Category Archives: Politics and Football

No Place for Racists

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There are many reasons why a Welshman might not extend the most gracious of support to an English football team. I was brought up from a young age to see Wales as my first priority in sport, and anyone playing against England as my second priority!

Whilst this might have been understandable childhood banter at that age, the English press and many of their fans kept providing the kind of arrogant sense of entitlement, combined with recurring failure, throughout the 1970’s that made it difficult to offer support to their team.

Then came 1983, with the English Football Association announcing they were no longer taking part in the annual Home Nations Championship, with a main reason being that they wanted to play stronger teams in more competitive matches! Understandable if they had a pedigree of winning major World and European Tournaments, but… they often struggled even to qualify for such tournaments!

Which brings me to 2021. Congratulations to Gareth Southgate and all of his squad for the completely different way they present themselves; and, now being a team that are showing they can compete with the best in the world. I, for one, hope they do win a major tournament soon (even if they do beat Wales in the semi-final to get there!).

And what has brought about this decades long change of mindset? A persistent minority of vocal vile English racists!

Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho… it took enormous courage to step up and do what you did on the night. Raheem Sterling and Tyrone Mings… congratulations for speaking out in the way you have. Particular kudos go to those of you who have shown up our despicable Government for their perpetual populist stance. You have changed my feelings towards the English team going forward.

And, a final congratulations to Italy… best team on the night and across the whole tournament.

Until we speak again, may all of the anonymous racist thugs just stay in the swamp where they belong… you will most likely find that Donald Trump is the plug preventing it from draining.

Feline fortitude

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So, what did we learn from watching more than 124,000 seconds of Championship football home matches at the Cardiff City Stadium across 2016/7? The main message to take into the summer:

Football is… a bunch of fat blokes sitting down, telling a bunch of fit blokes running around, what to do.

Pinterest and 9Gag

And, for those cats who prefer the scintillating excitement of watching on TV from the comfort of their sofa…

Zak Show dot Com

Until we speak again, choose your refreshment to get into shape, and build your ridiculously high expectations for your team, in time for the new season in August!

[For the record the Mighty Bluebirds have risen from 24th in October 2016 to finish 12th at the end of this season. Project that rise forward, and… no, I’d better not go there, at least until too much sun has fried my brain.]

[With acknowledgements to Zak Show.com & 9GAG for the original images used to illustrate this post.]

 

Mugwump logic

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I thought a mugwump was somebody independent of politics, or if you look at US literature it’s a Native American reference to a leader. So, thanks to the peroxide poser in the Foreign Office, the fashion for political soundbites leaves us with more heat than light.

White cat blue eyes

Careful who you’re calling a peroxide poser! I’ve got your bluebirds in my sight.

The current reference is prefaced with ‘mutton-headed’ and directed at the so-called leadership of the Labour Party. And, on the back of such confidence, the leader of the expected all-conquering English Tories heads into the Labour heartlands of Wales, gunning to take a Tory victory for the first time in 100 years or more. Political skies are looking grey wherever Labour supporters look…

Gloomy skies

But, surely the king mugwump isn’t going to lose one of his few remaining heartlands? This is Wales we are talking about. They don’t play Men of Harlech before each home match at the Cardiff City Stadium for nothing… with it’s line of ‘Welshmen never yield’ there is a strong message to any English insurgents.

Which brings me to the last home match of the season, as the marauding Geordies of Newcastle bring the largest away contingent… Magpies nesting at the home of the Bluebirds! Talking of peroxide posers… Newcastle United playing in anything other than their famous black and white stripes is unbelievable; but surely any mugwumps in blue are ready to repel the English confidence…

City v Newcastle

They might have already been promoted to the Premier League, but a Newcastle contingent in a mood to party were hardly going to obey the script of defiance writ large in the Welsh heartlands, were they? Well if you’re Jeremy Corbyn, or any of the faceless Labour wonders in Cardiff Bay, don’t look at the final score [Cardiff City 0 Newcastle United 2].

Until we speak again, if this match was prescient, then Juno exemplifies what the Welsh Labour stronghold has to offer in the coming General Election.

Playing dead

Searching for credible alternatives

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With local elections just around the corner, credible alternatives to a noxious Tory controlled government are becoming difficult to find. The Labour Party are about as credible as an alternative design to those urine-stained lifts in so many tower blocks…

Students lift?

