The Football Season is Over

"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception" "I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it" Niccolo Machiavelli I've always had a fascination, a thing, for interesting characters. Big personalities. Folks with great stories. Weirdos. Crazies. Straights. Artists. Footballers. Rock 'n' rollers. Writers. Whether real life or fictional, their back pages fill my bookshelves and my imagination. One of the most interesting characters around presently - and bear with me on this - is Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings. Cummings is described as a political strategist, and is despised by many in politics, even by those on his own side, though this is hard to define given that he claims never to have been a member of a political party, describing his political views as "not Tory, libertarian, 'populist' or anything else". However, given his role in...

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop" Winston Churchill Whenever I hear the word criticise, I tend to think about American wailer Alexander O'Neal and his slick brand of 80s R&B, and in particular his big hit, er, 'Criticize'. Midway through the track, O'Neal pipes "don't criticize my friends", and this line has sprung to mind of late when it comes to how the Government have handled the Coronavirus crisis, and how the press have handled the Government in return. It is said that the first duty and priority of Government is to protect its people, and that the role of the press is to hold those in power to account. Well, it's fair to say that both have been failing in their respective jobs in recent times....

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed" Mahatma Gandhi If there is one positive that has come from the crisis that we currently find ourselves in, it is that it has shone a light on some simply inexcusable and fucked-up behaviour from certain wealthy individuals and the companies that they are involved in. As many ordinary people, and other businesses, have rushed to do good or have worried about how to survive, there are those that have looked no further than themselves, or even seen it as a time to fill their boots. This when their own personal wealth would allow them to minimise the impact if they took some responsibility themselves. Make no mistake, this sort of shit has always been going on. It's just that in Normal Times, we sadly don't pay enough mind to it and it sneaks beneath the radar. All of this is what most would agree is Bad Capitalism, or put another way, corporate shithousery. And t...