1487 Carry on behind the night of the Sunflowers

A Bruce Springsteen song comes to ear, Heavy Heart and a commercial featuring a clever conjurer, Paul Daniel and heavy heart and conjuring trickster sum up my feeling this morning.

My level of incredulity has been stretched over several decades but it reached a new high or low, I cannot be bothered to work out which by two events yesterday evening through till 4 am, after what had been a reasonable day.

However I begin by talking about two films experienced over the past twenty four hours while I collect my emotions to find words appropriate to express anger on one hand and disbelief at the black being described as white at the Republican Convention and the departure of Kevin Keegan as Newcastle Manager, the club issued a statement which has fooled no one and I only have one word to say but I cannot write it for to do so could provoke litigation.

The first film sums up one aspect of the British character and humour, the love of words which have more than one meaning, usually connected with sex and other bodily functions. Carry on Behind could have been also titled Bottom up or Upskirts, if it the intention was a soft porn production, whereas Carry on Behind is more about words than visual treats. Then film opens as Archaeology Professor Kenneth Williams introduces a film of his work at what appears to be a village hall and he describes his latest finds under mounds and penetrations at lower levels at the same time as a film of a young woman in a two piece bathing costume is shown prior to stripping off further clothing, by mistake. The double meanings are never subtle, always full frontal and in your face and the visual humour appears to be aimed at five year olds. Sadly this was one of the Carry On films in which Barbara Windsor did not display her twin charms.

The second film is intended to be a more serious drama showing cause and effects as members of small community disintegrate into killings and cover up after a different kind of archaeology explorers comes to a small Spanish village shortly after the sexually assaulted body of a young girl is found in a field of sun flowers after going to a disco, having had a row with her father over where she was going and when she would return. The night of the Sunflowers (La Noche De los Girasoles) was not an enjoyable or very engaging interesting film but its theme is a good one. A man in the village discovers a cave and the explorers are called in to investigate if there is anything original or valuable below ground. While the husband and colleague investigate, his wife goes to wait for them to come out, with the car, taking a book to read. An aging randy commercial traveller tries to pick up a girl walking at the roadside, who we quickly learn has walked away from the car driver by her boyfriend after a row, and then he, the boyfriend persuades the girl to rejoin him. Later the men meet at a bar and the boyfriend tells the industrial vacuum cleaner salesman of a quarry business near a village where he is sure there will be interest in the product. The man follows the instructions against his better judgement and finds he has been sent to a deserted village and a deserted quarry. On his return he spots the wife of the explorer, assaults and attempts to rape her, but she manages to stab him in the hand and locks herself into the car until her husband and his colleague returns. They come across an old man who lives in the deserted village and mistaking him for the attacker he is killed in a fight and then their car breaks down as they set off to tell the police what has happened.

The village policeman is married to the daughter of the local chief of police who is due for retirement when he hopes they will be free to move to a better place, and then his wife reveals that she does not want to leave nor does her father, so when he comes across the explorers who own up to the mistaken killing he decides on a plot to hide the body of the man and pretend that he has left the village but to do so in exchange for their life savings. However the plan does not work out as the father in law's suspicions are aroused and he also decides to go along with the plot swearing everyone involved into silence and burning money that was used as a bribe. The film is shot in a different way to this chronological account of what webs we weave when we deceive and where justice is sometimes best served through silence.

The greater part of the day was spent at cricket after preparing a lunch of salmon and cucumber sandwiches and a flask of orange fruit juice. Alas there had been torrential sheeting rain the night before with pools of water all over the ground so the start was delayed until after lunch at 1.40. This provided opportunity to have a good haircut in Chester Le Street and to buy some fruit and vegetables. I had a very good afternoon of cricket with some excellent company, a regular member to one side and economist from Newcastle University on the other. The cricket was also first rate as William Smith got another 100 and captain Blenkenstein 50 before tea time and rain clouds assembled. Before leaving I enjoyed a large plate of freshly cooked chips, having earlier had a coffee and a chunky Kit Kat. On returning I went to Sunderland to Staples to buy a replacement desk chair as the existing one was falling to bits because of my weight and hard handling, however although I commenced dissembling this to fit into the car I left assembly of the new one until the following day. I had a pasta bake with a glass of wine later and some snap crackle and pop cereal before going to bed for the second time in the early hours after listening to the acceptance speeches of the Republican Party choices for the President and Vice Presidency.

Before then I attempted to grapple with the news that Kevin Keegan had found the situation impossible to cope with and had left of his own accord, apparently having negotiated a situation where he was not required to pay the club compensation. According to the Football manager's Association the main concern had been the recruitment of players he had not wanted. Because this is a company and because of the usual restrictions on non disclosure of circumstances by the parties concerned all we were given were formal statements.

On the assumption that the club is not immediately sold or Alan Shearer confirms his spokesman's comments that this is not the time for him to express an interest, I anticipate that around half the usual number of spectators will stay outside ground even though a good percentage of these are season ticket holders, particularly because it is a game against Hull. How many will protest outside the club on the day of the next game or enter and make their protest that way remains to be seen. My concern is the risk to public order that is likely to arise. The concern is that any trouble will not only affect the lives of those participating but could affect the position of the club's long term, if there is trouble within the ground. In the eyes of the majority of those who support the club and I speak with the experience of being involved in the community and with football clubs in the region for over thirty years, the Owner, the Chairman and Mr Wise will be regarded as traitors and enemies of the people. They are yet to reveal whether they are also cowards.

I am unsure what to make of the two acceptance speeches at the Republican convention. I have already expressed concern at the organised tribal behaviour of the crowd which would have made Hitler, Goebbels and Stalin proud, although it is of a similar order to partisan nature of football crowds or those attending a rock concert. and although the Republicans have controlled the White House for eight years and there was a sense they some were trying to out do the Democrats in displays of fervour and enthusiasms for the party's choice of candidates. I have two general observations to make in terms of policies and performances The approach of most of speakers at the Republication Convention was similar to that of the National Front and the United Kingdom Independence Party, with both Labour and Conservatives polices considered as being to the far left of the Democratic party. The great slogan of the two nights was USA, USA, USA, and the proposed change advocated by Senator McCain was back to right wing conservatism of Ronald Regan, and down with all liberals.

So given this back cloth what did the Governor of Alaska have to say apart from describing her family and rise to power? She was anti corruption and had taken action in this respect. She wanted political leaders to set an good example and she demonstrated this by defeating a leader in her own party who she did not believe had set a good example, selling the governor's private jet on E Bay and dispensing with paid help in the Governor's Mansion. She had declined the offer of Federal money to pay for a bridge which went nowhere, adding that if the state need a bridge the state would fund it. She was also clear on her position regarding abortion, on government expenditure and taxation in general. She would reduce both as much as practical. She was not sympathetic to the traditional ways of politics and her one objective was to serve the people of her country rather than set out to gain the support of the left wing media which appeared to cover everyone except Fox TV. On the issue of energy she was in favour of off shore exploration to reduce the period of dependence on overseas imports but which also recognised that it was essential to focus on other energy sources. She came over as strong and purposeful although a little nervous, inexperienced and overawed. I was not convinced by attempts to make her out to be an ordinary hockey mum although I have no doubt that she was one, along with hunting with her dad and the other aspects of being an ordinary person growing up in the culture of Alaska. This changed when she became Mayor and even more so when she became Governor and would change even more so when she became one heart beat away from being President.

Last night I was also up to hear what Presidential nominee John McCain had to say, and because I was tired and had to doze I watched again during Friday. So what did I make of what he had to say?

First I liked his own definition of Maverick as someone who goes their own way and I had little quarrel with most of his sentiments and beliefs about how human beings should behave and take responsibility for their own lives and of any dependents. It was also evident, as he has demonstrated in the past, that he sits uncomfortably in the adversarial political party system with his memorable statement, "I would rather lose an election than my country lose a war." No one is in a position to question his personal courage, demonstrated as a long term prisoner of war in Vietnam, My personal problem is that his political views are similar to the Conservatism of Margaret Thatcher two decades ago, before Britain became a multi culture grappling with the problems of finding its place in the ever complex world of today. Senator McCain also demonstrated his party to be hypocritical in presenting themselves as a Christian based God fearing party and then stated the new administration would cut their overseas aid to countries who did not like America very much. So there you have it, you get money not because you need it, not because it is the right thing to do, or even because it is also in the best interests of the USA, but on the basis that you pass some test of appearing to like the USA according to the defined test of a Republican Administration. Put this another way you get money if you then do what we say.

