very weak team for the last 12 years, going out in the first round of the last two European Championships and going out in the quarter-finals of 1998 to an even better Croatian team than currently plies its trade. They were very lucky to get to the final in 2002, qualifying from a group including Ireland, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia (who they beat 8-0), and beating the might of Paraguay, USA and South Korea before losing 2-0 in the final to the only decent team they played - Brazil (to think we started in the Group of Death with Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria and met Brazil in the quarter final...grrr!). Two years ago, after some very low expectations from the home fans, they made the semi-final before crashing 2-0 to the Italians in extra-time; but competitions on home soil are the exception to the rule (which is the reason we have a World Cup to our name). This year, apart form a great performance against the Portuguese, they have again been pretty average. Despite all the pre-tournament hype, this is the same team that took over from the likes of Moller, Haessler, Sammer, Effenberg, Bierhoff, Kilinsmann and Voller, but had very little chance of emulating their success, except now they are a lot older and I see very little coming through to replace them. However, that is no excuse for them to be underdogs tonight, given that the Spanish have also had a relatively easy route to the draw, with the Russians in their two games not coming close to the performance of the tournament against the Dutch in the quarter-finals, and a win on penalties against an Italian team who are still recovering from their World Cup win two years ago. It would be great to see the Spanish win Euro 2008 (although it would hammer home just how poor England's record is amongst the big European nations, with only one major final in our history), but they have yet to display they have the mentality to do it. Something the Germans do not have a problem with.

One of those quirks of fate that satisfies me for reasons I simply cannot fathom; on the day the Germans played Poland in a competition held in Switzerland and Austria, Robert Kubica, a Pole, won the Canadian Grand Prix in a German car (BMW) which used to be Swiss-owned (Sauber). Apart from the fact that Austria and Canada spoil the symmetry of this, I am sure there is some hidden meaning in this. Or maybe a United double, a Blues relegation and a potential German victory in Euro 2008 after England failed to qualify have finally taken a mental toll.

Worst season ever.

(Headline courtesy of Babelfish)

A Gem of a Free Attraction

2008-06-03T17:52:00.004+01:00

Apparently, the Museum of the Jewellery quarter in Birmingham has been ranked third in a list of the best free attractions in Europe. In an interesting article on the city recently by Iain Dale(in that it gave an outsiders view of Birmingham), one of the commenters noted that he tried to persuade his friend to buy and engagement ring from the area rather than Hatton Garden but she just would not listen.

Having lived in Birmingham all my life, I have known of the Jewellery quarter and its place in the history of the city, but have never really thought of it as one of our premier attractions. Perhaps we should pay more attention to this little gem of a local attraction.