As for Plaid Cymru... they might well see themselves as a smooth alternative to the Scotch whisky market, but offer little credibility in the independence stakes when compared to the rampant Scottish Nationalist Party…

Welsh Whisky

And the Liberal Democrats, well they are still trying to work out how they got decimated in the last General Election…

Difficult choices

The UKIP fraternity are coming to terms with weekly losses of so-called prominent representatives, as well the machinations of their new leader…

Bartley

Which leaves the earnestness of the Green Party, committed as they are to limiting the number of wheels polluting the environment, they never quite seem to get their full message properly coordinated…

Bikes on pitch

Meanwhile, down at the Cardiff City Stadium a credible alternative has emerged from the team that in October 2016 was languishing at the bottom of the Championship table. Cue the time for totally unreasonable expectations for next season…

City 1 Forest 0

Until we speak again, Bella offers no particular enlightenment regarding credible alternatives from the broadsheets. With expected turnouts to be nearer 20% in many places, it seems that most people probably don’t give a urine-stained lift for any alternative…

Reading paper and books

Cats swallowing wasps

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We seem to be living in the age of outrage. But do we really need a new universal amendment to assert our right to be offended? The slightest hint of challenge or disagreement leaves too many people looking like they have swallowed a wasp. Take the so-called leader of the Western World… yes… please… go ahead and take him! He seems to have elevated wasp swallowing into a nocturnal pastime, with a blue-tinged cat snack as his vehicle of choice…

Donald Trump

Then, a little closer to home, when we are in desperate need for a credible opposition in Britain, what do we get? What do you think about Brexit Jeremy? What do you think about the future of the economy Jeremy? Who are the voters you actually need to get you  within a Gnat’s testicle of being able to do something Jeremy? It seems that wasp swallowing is a universal affliction of our so-called leaders…

corbyn

Talking of leadership and the intrusion of hymenoptera (well, weren’t we?). Just the other day, down at the home of football, the Cardiff City Stadium, manager Neil Warnock is reported to have had cause at half-time to employ his own particular brand of wasp swallowing…

Neil Warnock

Many a player has had cause to experience the half-time verbal tongue lashing from Sheffield’s finest. On this occasion, the swallowing of wasps was employed as a means of devouring bees… the bees of Brentford FC, that is. For the record, at half time it was Cardiff City 0 Brentford 1; and at full time the score is Cardiff City 2 Brentford 1. Bees well and truly devoured!

As for Juno and Bella, one good thing about being indoor cats was the lesser chance of being tempted to supplement the meagre rations by chasing wasps, as you never know what the impact of success might be…

 

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[With acknowledgements to YouTube, BBC and the Independent for original images].

The will of the people

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We live in such divisive and divided political times that abiding by ‘the will of the people‘ is a constant mantra delivered by the fearful so-called winners. The Brexiteer 52% (approximately 37% of adult UK voters) will have no truck with any attempt to debate the way forward. Any expression of a desire to debate issues is instantly drowned out by this vaguest of phrases. When challenged as to what the Brexit plan could be about, headless chickens may well provide a clearer answer…

Difficult choices

In Scotland, the 45% who want independence from the UK have the dominant voice in most political discourse. Or is that the 62% who want to stay in Europe (against ‘the will of the people‘)?

Looking for clarity from across the western democratic world? Why not check out the US, where the person who accrued less of the total number of votes wins all! A clear mandate to show the middle finger to the rest of the world beyond US borders, aka the will of the people.

Challenge any of these populist movements to give us a clue as to where we are actually going, and they have only a Plan A all the way to the sunny uplands of making us (or is that US) great again (as mandated by the will of the people)…

Concept: Successful business trend. Happy talented businesswoman

Talking of La La Land… the will of the football tribe is never ambiguous. Ask any one of the 100% of Cardiff City FC fans, and there is only a completely singular ‘will of the people‘… we are the greatest team in football the world has ever seen! Fortunately, on this occasion we ran into an Ipswich Town team largely resembling the Tractor Boys image externally imposed on ‘the will of their people‘; so that at least today the ignominious chant of the home fans could pass any scrutiny.

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Until we speak again, I would strongly recommend the will of cats, as demonstrated by Juno. they are much better at herding than being herded, whatever the statistics try to say!

You talking to me?

 

Cheap tricks

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There was a time, not long ago, when the UK Labour Party tried a nice little trick of charging £3 for people to become a member. The bonus attraction was the opportunity to vote in a leader, out of a duck shoot of particularly charisma-lite alternatives. And the newfound masses managed to locate the one who would have the least chance of amounting any possible credible opposition to the incumbent public service wrecking crew. In fact, this might just be the lost soul trying to curry favour with people he would need to protect him in the most unlikely event he were to taste the power of government…

Police horses

However, the new leadership, if that is indeed not misrepresenting the definition of the term, took to flaunting the engorged numbers of new members in their party. Clearly mistaking a bunch of misguided activists to be representative of the masses needed to return the forlorn party to the governing benches. A cheap trick that seems to keep on giving to the very people it is supposed to be opposing!