I had the impression that the Democrats were going through the obligatory motions of finishing and ending everything proclaiming that America was God's chosen country and the best in the world. This approach is not only unchristian but demonstrable nonsense and shows confusing power with moral righteousness. What was evident over the last two nights is that the Republican delegates actually believe this.

What was also evident from the filming of delegates is the disproportionate numbers of whites compared to the position of the Democratic party. However also evident is that the Republican Party represents a vast chunk of opinion in the USA which is what a democracy is all about and that there are major differences between the policies of the two parties on major issues such as the level of taxation and public expenditure, instead of the manufacturing of differences here in the UK and where moral issues and matters of conscience are not treated on party political lines. There is still some two months to go and I conclude that the outcome is still too close to call and therefore the party creatives will be desperate to find some dirt to give to the media.

1486 Silent Barricade, Newcastle Protest and some politics

My concern with the Republican Convention made me forget about the prospect of flooding in Texas from hurricane Gustav, or to check if the autumn like weather blitz we are experiencing in the UK is connected to the hurricane build up in the Atlantic. After three months where we did not experience consecutive hot days and there were only two, possibly, three spells of consecutive days of sunshine without rain, we now have torrential ain from dawn to dusk and throughout the night. Because the ground has not dried out from what happened two years ago the risk of flooding is always there and while some of the new or improved defences created from two years ago are working we are experiencing local flooding with last night two severe warnings issues and forty others placed on alert.

It rained all day yesterday, Washing out cricket at Durham, elsewhere and this morning although there is no rain at this moment more is promised which not only ruled out play today but possibly tomorrow when an important 40 40 match was scheduled.

Yesterday's rain dampened the level of protest outside the Newcastle football stadium but this did not prevent the future of the club and the impact on the region dominating local news programmes, filling the back pages of national newspapers where previous managers and players are all give their viewpoints. Because of the resignation at West Ham for similar reason this appears to have become a crucial time for the balance of power between Managers, players and the clubs, as understandably if players know that it is the owner, chairman or director of technical services who is controlling movements in and out they will talk direct and by pass managers thus further weakening their ability to manage the players and build them into a team.

While Mike Ashley the billionaire owner is alleged to be partying on champagne in New York, the most important of players in Newcastle's recent history broke silence and explained why although he would love, really love, to become the manager of Newcastle Football club he would not do so unless he was able to manage the players and just be the head coach. So far there has been only snippets of the interview with Alan Shearer which is to be shown on Saturday on BBC1 where he is already contracted as a football pundit for the weekend review of Premiership matches with highlights. What has been shown is sufficient for everyone to know that he considers the situation which Kevin Keegan found himself as unacceptable. The full interview will be shown tomorrow. There was also an interesting statement from the Football managers Association on what happened when they assisted Keegan at meetings and found they there was not one spokesperson for the club but three, presumably representing the owner, the chairman and Mr Wise, all outsiders to the club and the local population.

Clearly there is concern about how the situation will develop a week Saturday when Hull make their first visit as new entrants to the Premiership. It is important that any demonstrations inside and outside the ground are peaceful and this will be difficult with genuine protestors mingling with serious trouble makers and those wanting to protest within the stadium or just watch a game of football and the world's supports news media in attendance. My own view is that a boycott would be more effective and avoid trouble. I was unsure by what a fan's "representative" had to say in terms of everyone supporting team inside the ground unless he like me is concerned about what will happen if supporters stay outside the stadium while the targets for the protest stay away. He was accompanied at the interview by a well known vicar wearing the Newcastle shirt who previously had sang abide with me in an effort to unite everyone behind the team. My view is that only if one hits Ashley in his pocket will he decided to sell up and which in turn will lead to a new chairman and a director of technical services selected with help by the manager to ensure that they will be able to work as a team and that the manger will have the last word.

Usually they kind of story lasts a couple of days and the media move on to the next big thing, so that events at Man City or Man United only a weekend ago have become history. Conveniently the Manager of West Ham also resigned over the same issue of players bought and sold without having the final word. This is a great coincidence and smacks of the Premiership club owners having got together and developed a policy for the future designed to take control away from manager who will be renamed head coaches. Clearly something had to be done be following the scandals and allegations of Mangers and Clubs involved in bribes and back handers to secure the transfer of particular players but tit is one thing for Managers not to be directly involved in the negotiations about price and player wages and perhaps to have someone separately heading a team, identifying players to be brought into the club in the future. The situation has to change so it is time to man the barricades, metaphorically of course.

The film of the day, The Silent Barricade, a film which I can find nothing about on the internet and which looked as if it was produced during the time when Prague was part of the Russian Communist empire. The film is about the rise of the communist/trade unionist/people against the Germans towards the end of World War II creating barricades and defending them with limited weaponry with the focus on one family where both the adult daughter and teenage son join their father against his wishes and perform heroics, the sun blowing up a tank. Just when the ammunition ends and the German's bring big guns to destroy the barricades and the human resistance, they withdraw. The Russian Tanks arrive to general acclamation.

In the evening I watched the last part of the X Factor preliminaries just as a sixteen year old girl sang a version of a Damien Rice song and got herself into the next round and there was also another young women with great looks, personality and voice who struggled because after practicing for two months she had strained her throat but also impressed. In between here was he annual collection of awfuls some duly primed to behave badly. Big Brother House is reaching its ends of days after a series which failed to create the kind of public interest achieved since it was established. This time there were some redeeming features with a visually disabled participant taking the second prize and the winner a modest and kindly, but determined young woman who nevertheless will disappear from public view along with the £100000 cheque.

At last I had Saturday to look forward to, cricket at Durham if it stopped raining; the Belgium Grand Prix Formula One time trials for the last 5 places on the grid then 11 to 15th and then first ten; Andrew Murray in the Semi Final of the USA open, The Opening ceremony of the Paraplegic Olympic Games; Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England all playing in their first qualifying matches for the World Cup in 2010; and a box office Boxing night if all else fails; and of course I could receive that phone call to say I had won all or a share of the 92 million on offer in the European Lottery.

1485 Views on God and football past and present

Last night I watched a film called the Peacemaker, an action movie about nuclear terrorism starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman which turned out to be a chase movie with the usual last second between a big bang and happy ever after. The film centres on a Serb Croat who appears to lose his child and wife in fighting and raises the two hundred million dollars required to have one of the stolen bomb. I am not sure who the Peacemaker was in the film or ever is, any more.

I write this while watching a BBC film God on Trial in which a group of Jews, some due to make their journey to the gas chamber at dawn and others who will live on in the concentration camp together with the new arrivals who have arrived a day early, debate the nature of God and the significance of human life in the universe where in our galaxy there are 1000 million stars with solar systems and planets. The drama comprises a series of moving and thoughtful statements included a factual analysis of the God of the Old testament in which evil was brought upon the Egyptians including the death of their first born innocent children because the Pharaoh the King decided against letting the chosen people go, although he was not punished and only the innocent, including his soldiers who had obeyed their orders were destroyed some in horrific and prolonged ways and concludes and reminds that the God of the Old Testament was not good or just, but just powerful and on the side of the Jews. This speakers concludes that all that has happened is that God has had decided to enter into a new covenant with Hitler.

Another took a different viewpoint reminding that it was irrelevant whether God existed in the form believed by the Jewish prisoners at that moment and the issue was that the only way Hitler who had tried to make himself God could convince his people that what they were doing to the Jews was right was not just to remove their wealth, their normal clothes, their hair, their teeth fillings and their dignity and make them live in filth but make them lose their faith, and therefore they use their faith as their final act of defiance. For although the setting of their deaths was dramatic and horrific it was shared whereas for many that final moment of realization that all the trappings of life were unnecessary and of no value, except how we live and how we face those final moment of physical self awareness.

The play ends with the group of contemporary visitors who are being told the story of Jews who put God on Trial standing among the physical souls of those who died that day as they prayed for forgiveness and eternal salvation, grateful the at they had been given those few moments of awareness to make peace with themselves and each other, and as the visitors to make their way to their coach, one reminds that despite the attempt of one man and his people to eradicate a whole race, we are still here, to which I add as the belief in God, despite the many faces, often held by people in conflict with each other.

