2021: 9 - 10

And now for a happy and highly surprising story. Emma Raducanu became the first qualifier in the open era to win a Grand Slam tennis singles title. She did so through three qualifying rounds and seven matches in the tournament proper. She did not lose a set in the process. Since this unreal triumph she has hardly won a set, much less a match. I hope she goes on to a stellar career but even should she not, she will shine as a reminder that even in today's pre-packaged professional sport, not all is predictable. The amazing can happen. Sport, bloody hell.

Also in September the European team got its arse handed to it by the United States in the ridiculously over-hyped Ryder Cup. Notwithstanding the impressive golf on display the lasting image of the tournament for me was Brooks Koepka and partner Daniel Berger trying their petulant best to intimidate a rules official. The official stood his ground. Good for him. 

October: MP of libertarian instincts and Catholic faith, Sir David Amess, was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery. Democracy dies in darkness.

Advent 5

Fifty-nine, count them, fifty-nine Grand Slam titles, including eighteen singles titles. Here's a bold assertion - Martina Navratilova is the greatest tennis player in history. Athletic and using the classic one-handed back hand, she was nevr less than compelling to watch in action. Off the court this political refugee from the privations of the old Czechoslovakia became a standard bearer for the inclusivity that marks America at its best. These days this sane, generous commentator can be found railing on her Twitter feed about that arch git Donald Trump. More power to her tennis elbow.

  

The Good And The Bad

Clare Balding has restored some decorum to the Olympic television coverage in tandem (geddit?) with Sir Chris Hoy at the velodrome. Informed, informative, enthusiastic, interested and interesting. Sadly the team at the swimming got mildly better only to slip right back into self-absorbed puerility as the curtain came down on the best British showing since God was a lad. Sharron Davies wins the award for ultimate crassness with a remark directed to the medal-winning medley relay squad pointing out "That makes us the most successful British team ever." No, no, no, it makes them the most successful team ever; excellent as you inarguably once were Ms Davies, your day has gone. Empathy is admirable; neediness is undignified.

Another telling televisual moment was Sir Steve Redgrave's magisterial put down of an offensively over-eager John Inverdale when he tried to jump ahead of the New Zealand television crew in interviewing their single sculler Mahe Drysdale. Inverdale - you're a plonker. Redgrave - you're a legend.

Talking of legends, I trust there will be no more delay in knighthoods for Mo Farah and Andy Murray. It will make a nice change from the cronyist sideshow of David Cameron's recent misplaced largesse. Nothing marks a man more than the manner of his passing from power - Cameron has gone and barely a soul misses him.

Decency And An Indecent Stunt

Sir Terry Wogan died overnight. An absolute master of his art and by all accounts a man infected by decency. Decency, the reason Graham Norton is so much better a broadcaster than Jonathan Ross, and the reason that Kevin Bridges is better than Frankie Boyle. Being a shitbag is not of itself admirable.

Someone else who comes across as intrinsically decent is Andy Murray. He lost another Grand Slam final to Novak Djokovic this morning - Ausralian Open - no crime in an age when three of the very greatest players of all time are plying their trade: Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Murray has won two Grand Slams, an Olympic title and, almost single-handedly, the Davis Cup. Why has he not been knighted? Perhaps just a matter of time but the delay seems churlish.

An indecent stunt - Mcdonnell tax return - John McDonnell has published his tax return, with which I have no problem (it's not very interesting and that, of course, is why he feels safe doing it), but more to the point he has challenged Gorgeous George Osborne to do the same - the mealy-mouthed implication is that not to do so somehow unfits a man for public office. This is bollocks. Any old reader of the OG will know that I don't like George Osborne but the fact that his family has money is of no relevance. It is relevant to question (as the self-flagellating McDonnell does but never out loud) whether it is right for anyone at all to be what he would define as 'rich'. By all means, let's have that discussion if we really must, although it's pretty wearying stuff to those of us who grew up with hyperbolic Marxist jealousy. What is not manly (another word that will upset my old bien-pensant mates, and, yes, I confess that is precisely why I've done it) is to indulge in this sort of low attack.

Tax adviser visits HQ

And since you ask, no I strongly doubt that the Google tax deal is a good one for UK plc but I do understand the massively unbalanced nature of the negotiation that led to it. Being a tax collector used to be a respected trade for the intellectually gifted - now the brightest and best work on the other side of the fence for the shit-bag lawyers and accountants who sponge off the behemoths like Google. They are immensely clever and tragically soulless. It is my generation (God damn us) that has made the world like this. For someone at least trying to shed a little light on the topic, try this as a starting point - Sales Tax?

More cheerfully and, as usual several years behind trend, I have just discovered Pramface on Netflix. Has anything ever been quite so comprehensively well cast?