So Much To Say

And so little time in which to say it. Well that sounds a tad melodramatic but what I mean is I do seem to be very busy lately both at work and play and what with my minor Olympic adventure approaching I keep finding reasons not to indulge the emotional incontinence that is blogging.

Work? What of it? Curse of the drinking classes. Been taking me to that London a fair old bit recently, which I quite enjoy. As my old marxist mate John Marshall used to say, business is a fascinating dynamic but I do see rather too much of its irrational and irritating side at the minute. I could say a lot about the perils of socialised medicine from my now more intimate exposure to its seemingly untameable daftness but detailed comment would offend professional standards so you'll just have to wait. In the meantime the sisyphean labour of making do and mending must continue. As the old Irish joke so aptly illustrates: Q: how do I get to Dublin? A: well I wouldn't start from here.

"But all I did was call him
a c***"

John Terry has been worrying me. I don't mean he's kneed me in the back or slept with my wife or any of those other things he does. No, I'm very perplexed as to why anyone thought it other than a complete waste of money to take the unpleasant yobbo to court to find him not guilty of a racially motivated crime. Would any of us capable of vaguely rational contemplation think the worse (or indeed the better) of the gobshite had he been found guilty? Of course not. On most available evidence he's not a very nice chap but a damned good footballer. Rio Ferdinand appears rather a nicer cove but the genial waving off of complaint about his endorsing the 'choc ice' joke aimed at poor old Ashley Cole (who by all accounts loses out to John Terry in deportment contests) does highlight a double standard. And I'm sorry, I love Simon Barnes in The Times, but his distinction between the two circumstances just doesn't hold water. In fact it's positively Kiplingesque in its racism - take up the white man's burden indeed. For those who don't get it yet - I think the legal reaction (ie. none at all) to the Ferdinand jape is the right one. All the Terry farrago has done is to give his 'innocence' an imprimatur of official sanction and created a martyr for the rabid right. Damn it I even felt sorry for the guy and thereby admired his tenacity in Euro 2012. For another exercise in difficult thinking, take a look at this and see what you make of it - wigger day. I tend to casting a plague on both their houses but had to smile at the lawyer quoted as saying 'This could have been a teachable moment.' I really want to say, only in America but, my friends, that ship sailed yonks ago.