Given this film of a play the future of one football manager and one football team has to be put into the perspective of the fundamental issues and choices now and times past. It was a day in which the nice manager of West Ham, the club he played for and loved resigned on principle because he had no control over who can and who left the club, especially the decision to sell two players to Sunderland in the last days and moments of the transfer window. His departure was not greeted with anything resembling the level of protests as built up in relation to the news that Kevin Keegan had effectively been sacked by the Newcastle Chairman and Board early on Tuesday morning following meetings held the previous day for what is believed to have been a similar situation when the club not only failed to recruit the number of players he needed to meet the situation he faced because of injury and developments at other clubs, but because of the attempts to sell players including Michael Owen who would be free to leave the cub in the New Year unless he signed a new long term contract.

For me the issue is no longer whether Keegan is the right person for the present situation, or ever was, of who did what and when or did not do what they should among owner, chairman, chief executive and Director of Football and his recruiting and buying team or whether the club or Keegan initiated the confrontation. For me this issue is that he is there and should stay and be supported in the way he wants to be because the alternative not just spells disaster for the Club, and for the morale of an important community, but would mark the final death of a great public participation sport with principles, confirming my fears that in the medium and long term the arrival of the bottomless millions of an Arab state into the Premiership is a very bad thing indeed. My hope is that not only will a way be found to keep Kevin as the Manager of Newcastle United Football Team but that the vents of the past 48 hours will shock all those involved in the management and promotion of the game to think again about the direction the game has taken and decide on a different course. I think this is unlikely but the hope is there.

I first supported Sunderland Football club when I came to the North East in 1974 as the first Director of Social Services for the new local authority of South Tyneside, and where I subsequently had a short spell as Director of Social Services for Sunderland, and my work included the management of several thousand employees and an annual revenue budget of ten of millions, and although a chief officer and fellow of the British Institute of Management, I was part of a management team headed by a Chief Executive and I was also accountable to an elected Council Committee equivalent to the board of a football club and which in turn was accountable to the board of the company controlling a football club. My main function however was the statutory provision of services to the most vulnerable and needy people in society, and I believed and acted on the basis that my duty to them took priority over everything else, including my personal interests and position.

While there are significant differences between a football club and a social services department and there has been a revolution the scale and organisation of both since I was involved with the latter I suggest that there are important similarities in priorities between both types of organisation then and now with the foremost a duty to serve and protect their best interests of the customers of the respective services.

On coming to the North East, I quickly learnt that the relationship between football clubs and the whole community, as it was between the local councils and the community was very different from that which I had previously experienced having worked in a senior management positions in the field of Social Work in the North West, in Yorkshire, and in London and where during this later period I held a national position which also enabled an understanding of the variations in the provision of social welfare services throughout Britain. The best way of describing this difference between the North East and other parts of Britain where I had lived, worked and studied is to say that the within communities there were great loyalties formed through common work and its hardships, commons faiths and common social livings which were and to some extent remain tribal and were all embracing to a level perhaps only found in the coal valleys of South Wales, the coal fields and industrial areas of Scotland and in Northern Ireland. This was also so because of the extended nature of families still living on one estate or within one town and that there had been had been only limited movement of people from other parts of the UK or outside these Island since World War II and that the overwhelming majority of people lived in council provide accommodation or low cost and standard rented private accommodation also grouped in high density estates.

Football in the North East as it was in the other cities and major towns was working class supported sport where you became part of a crowd loyal to one club and where you could give way to basic emotions, shouting and singing what you felt as and when you wished.

One of my first games was at Arsenal to see Stanley Matthews play for the opposing team, some sixty years ago. I then stood on the terraces at Crystal Palace when I knew all the faces around me as during years that the club required re-election for three consecutive seasons to the former third division south. I learnt to take extra care in the 1950's when the Palace played Mill wall because the reputation of some Millwall young men. I visited other grounds in the area where I was located between leaving home and coming to the North, including Oxford City and Liverpool.

Throughout the past thirty four years I have held season tickets at both Sunderland 1975-1990 and 2007-2008 and at Newcastle 1992-2007 and for this season I had decided attend matches at both clubs selectively and to watch others live on TV, partly because of the way the Premiership had developed and partly for non football reasons. During the eighties in to the nineteen nineties, visiting other grounds on organised supporters trips or through personally arranged transport, I experienced being stoned in a coach for over half an hour by pint sized children after leaving a match at Everton, was twice on an underground train wrecked by organised gangs associated with football in London, once by a Chelsea gang attacking members of the Sunderland London supports club and the second occasion when a West Ham gang broke out of the train to attack a Chelsea gang where both clubs had been playing other teams, this was on the night of cup game between Sunderland and Chelsea when Chelsea supporters within the ground attempted to attack Sunderland supporters, on a night where I was watching with several political leaders of South Tyneside Council from ordinary seats in a stand. There were also occasions within grounds including at Tottenham where I had to run for my life despite police protection and at Arsenal where the problem involved a young policeman who lost his head and where I agreed that the matter should be handled internally by the police.

I mention these things to demonstrate that I know something of reality of being a football fan and what it means to fans and to local communities in general, especially the passion and the rivalries.
I gave up on Sunderland in the early 1990's because I no longer enjoyed going to games, not just because the team lost but because of the lack of quality in performance which I was able to compare with other teams through the increasing showing of games on television. Going to my first match at St James when Newcastle returned to the Premiership was like switching between the Catholic and Protestant religions, but it was also a revelation, and having obtained a season ticket I then had that one period which perhaps only occurs once during any lifetime, of sporting bliss, when I found it difficult to wait until the next game. For me the team winning something was secondary to that rare combination of a team which played exciting and quality football, and which also won games, a manager who was able to communicate with everyone at whatever level of society. Who else could have convinced fans that selling Andy Cole to Manchester United was a good thing? We did not like it but we took it because you said so. We also took the disappointment of not winning the league title after coming close, as we did the disappointment of losing two subsequent visits to Wembley in the FA Cup.

There was also continuing hopes of a revival back to what had been glory days with the appointment of some, but not all of the subsequent managers, but after the departure of Sir Bobby Robson there was a growing discontent and lack of confidence that the situation would improve. The ground had been developed into an all seated super stadium and the core support also changed significantly, as did the atmosphere and the cost of attending games and for several years the stadium was generally filled despite poor play and losing streaks by players who were obscenely overpaid compared to the majority of those supporting.

I say this not just on the basis of my limited contact with other supporters at the ground, but as a regular listener to the Legends

' programme on Century radio and 606 on BBC 5, as a reader of local papers and watcher of regional TV sports news and programmes. In this context I have told Messrs Slaven and Horsewell at the Legends' programme that I will never listen again to the programme following their infantile, inappropriate and offensive approach to the situation during the first hour of the programme on Tuesday evening.

There was a combination of reasons why I did not renew my season ticket for the 2007-2008 seasons at Newcastle and bought one at Sunderland instead. It had become evident since the take over of Chelsea, and the input of Sky money, that without a similar injection of funds no team could hope to play on a regular basis in the Champions League or become a serious contender for the Premiership title on a regular basis. Having the funds was an essential but not the only ingredient for success, which also included the ability to pay the wages which the best contemporary footballers are able to command. The manager/coaching/ and back up staff had to possess the ability to organize and motivate a mixed group of millionaire performers over not one but several seasons, and cope with a continuous movement of some players between clubs, as well as working with the administration of a world wide business enterprise, and satisfying the supporters which included the interests of sponsors and hospitality clients, and achieve success not just now and again, but on a continuous basis. In addition this had to be achieved by providing Sky, and now Satanta and to a lesser extent the BBC and ITV and other TV channels showing and paying for live matches, entertaining spectacles and have a manager who is a larger than life personality who could front the club and handle the wall to wall 365 24 hours media interest for news and gossip.

Only four clubs appeared to possess the funds, management structure, stadiums and supporters to sustain these requirements. Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. I regard this situation as the death knell of the Premiership and the football leagues as they are at present, because the four clubs will become divorced from the rest and become a European and ultimately world wide Championship competition, breaking away altogether from the Premiership if they risk losing their position.

Monday 31st August appeared to confirm this view with the entrance of Abu Dhabi money, and while I was delighted for Man City supporters and the Man City Club which like Sunderland has attempted to remain focused on meeting the aspirations of its core fans, I speculated how long Mark Hughes would last if he fails to deliver. I also feared for the consequences of the development in the rest of British football.