Talking of horse shit…

Horse shit

… Birmingham City FC were in town today, to take on the mighty Bluebirds.

City v Birmingham

And it seems that the home team are trying to learn from the aforementioned beleaguered Labour Party, by selling off loads of tickets at £5 a pop, so that they could then boast of the great numbers they amassed to support them (normally about 13-14,000). A cheap trick perhaps…

Match attendance

But, it seems that just like the Labour Party, until Cardiff City FC can mount a credible opposition, they are doomed to fall short of the promised land. For the record the match finished Cardiff City 1 Birmingham City 1.

However, perhaps the highlight of the day was the ranks of seagulls perched on top of the Canton Stand. Rumour has it they were gazing at the away fans at the other end of the ground, wondering what people who don’t live by the sea actually look like! [Note: for my reader who didn’t know, Birmingham is about as far away from the sea as you can get in the UK].

Seagulls

Until we speak again, don’t get fooled by cheap tricks, and take a leaf out of juno’s book… the ‘wake me up when it’s all over’ edition.

Fighting fit [3]

Leadership cats

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It’s been a week where cats in leadership roles have again stirred very different emotions, and focused attention on the meaning of ‘doing a number 2’!

Litter trays at the ready… as Donald Trump talked in the USA of planning for a second term, though his penchant for Twitter should excite many cats to assume a pose ready to pounce. Then our very own Jeremy Corbyn in the UK showed us what walking away from leadership looks like when he denied any responsibility for a catastrophic outcome in one, and a lacklustre outcome in a second political by-election.

pexels-photo

So, not for the first time, I find myself reflecting that when the despondency of current politics deals you a couple of blows, there is always the surreal nature of football to provide that pick-me-up. No, not the double-quick time of Claudio Ranieri’s despicable departure at Leicester City. I’m talking our very own leader, the mighty Neil Warnock talking about his intentions for a second season at the Cardiff City Stadium.

The white-shirted interloper cats from London, in the form of Fulham FC, arrived with claws poised ready to deal with any bluebirds in their line of sight.

animal-sitting-animals-inside

But, with the home team led at the front with two goals from our striker, Kenneth Zohore, an entertaining and uplifting match ended Desmond (Tutu)…

2-2

Until we speak again, I fondly remember Juno and Bella as two cats that exhibited particularly feline leadership traits of sleeping, eating and often looking at me with a general air of disdain.

It’s going to be great, really great!

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Optimism can be infectious, even when the source is somewhat dubious and dangerous. But beware to take in the full picture when someone is promising to make things great again, really great folks. It’s going to change, really change folks! I loved a recent comment on the change in American politics… a nation that has undergone a transition “from the changey-hopey thing to the strangely-gropey thing!”  And I was particularly reminded of this in the following photo from my perennial seat of hope down at the Cardiff City Stadium. What is Bartley the mascot doing to that woman steward? If this is leadership, then Cardiff City FC may just be taking the USA lead a little too literally.

bartley-2

But, where there is optimism greatness may just follow. Our own new leader seems to be doing something right…

warnock

Following a recent home defeat we then went on to two away wins before hosting the bottom of the table Rotherham United. Well, expectations of a thumping win were high, and for once our team on the pitch didn’t disappoint…

5-0

Yes, even I need to blink… 5-0. Things are going to be great folks, really great!

fireworks-on-dark-sky                                       chilling-in-the-sun

Until we speak again, Bella reminds us to enjoy the sun while it shines, because in this game there will always be a ‘but…’

Living in La La Land

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If there is one thing we can learn from Jeremy Corbyn’s all-new Labour Party it is the folly of short-sighted optimism. Two party election victories combined with an easily won parliamentary bi-election provides the fuel for the activists to spark their delusional ideas of grandeur into action, with dreams of electoral victory in 2020.

The problem with a burgeoning band of over-enthusiastic activists is their inability to even want to see the bigger picture. Why spoil a beautiful delusion with references to reality? 600,000+ plus members are not going to paper over the cracks of the millions of the wider public who have been previous Labour supporters and who are witness to a plot being lost!

not-supposed-to-happen

Which reminds me, just when the locals win against Aston Villa and Preston North End, with an expected win over the relative minnows of Burton Albion, some of the activists dream of their team rising through the Championship table. Could it be that we are marching towards a play-off position, with dreams of winning a place back in the Premier League at a Wembley play-off final? As night turns to day the deluded dream on…

city-v-prestoncity-v-norwich

Then, along come Norwich City to act as the unwanted reminder that reality comes with a spike to puncture dreams! Cardiff City 0 Norwich City 1.

Until we speak again, Bella dreams of completely different sporting delusions, as the Rugby Six Nations Championship prepares to return to its spiritual home! C’mon Wales!

rugby-cat