Monday, October 22, 2007

Paris, Paranoia and Ed Balls

Sorry, sorry, here I am. Things got a little out of hand in Paris and these old bones and this grizzled head needed some downtime. Having saved the world in Canada, I failed to save English rugby in France in spite of some Mission Impossible heroics in a phone box surrounded by agitated French riot police. (As ever, I thought they were after me. It's my special paranoia. I always think ambulances with their sirens going have been sent for me, and, at the sight of fire engines, I assume flames are spurting of out of my clothes.) Some English guy had declined to pay for a drink and Sarkozy had sent down an executive order to terminate him with extreme prejudice. Great city for a neutron bomb, Paris, take out the people and leave the buildings. And so we lost the cup, the worst football team in the world reverted to type and Lewis Hamilton did not become World Champion. A bereft nation must cling gratefully to Sven's wild ride at Manchester City. Sven rocks - two words that would once have seemed as unlikely as 'Cool Gordon' does today. And speaking of Brown, I note that his 'most trusted' apparatchik Ed Balls has been screaming that his boss is a coward. I've never liked Balls, with his glibly impervious face he looks like the sort of man who does not know what he does not know, a fatal failing and one that is all too common among political courtiers. We have democracy because politicians were finally forced to accept the depths of their ignorance. To forget this is to forget everything. I think Balls and many others, encouraged by our dumb need for simple stories, are showing signs of amnesia.

5 comments:

  1. Ah well, you will always have St Crispian day. But one would have thought that the ground would have been kept clear, by the one missing a wife and the big lump, for the Pres' of South Africa.
    There was something scummy afoot, rescued by the SA players warm reaction to their President. Who would have thought twenty years ago that that vision, of a black SA President being hugged and hugging (knuffels) a group of white SA rugby players, would be flashed over the airwaves.

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  2. "Sven rocks" :-)

    Just so, Bryan, and as another City supporter of a similar age to you, it's an absolute delight to see what is happening at City, and to remember on a daily basis that we are approximately £1 billion better off than our out-of-town neighbours, Gatwick Buccaneers!

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  3. We have a word democracy and something else that calls itself a democracy. The relationship between the two is more than a little strained.

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  4. Glad to see you back, Bryan. My day wouldn’t be the same without the odd causally tossed neutron bomb and a naive faith in Sven.

    Now is there any chance we can have a sweepstake on where City will finish? If so, I'll go for fourth in the league, ahead of Chelsea.

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  5. No one else has, so I'm afraid that I will say it, Balls certainly has balls.

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