I also used to follow American Football where what impressed me was the system for buying in knew players- the annual draft- which appeared to ensure that the teams performing badly had the first pick of each round of the draft and thus over a period of time every franchise had the opportunity to play and win the Superbowl as well as heading their Division. I suspect there is now no way to achieve more of a fair playing field between teams who make it into in the Premiership and except for the top four or five the rest can only hope of making it into competitions once or twice a decade, and winning one of the two cup competitions as happened this year in the FA Cup with Portsmouth. Only a similar Injection of funds to that promised to Manchester City will enable a club to join the first rank and remain there.

The problem with Newcastle is that it became a top four and world wide brand club under Sir John Hall and Kevin Keegan, doubling its season ticket holders, and one assumes also dramatically increasing its sponsorship and sales as well as administration and support staff as well as the new super stadium, without achieving trophies let alone sustaining a position after the departure of Sir Bobby Robson. It is now entrenched as a middle to lower Premiership position club and Kevin Keegan recently expressed the reality of this to the public.

As the situation went from bad to worse since the departure of Sir Bobby, the frustration and disillusionment of the core support has intensified although everyone also puts on a bold front when in contact of supporters of Sunderland and those of Middlesbrough and at away games. It became a different situation at home games where the atmosphere became increasingly depressing to match the performances. I decided not to renew my season ticket because I did not enjoy matches and I could not see any significant and lasting change despite the arrival of a new owner and his management and administrative appointees.

I turned back to Sunderland, (who I had continued to support through televised games) after going to the new stadium and the establishment of the new ownership and the appointment of Roy Keane, because there appeared to be a significant change with an emphasis on retaining and developing the supporter base and a honest and open manager who tried to ensure that the players never forgot who they were playing for first. The atmosphere in the promotion year was a throw back to times at Newcastle a decade ago and at Sunderland three decades beforehand.

I was thrilled and delighted with the news of the return of Kevin Keegan to Newcastle as the Manager, initially assuming he had accepted the position only in the knowledge that he would have the resources and authority to rapidly move the club forward, bringing in players necessary and moving on those who could not or were unwilling to fit into the new team. The extent of the task was evident at the first match of the return, when I sat next to a father who had brought up his son from Norwich for the day as a special birthday treat and who would be returning home that evening after the game.

I was amazed by the appointment of Denis Wise after the failure to bring Alan Shearer back into the club in some managerial capacity. This is not intended to imply a criticism of Mr. Wise but I did not and do not see how such an obvious Londoner could ever become acceptable to the fans unless he was seen to produce an amazing new player or two, with Berbatov and Robinho being the two current examples. On Sunday when I went for a drink to supporters ' pub in Sunderland before game against Man City, everyone was watching Rangers play Celtic in preference to Chelsea V Tottenham, (and confirms my belief that Newcastle and Sunderland should seek to join the Scottish Premiership, just as Tyne and Wearside would be better served becoming part of an independent Scotland). I have always found the antipathy towards London clubs and Londoners as strong among Newcastle core supporters as it is towards Sunderland and donning a club shirt and supping pints as the new owner has been seen to do.
I also did not see how someone as charismatic and hands on as Kevin Keegan could work with some one devoting themselves to recruitment and transfers unless Kevin had the overall control and not the other way around.
I was also disappointed to learn that it was not the intention of the new owner to do a Chelsea which has to be done if one wants to break through the bar of getting into Europe competitions on a year in and out basis. The Bolton or Portsmouth approach can only ever involve competitive success for one year or two but cannot be sustained for a club intending to fill a 50000 seater stadium.

Part of the Newcastle brand appeal has been the ability to attract world class players able to perform in the Premiership and before the old Gallowgate. While the Gallowgate loved players with big personalities such as Malcolm MacDonald, Ginola and Tino Asprilla, they also worshipped those who score goals regardless of their media appeal such as Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Peter Beardsley. Because of his constant injury problems Michael Owen has been a great disappointment and is yet to prove himself. At present the club has no great scorer or personality players with perhaps one new signing indicating that he might become a new hero, and this situation fuelled the sense of gloom which led one passionate Toon neighbour from not renewing for the first time since reaching adulthood, although unlike me he would never switch to also supporting another club.

I suspect that like many supporters I was thrilled with the performance at Manchester United on the opening day and accepted the defeat at Arsenal in the context of Arsenal having suffered an unexpected setback the previous week. I applied to join the Members club so as to able to buy tickets in advance of the general public after the Arsenal game such was my confidence that Newcastle would have a better season subject to further transfers and the injury position.

Similarly players and supporters were mesmerized by the performance of Man City at Sunderland last Sunday, explained by the news the following day, and which I did not expect will affect the rest of the season given the purchases that have been made and the ability of the manager to motivate and organize. I would be surprised if either set of supporters expected miracles, but continued to hope for good run in a cup competition.

The circumstances which have led to the present situation between Kevin Keegan and the club are only relevant in that they will determine how a resolution can be found, however short term. The departure of Kevin for any reason at the present time could destroy Newcastle United. While this is likely to be reflected in attendances and purchases I was concerned by the depth of feeling, and not just the behaviour of the teenagers, having watched Sky throughout the day and listening to the first hour of the Legend 's programme.

As an outsider it is not easy to see a medium term solution which does not involve Kevin being given the authority and the funds to take the club to the next level.

I cannot see Mr. Ashley and his team becoming acceptable again to Newcastle supporters and the Newcastle Community unless they are willing to make it clear that Kevin has control of all football matters, including the selection of players transferring in or out of the club, subject of course to the interests of the players and their representatives. Mr. Ashley and his team will also need to make funds available enabling Newcastle to compete in the current and changing market. If Mr. Ashley is unwilling or unable to do this then he should arrange to sell his interest to someone who can.

I also wonder if there are not roles for Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer at the present time as both are able to command the attention and patience of supporters

The choice is a simple one between making Newcastle United what is likely to now become a top six club or everyone admitting that this is not going to be possible in the medium term and accepting the consequence in terms of support, wages and club income and expenditure. Newcastle United is still a worldwide brand, but without a top notch product it could quickly become another Leeds.

1484 What is going on at Newcastle United?

Recently I had a familiar dream where I found myself in a strange town seeking a bus which would get me in the direction I needed to travel although not completely home, uncertain of which bus stop and the direction to take I went for stop to stop only to see the bus I required leave from a different location and then discover that this was the last of the day, there was no train or taxi service and I was marooned. There was no panic or fear just inconvenience and irritation that the people are had asked for help claimed ignorance or just ignored.

This morning there was no such dream and I awoke contentedly around 8am, started to write, made myself an coffee and two slices of toast, determined to start on a house and to attend to other practical matters and some project work. I switched on the TV for the news channels including Sky Sports News to learn the reaction to the events of yesterday and early on, I cannot remember the precise time, that there was news that Kevin Keegan had been called to a meeting with the Newcastle Board. There was a photo of Terry McDermott taking a phone call or making a phone call at the training ground. So for the first part of the morning the impression was that Kevin had walked out of the club as he did not return to the training ground, and this was because of a disagreement with the board, presumed to be over the buying and selling of players following injuries to key existing members of the team. There is also believed to have been a disagreement over the future of Joey Barton and whether he should be sold should the opportunity arise during the transfer period. I also wondered about the position of Michael Owen.

By early afternoon Sky were reporting that Kevin Keegan had been sacked by the board. Only later when the club issued a statement on their internet site saying he had not been sacked did Sky confirm that Keegan had told his friends that he had been sacked.

During the afternoon various young people and some not so young assembled by the ground calling for the Owner and the Director of Football to resign. There were hundreds if not thousands of emails and texts delivered to the Sky from season ticket holders and supporters saying they would not set foot in the ground if Keegan left while Ashley and Wise remained in position. Several well known former players including John Beresford expressed their concern, explained that the departure of Keegan would be disastrous for the club. He, at least I think it was who appealed to those involved to resolve their differences for the future good of the club.

By late afternoon a promised statement from the club had not been issued and it was early evening before a statement was made, not to the press, but on the club internet site. This said that Kevin had not been sacked and that the club wanted him to continue with the club as manager and pursue the strategy to progress the club. Thus the statement did not say that he would continue and there has been no word from him or his friends since.

In the evening I switched to the Newcastle Legends and I was shocked by the attitude of Bernard Slaven and Mick Horsewell. Their attitude and behaviour was infantile and totally inappropriate for the situation. They tried to retrieve their position during the programme by saying they had a lot of regard for Kevin Keegan and the fans but they clearly had lost the plot. Only Malcolm MacDonald appeared to realise the gravity of the situations and its potential implications. Later I wrote to him to explain why I would never listen to the programme again and also explained to Messrs Slaven and Horsewell my reasons for adopting the position.

I awoke eightish on Wednesday to a spokesman for the professional managers association explain that Kevin had been in touch with them last night and that he had not resigned and that it there would be talks between the club, Kevin and respective advisers over the next days to try and resolve issues of mutual concern. The attempt to sell Michael Owen and Joey Barton by the Board using Mr Wise is reported to have been the catalyst as well as the overall situation where Keegan found he had no control, and little power over which players came to club and which left. The root cause appears to be that the club was being run foremost as a business when Keegan was being used as front expect to motivate whatever players were available to win, without regard to what could be expected in today's market. Keegan a man of integrity and love for the club and its supporters realised he could go no further and attempted to change the position and the board in turn created a situation to force him to leave tantamount to constructive dismissal. This is the way the situation is now being presented.

How far this was with the prior approval of the owner Mike Ashley who likes to stand on the terraces wearing a shirt King Kevin and was caught on camera at Arsenal downing a pint, which he afterwards said he thought was non alcohol lager, may never become known as usually in such a situation there is a confidentiality undertaking entered when the situation is agreed. This is usually because of the financial settlement reached. However I cannot see Kevin, the league managers Association, the players, the supporters or local media and media in general being prepared to accept such a situation and it is evident that those involved now face the starkest of choices. If Keegan stays then this will only be on his terms in that he will need to be told how much money is available for new players and then it his responsibility and his alone to spend that money in terms of players in and layers out whoever actually conducts the deals and sorts out the legal and financial equipments of the Premiership and company law. There is no other acceptable alternative. If Keegan departs then I will join anyone and everyone to organise a boycott of the club until ownership changes hands and the present administration is replaced. I would be surprised if I was not joined by thousands, if not tens of thousands of others. The choice is therefore simple.

1483 Keegan leaves Newcastle

September 1st and 2nd will go down in the history of British Football and Newcastle United as a day of infamy. I begin by saying that if Kevin Keegan leaves the club as is presently forecast in the media I will not set foot in the club again, even if someone like Alan Shearer or a world known Football manager is appointed while Mike Ashley remains the owner and Denise Wise remains at the club. Both have to go regardless of what happens now. I also want to know if the Abu Dhabi investment company attempted to buy the Newcastle Club and if so why was the offer rejected. Whatever the outcome of this particular matter there were three other developments which will have a profound effect on the future of the game not just in England and Wales but on the sport in the rest of Europe.

There was nothing to indicate anything of what was to happen as I made my way on Sunday to a seat on the front row a little distance from the centre line. It is an interesting position to experience football, similar to the view of managers and coaches and where you have no perspective ..s and combination of moves. However you feel very much part of the game which is difficult sitting even midway in a stand, let alone towards the back. You also get a different perspective on the rest of the stadium especially those at the rear of top decks very distance. I found the first 40 odd minuets satisfactory as Sunderland held a fired up and exceptionally well organised Manchester Team. Sunderland had the problem of the mix of new and old players and the threat of new signing Shaun Wright Phillips but Sunderland held them well and overall a nil nil score at half time would have been a fair result. Then against the run of play Manchester scored a soft goal and to compound this it commenced to rain and sitting in line with the edge of the roof was little protection. I therefore rushed to get my self and a packet of crisps but still found myself part of a long queue and had to take the coffee with him as the game recommenced. What happened was a great disappointment as instead of taking command the team succumbed to persisted attacks from Man City and it was only a matter of time before a second and then a third goal was scored and it looked as if worse was to follow. I have not witnessed a more convincing demolition by any team this season so far. To make things even worse it commenced to rain more heavily and I was soaked by the time I reached the car with water pouring off my face.

Back home I consoled myself soup, and instead of salad went for the last prepared pasta dish. I spent the rest of the evening on project work and uploading on my space the majority of the photographs taken during recent trip to London creating two 101 sets. I must add those of Oxford and others of London in the near future.

I awoke early on Monday on what appeared to be bright day and put out the bin and box of recycling material. There was a continuing problem with the garage door so I took the precaution of taking out the car and then managed to close the door. I decided to sort this out either later in the day or as soon as practical. There was news on the progress of hurricane Gustav reported on yesterday and on transfer and then the bombshell, the investment arm of the Royal Family of the Arab Emirate state Abu Dhabi had entered into an agreement with the owner of Manchester City to take over the finances and control, and provide finances to enable the team to with the Premiership and the European Cup.

Before commenting on this development I did my research on the Emirate which the largest and most wealthy of the Emirates, significantly more important than Dubai. It has a small resident population which are one the wealthiest on the planet about the size of the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland and has 86% of the land areas of the United Arab Emirates.

If anyone has any doubt that the purchaser of the club have bigger financial clout than the Russian owner of Chelsea then one has to look at three of their recent investments. The University of New York is one the most important private funded Universities in the USA with 40000 students and with study facilities in London Florence, Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Accra, Shanghai, and Singapore with new facilities in Tel Aviv and Buenos Aries. There is now to be a campus in Abu Dhabi city, the first of its kind to be established abroad by any US research university and one which has 31 Nobel Prize winners over the years and well as a host of other research awards.

The second is the decision to build a new motor racing track as part of a theme park called Ferrari World and which is hosting a race in the Formula 1 World series championship

The third is the world renowned Cleveland complex of hospital and health resources known as the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio and which is to provide a world class speciality hospital in Abu Dhabi which will open in 2010.

Closely following on this news came the unbelievable news that the club had been given the funds, in advance of the formal take over in order to place bids for two of the most well known players known to be seeking moves Berbatov who wanted to leave Spurs for Manchester United and Robinho, the Brazilian super star who wanted to leave Real Madrid.

There were then developments where the background is becoming known. The first concerns the role of Manchester United in the sale from Spurs of Berbatov and who had set his heart on moving to Manchester United. It is not possible say precise sequence of events except that Spurs issued a statement that they had not given permission to Manchester United to speak to Berbatov about a transfer and only after the deal was completed just before the end of the transfer period did Spurs issue a statement to say that as a consequence of the deal they would not be complaining about the Man U conduct to the Football Association.

Spurs also issued a statement to say they had accepted the offer of Man City for Berbatov and that it was up to him to agree personal terms. However Sky then reported that the manager of Manchester United had gone to the airport to greet Berbatov who had travelled up in a private jet and was taken to the training camp where he was given a two hour medical and then came to the Manchester United Club to agree personal terms and for the registration as Man U player to be put through the system.

I have sympathy with Berbatov who came to Premiership and performed brilliantly scoring a goal every two games and who in his two seasons at Spurs achieved what few arrivals from other leagues have been able to accomplish. He set his heart on playing for Manchester United because he believed it was the best club in the world and he wanted to play in European competitions and win trophies.

I also have sympathy for Spurs who wanted to keep their match winning player. It is the conduct of Manchester United that should be investigated whether Spurs are happy or not. The responsibility of the Association is everyone involved i.e. the professional players, the clubs but also the supports and this includes those of Spurs.

Then came the news that Real Madrid had decided to cut their losses as Brazilian Robinho had made it plain he wanted to leave to leave the club and Spain and wanted to go to Chelsea. It is understood that when he heard about the offer from Man City which topped that from Chelsea said whatever as long a he could go regardless of the club in question and where it was located. He had threatened to retire from the game if he could not move. I share in the delight of Man City a club that is well run with decent prices and where the fans have been long suffering having faced third division level football for a period and always living under the shadow of Manchester United.

I am also delighted that at last Chelsea will not be able to buy its way into positions and titles without competition but what the development means is that it will be impossible for anyone else to complete unless they are backed by those prepared to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in players, regardless of the financial return. It is reported that Robinho has been offered a contract worth £160000 a week £90000 after tax.

There are now eight of the Premiership clubs owned by non British interests including three American and two Russian all prepared to invest substantial funds. There are now two from the Middle East although Al Fayad at Fulham is firmly British based and one for Iceland or is it Norway. Arsenal who used Emirates money for their new stadium have been the subject of take over speculation but this is the first time someone has come in bought up a minor club albeit with a long tradition and substantial fan base come hell or high water and promised to make them top of the heap within a few years and appears to be doing so for the challenge and the desire to do excellence. I worry about the impact on fans and on the further escalation in seat costs. Some £500 million is said to have changed hands over player transfers.

All this distracted me from Durham Cricket Club as they played Hampshire at the Rosebowl, stripped of all the extra seating and the hospitality facilities in an important Pro 40 match which would end under the excellent floodlighting noted when I attended the 20 20 final

's day. This was to be my area of interest to day but alas it was quickly evident that Durham would lose after Hants won the toss of the coin, decided to bat first and commenced a ferocious assault on Durham's bowling ending their overs with a score of 300 hundred runs. Durham opened badly in an effort to score runs quickly as the weather forecast was of heavy rain. Sadly although the rain came it stopped, enabling a reduced over game to continue and Durham continued to lose wickets without anyone being able to score runs which would make the result close. As with the County Championships they are still in with a chance as they have a game in hand but I fear that the earlier defeats in the Provident Trophy and the 20 20 finals days, coupled with Steve Harmison's recall to England has taken its toll and they no longer look the tight and confident team of earlier in the season. They lost badly and I saw little of the game as a consequence
I had been tempted to stay up to watch Andrew Murray play in a last sixteen in the New York Open but was too tired. He won what may well become regarded as the most important game of his career to-date moving on to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day I shopped at Asda buying bread, salad and fruit. Sardines previously four for £1 were not 2 for £1 although there were cheaper versions available. I also bought a tin of anchovies. A small tin costs 74p. I was prompted to try a tin, usually only eating anchovies stuffed into olives after listen to a special programme about the fish. Apparently those caught in the Bay of Biscay are the best quality although there are 100 versions with a large quantity off Japan and South America. One major restaurant has created a dish of pieces of toast topped with anchovies which you dip into custard. Weird.

I bought a small pack of beef cut for stir fry which had been reduced in price and was excellent value providing two servings. One I had for lunch and the other I froze for another time. Talking of value I was charged £2.50 for a cup of coffee and a packet of crisps at Sunderland who also charge 5.50 for fish and chips and where the chips comprise a small portion of French fries for £190. Durham offers a large plate of proper chips for £1.50. I also bought some more frozen vegetables and pasta meals in the morning but no cheese, salami or ham.

After lunch I decided to sort out the problem of the garage door and to visit the firm which provided the replacement electric mechanism. They are located on an industrial estate near Albany Village Washington. As mentioned previous writing Washington was a new Town created from various villages between Sunderland and Chester Le Street on the way to Durham City. Each community is separated by a major road network and open land and associated with each residential and local shopping area there are individual and commercial enterprise designed to provide local work opportune units. Finding the form was not as difficult as expected as heading for Albany Village, clearly marked after leaving the first A1M turning into Washington, which was he first bonus, the industrial estate was also marked as the village was approached. Before turning into the estate I noted a sign to Bolden and speculated where this road might lead. At the firm an assistant contacted a manager who advised that the problem was battery which cost only a few pence at car store but provided one. On return home the original remote worked so I am yet to use the replacement battery, having no need to go out today. I was pleased with the way I had handled the situation and that the solution had not proved expensive. I have worked hard on project work while keeping one eye on the TV and one ear to the radio. I assumed that after the excitement of the football developments Tuesday would be a quiet day when I could write, commence some house cleaning and more project work In some respects it became even more of an emotional day glued to the TV and Radio as the news broke that Kevin Keegan was leaving the club after a dispute with the owner and then that he has been sacked.

1482 British politics and Hurricane Gustav

9.40 am Tuesday 2nd September. So much has taken place over the past three days that I feel the need to write about that I am having to merge the work of three days into three parts, trying to create a meaningful perspective for myself. I suspect the most significant will prove to me the release of a Guardian newspaper article designed to put the British Prime Minister and his government under pressure just before measures are announced today to try and soften the effects of world economic turn down before the Political Party conferences. The news as presented by the rest of the media was the Chancellor had said Britain was facing the worst economic situation for sixty years. In fact he said the world was facing the worst economic slow down for sixty years and that Britain was better placed than most countries to cope because of the measures that had been taken by the Treasury and government over the past decade. Secondly he admitted that the British public had turned against the party and it was proving difficult to reverse the situation He could have added the British media never like good news, preferring scandal, dissent and problems, and at times become hysterical and out of proportion to the actual situation, although as a consequence that they can have a significant effect on how events turn out.

However there is no smoke without fire and the significance of what the Chancellor had to say was how he said it, using words regarded as intemperate in terms of the nature of his job. This may have be no more than a man relaxed going on holiday and having a break form all the pressures that had been placed on his shoulders over the past year as a consequence of decisions taken by the Prime Minister when Chancellor and then as head of the Government. It may be that the Chancellor was trying to break out of his image as Mr Cool and Boring and to ensure that the Prime Minister if he planned to move the Chancellor in the forecast reshuffle promoted him, for example replacing David Miliband thought to be after the job of the Prime Minister, rather than push him into some minor position in the government pecking order or dropped him to back backbenchers all together. Either way the domestic political news was overshadowed by three other events.

The most significant for Saturday, continuing through to later last night British time, was the nature of hurricane Gustav and the misunderstanding and at times ignorance of some British media journalists (and I include myself in this respect) about the significance of hurricane strengths with one 1 the first degree of wind speed to 5 the highest but which only one of three factors in terms of potential threat. The second and what proved the major factor affecting New Orleans was the combination of the height and the force of the sea surge. Too high and it would over flow the wall barriers designed to prevent the flooding of below sea level New Orleans, but if this was combined with force then barriers could be breached as happened with Katrina. The third factor is rainfall which is prolonged and intense to cause widespread flooding in its own right and where in the instance of Gustav the assessment was flooding would occur inland in Texas.

Last time there were various criticism because the President had appeared to react late, viewing the devastation by plane, that insufficient work had to been done to create defences, that the emergency response was in adequate and biased against the poor black residents and this lead to the resignation of the Federal Emergency services agency FEMA chief and that there was also insufficient action to prevent looting among those who stayed.

There was also the complication that the hurricane was due to hit landfall just as the Republican convention was getting underway with a keynote speech from the President Bush. For once everything went right. President Bush no doubt encouraged by the Party strategists and the Republican candidate cancelled his appearance and went to the joint interstate command centre in Texas to hear listen to reports on the situation from those involved (with media present) and to be able to congratulate everyone and therefore each other on the preventive action taken. This also kept Bush away from the Convention signalled that the Presidential Candidate was going to be his own man and not a clone of Bush as the Democrats had charged during their Convention.

Secondly the Mayor New Orleans and the State Governor of Louisiana had ordered preventive evacuation and some two million citizens had moved out of the areas likely to be affected, the majority going to relatives and accommodation under their own steam but others transport by the state and federal resources to special shelters in safe areas. This did involve at least three deaths in the movement of elderly from hospitals but this although tragic was minor compared to what happened with Katrina, but even so there would be investigation to ensure that all reasonable steps had been taken. In order to limit the damage and give New Orleans a long teem future some thirteen billion dollars is being spent although I do not know if this is just on New Orleans or the while area. I say this because however important New Orleans is as a city to the American economy this is only part of the significance of the area playing a crucial part the economy through the production of off shore oil and its distribution. Only a quarter of the work on replacement and extended defences has been completed in a programme which will take another three years. My understanding that this is why over 50000 citizens of New Orleans have still not been able to return to their home in the industrial area of the city because of fears that they would not be safe in the event of another major hurricane.

The third approach was to declare a curfew and bring substantially more security personnel to prevent looting or detain those who attempted to do so, with thousand more on standby if the city and other areas became devastated.
A question mark still remains about the future of New Orleans as a city but my impression that all the right things were done and worked and that had a different President and other political leaders been in charge, they could not have organised things better.

Yesterday I commenced to write about the weekend and these are my opening notes.

17.00 1st September 2008 and activity. The great scheme of things and my life little of anything will be remembered but for it was a time when I coped well with small difficulties and changed plans to meet several unexpected situations

17.30 I broke from the writing to check on the progress of hurricane Gustav. Earlier a BBC interviewer probably encouraged by her editor/producer, backroom team challenged a representative from the national hurricane centre whether the fact that the storm was downgraded from level 5 to level 2 merited the precautions which had been taken. I hate this kind of alleged news reporting and those responsible for it. One can imagine the situation. The forecast of the greatest storm of all time moving towards an devastated and still not recovered and where the renewal programme for New Orleans alone was only three billion dollars completed out of the planned thirteen million expenditure, mind boggling amount but necessary given that this is the area crucial to the production and distribution off oil/petrol gas for the whole of the United States. Immediately news people without an understanding what is involved for individuals and official and the supervising politicians, licking their lips about another visual and emotional horror with the prospect of also being able to criticise the politicians and officials over the lack of prevention measures and how the storm is then handled. So when not understanding whether a storm is downgraded from hurricane level 5 to 2 is only a matter of degree in terms of wind force and does not effect sea surges which was the problem in New Orleans or rain force quantity which can and is likely to cause major flooding inland, the issue becomes did you over react not under-react. The interviewee dealt with questions with diplomacy but force. I felt sorry for the reporter but not for those who briefed her without doing their research. Not good enough BBC. Give the number of deaths already caused in Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean and the number made homeless

At present water is coming over the canal in the industrial zone where 67000 people have been unable to return because the threat remained until all the new defences were completed but the walls have not been breached although two ships did lose their mornings.

It will be interesting to see if British and USA media now give praise or ignore the fact that the Federal and state administration got its act together and took appropriate preventive action in the face of a major natural phenomenon, although there will also be those who will look for any opportunity to publicise mistake and criticism.

There is already a good example of this in that it has been revealed that the seventeen year old daughter of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is pregnant has decided to keep her child and marry the child's father is due course. This has become a major political issue as to whether it shows some weakness in the candidate and weakens the moral authority of her position. What is behind these attacks is the fear by those within the republican party that in choosing a woman with right wing views akin to Margaret the Party could swing more right and than centre left as they hoped under Senator McCain and individual Democrats and their financial backers will fear that the Republicans have established a stronger team than their own. It is the scum face of party politics and it will get worse as the campaign progresses.

I will leave until the next writing my first football match of the new football season and the extraordinary events of yesterday when first the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Royal family bought the British Football Club Manchester City and then paid some 40 million Euros to but one of the regarded best strikers in the world from Real Madrid one of the top ten world football clubs, out bidding what has been the British wealthiest Football cub Chelsea owned by a Russian. This has very bad implications for the other football clubs, especially those which I support, but will have an extraordinary impact on the City of Manchester and on relations between Britain and the Arab World. However I will now include what happened prior to arrive at the Sunderland ground for the match.
8 am Sunday 31st August. I awoke after a reasonable night and going to bed late for what I hoped was going to be an enjoyable waiting Sunderland Live in the afternoon at 3pm. I finishing writing as early as I could with breakfast of toast bread and a hot drink. I then commenced the uploading of photographs of my visit to London and the visit the Millennium Dome 02, the speed launch trip and the embankment walks before commencing to eat the stir fry of pork roast chopped into chunks with the usual ingredients, an onion, a salad pepper, a courgette and some small French beans with their end chopped as these were beginning to fade. For noodles I used the second pack of Sharwood's prepared Thai ribbon noodles which only need ninety seconds in the microwave, or cooked direct in the pan. The portion of the meal was too big and I promised that I would reduce this on Monday and in the future.

Written10. 00 pm Sept 1st re 11 am August 31st I had look forward to attending my first life football of the season with Sunderland at home to Man City who had bought Shaun Wright Phillips back from Chelsea but only when getting the ticket ready realised that my seat was in row 1 not L which meant it was likely to be at the front which would give a new perspective, one I could not remember experiencing before. There would also be a problem if it rained

There had been some sun and the air felt good when I went to check but as I eat the lunch there was low cloud cover and as I drove toward Lidl's supermarket around 12.30 I could see that it was set mist rolling over the coast but not the cold moist kind and it still felt warm as I went from car into the store for milk and tins of salmon. I had eaten the last of the salami and the cheese. I also decided not buy processed ham given the recent information about that and comparing to cured ham, although I am not a great fan of cured ham either. It was going to have to be fish all the way or a plain salad, perhaps with chicken in the week when I did not have roast chicken for Sunday lunch followed by chicken stir fry. I had an umbrella and additional wet weather clothing in the car and would decide on reaching car parking. Although it was later than anticipated. There were three or four spaces available in my preferred area behind the bus station close to the Catholic Church.

Testing the feel of the weather again I made the first big mistake of the weekend and decided to leave the wet weather clothing and the umbrella in the car. It was a stupid emotional decision on the basis that to prepare for wet weather would increase its likelihood and vice versa.

13.45 31st August. Written at 11pm to midnight 1st September and revised 11 am September 2nd. I make my way towards the ground and on impulse decided to visit Keano's a dinky small pub in the shadow of the three story Victorian Wheatsheaf at the corner of the Newcastle Road and the junction leading towards Roker and Seaburn, with opposite the main road to the Football Ground and towards Washington. This grand public house was converted into a Casino night club fro several years until the new Casino opened in a purpose designed building which included the new car park opposite the new Multiscreen cinema. As I went on to the ground I discovered that the Wheatsheaf has reopened. And is back as a pub with security staff at the door. This is bound to affect the day to trade of Keano's which is now up for sale. Keano's is not the smallest pub in the land but is close comprising a small area before the bar where there is an old fashioned projection screen where it is difficult to see the action. There is a poll table now covered by a plain wooden board upon which drinks are placed and spilt and on the wall a good size TV screen which instead of showing the Southern premiership game there was the sectarian clash between the Protestant and Unionist supporters of Rangers and the Catholic and Republican supporters of Celtic, although both clubs have spent decades trying to eliminate the sectarianism by buying players from all over the world and of all religions. The Irish origin or related or politically connected drinker inside the pub showed their allegiance as Rangers scored two brilliant goals to go three one up before I left, the game ending four two. At Keano's I was able to get the only available seat to one side of the Pool table where three old men sat in two leather settees incongruous given the rest of the furniture in the pub. I ordered half a pint of Fosters and enjoyed twenty minutes of the televised game. Three police men entered the pub through one door and out of the second to check everything was in order. A feature of the pub is that dozens of Sunderland supporters congregate here on match days, drinking and talking football in the roadway outside and under the covered pavement. This is not a problem as this end of the road has no exist into the busy Newcastle Road and separate bus lane and stop adjacent. However it could be if Manchester City or other visiting supporters had come by car and also found a car parking space in the area around this another pub closer to the Catholic church. It is time to clean the ground floor of the house and have lunch and then write the Blog on the extraordinary events of the last transfer day of the new Football season.

1481 Films and reflections

Saturday 30th August has been a non day, mostly of my own making. It was a day lacking in energy and enthusiasm, with an hour's sleep during the afternoon.

There was one moment of brightness and even then I managed to turn a discovery into potential disaster, given its triviality in the great scheme of things, given what has been discussed over recent days.. I begin with this because it has had a satisfactory ending. On my recent visit to London I was upset that I had been unable to photograph the statuesque figures posed by young men and women along the embankment as I had made my way to London Bridge Station after attending the free concert at the Royal Festival Hall. I have seen such figures before, usually around Leicester Square. They require considerable expenditure to cover the body, clothing and skin in such a way and then to stand motionless for periods perhaps only responding when someone delivers an appropriate coin. What had surprised me with the number of the young people involved and the variation in subjects. The atmosphere was truly magical and not one which I had experienced in London before, since perhaps my youth and visiting the world of Jazz clubs in and around Soho as a teenager.

I had been taking photographs using the memory stick on my digital movie camera for the earlier trip to the Dome development at Greenwich and to see the new digital film experience of Journey to the centre of the world and then moved to the Royal festival Hall for the free concert in the early evening. I could have then journeyed by underground to Soho in an attempt to recapture some of my feelings from that time, or travelled to Victoria for a train back to East Croydon and to write up what had been a very interesting day especially the great boat trip at speed between stops and the sights along the river bank which were so different from when the trip was made before. It was a warm and sunny evening with several hundred young people assembled outside enjoying an early evening drink or walking along the river so my first instinct was to visit the book sellers outside the Heyward Gallery, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the National Film Theatre, stopping awhile to watch the youngsters on their skateboards under the concrete supports of the main building structures, and once also used for the homeless, the drunks and the druggies. An then I spotted the first of the statuesque which I had photographed only to find that the photos were not on the memory stick when I return to the Travel Lodge and transferred the photos to the laptop computer. I had remembered stopping by the booksellers to check the position after the finding that the memory stick was full with only 150 photos taken having unintentionally used the remaining space for another 150 by switching to film record. The odd aspect is that I had then photographed the statuesque and back at the Travel Lodge I had assumed that I had forgotten the problem with the memory stick. I therefore decided to return to the embank on the Saturday before going to the concert at the Royal Albert Hall and had been disappointed that despite even greater crowds there were no statuesque's and only one entertainer had been encountered at a different location.

Then to-day I decided to photograph completed sets while watching Newcastle play badly and lose heavily at Arsenal and got the second memory stick as I had used the first for photos of my patio plants as they approached the end of their season. This also registered that some 100 photos had been taken. What were they. Loo, they were those of the statuesque figures revealing that I must have found the second memory stick. The feature of memory sticks I have never understood is that they contain channels and that if one is used regularly it appears to switch between channels progressively only showing when new and then increasing to two, three and four. This is irritating because one then has to check each channels to find the most recent photos and it is has not been unknown for a switch between channels during one shoot. I can only assume that when I checked both memory sticks on the Friday evening that I had missed the channel on which the photos had been stored and remained over the days since returning. It was a wonderful find so I divided to immediately transfer to the location with the photos and then create new files under My Photos in order to create two new series of 101 photos for MySpace. This involved reviewing each photo, dividing them into the two series one exclusively the river and views from the speed launch and the other of the Dome area, the statuesque and other river bank shots. This took time as I also attempted to then place the photos in some kind of order. Then to my late night hotter I could not find the file containing those of the river transferred from the main file and I assumed I had managed to delete after going through all the main photograph files and then the document files and then those on the computer not once but twice. I became tired and was ready for bed but continued knowing that I would not rest having made the discovery and then lost some of the more important shots taken from the launch, and then I found it tucked away in another file and which had been overlooked on the two previous searches. It was time for bed but I was able to go content, to a point, but annoyed with myself for not checking properly on the original Friday evening or subsequently and then for getting into such a pickle after discovering them now. Needless to say I did not photograph the completed set work or watch the film which had also been an intention.

I did watch two other films. 10.50 Apocalypse was not a two part four hour epic I had seen before. I tend to the view that once you have seen one disaster epic you have seen them all, unless the latest technology creates a different experience and certainly I look forward to seeing what is accomplished using the 3 D dimension. This film was worth staying with in order to see the scale and nature of destruction which includes the breaking of the Hoover Dam, a Volcanic explosion in Sun Valley and the destruction of Las Vegas as everything sinks below the surface. The cause of these events in a sudden movement of the plates beneath the earth surface and which created the original continental break up and drift. The proposition of the film is something causes the dramatic sudden reversal of the drift with the outcome of changing the geography of the States with disastrous consequences for the populations of the area involved, the western plains and mountains although by the time the first part ended there was an accelerating movement into the central states. I am unable to say if the area between California and Philadelphia becomes a great lake because the second part is not being shown until Sunday afternoon when I shall be at the football. I was surprised to find a review on the On Line Film Critics Society by Scott Weinberg in 2006 which provided the information that this is a follow up to 10.50, an earlier epic. I thought the President was a familiar face and he also revealed that it is Beau Bridges. I was truly amazed that the President appeared to have personal knowledge of the heads of the Federal agencies involved in the film given that on any one day there are some four hundred Federal agencies at work in addition to those at State. It is because there are so many interests cutting across the departments of Cabinet members, those run by the Congress and those by individual States that ensuring there is in fact a common approach and a chain of command when civil emergencies take place, I sat this as the latest major hurricane of the season appears to heading in the direction of New Orleans again, which if is the situation will be interpreted by some religious groups as God giving Bush and the Republican administration a chance to redeem themselves after the last disaster, and enabling the public to include the event in their assessment before voting in November. The whole things lasts 169 minutes and be a good reviewer the writer omits to reveal how the things ends as if we did not know that the man rejected by the agency because his theories were too wild comes to the rescue and provides his daughter now the Presidential Chief Adviser with the solution, but is this before after half of he USA turns into a great lake.

I also watched for the second time in memory, the Man who knew too Little the Bill Murray 1997 comedy caper in which in unknowingly, the original American innocent abroad, prevents world war three breakout as he singled handedly prevent a plot between elements in the Kremlin and While Hall London from blowing up the Russian President and British Prime Minister, from signing a midnight peace accord to end the cold war. You get the spirit of this film when I say that the Russian hitman is called Boris the Butcher Blavatsky (Alfred Molina) and that one of his assistants specialist torturer is Dr Ludmilla Kropotkin, while Richard Wilson plays Sir Roger Daggenhurst and Johns Standing Gilbert Embelton the two British Whitehall plotters.

Only few days after taking out membership of Newcastle Club enabling priority ticket buying before the general public and on the day the club had sold James Milner, a moderate winger, for £12 million to Aston Villa where he had been on loan in a previous season, I watched in a horror show in which Arsenal played brilliantly after their debacle against Fulham the previous week. The next few days will show whether Newcastle is again in serious trouble as the new player buy period comes to an end and the auction between clubs for the best players and potential best players closes until the New Year. I like the look of what Sunderland and the Boro have done to-date but as for Newcastle alas all is woe again.

I only managed to catch the end of Last Choir standing and will watch the two programme son video, but I did enjoy a Morse which I had no memory off although I cannot imagine I have not seen before about the machinations at the top of an Oxford College with its high powered connections in Whitehall.

I had a pork roast with roast potatoes for lunch and a vegetable pasta for tea with a glass of red wine, two lots of toasts, a couple of cups of tea, one of coffee, the second portion of fresh pineapple and a can of rice pudding eaten cold from the tin and tea time snack of two slices tomatoes with olives dripping in olive oil.

The previous evening I had watched Cornelia Parker, the installation artist whose work was one of those which had great impact when I visited Tate Modern for the first time, introduced the architectural programme about modern China and its impact on the future of the planet, before a film about the bipolar Nina Simone whose records three Long Plays I had once managed to find in a Woolworths sale for between 10 and 20 pence or 5 to 10 cents today.

I also completed some research on the present structure and working of the American presidential a Federal system but will need to read thoroughly before claiming to have a better knowledge, but it does confirm my understanding that President although having import executive roles is nevertheless firmly influence by his party and its funders, his cabinet and their departments and agencies, by his personal Whitehouse administration and that of the Vice President, by Congress and by the Governors and their administration of the individual States. Given the limited time available in each day the extent to which a President can become involved in any issue will be defined and will be limited. The individual is not just a figurehead, a concept and a symbol as the Queen or King of Britain has become but will have les power to directly change a country than everyone appears to be hoping for in the current election.

1480 Luther King, Mandela, Obama and their dreams

Forty Five years ago to Martin Luther King II addressed two hundred and fifty thousand people in Washington with his "I have a dream" speech and at 3 am British Time on Friday part of that dream was realised when Barack Hussein Obama formally accept the nomination of the Democratic Party off the United States of American to be its Presidential candidate in the November 2008 election. That was history in the making for millions of Black and Hispanic Americans. It remains to be seen if for the rest of the USA is prepared to swallow painting the White House Black.

Barack Hussein Obama and his Convention and campaign planner did all that they could to both exploit the significance of the day and to distance themselves from the racial aspects so that Martin Luther King III was asked to speak early on rather than prior to the nomination acceptance speech of Senator Obama who only referred to the American Icon on a par with Nelson Mandella, after he had explained himself, confronted Republication criticism outlined his programmed and ended with the revivalist fervour for which Luther King was noted. His message was clear, I am black, I am the dream, but this is today, with today's problems where the future of America is at stake and where racism, sexism and partisan politics will only handicap us and prevent our survival as a great economic and military power.

Around twelve hours later the Republican Party attempted to upstage the Democratic Party by appointing a woman unknown outside of Alaska as the Vice Presidential candidate, albeit a right wing woman whose first speech indicated Margaret Thatcher, Mark Two. So what will Americans and the rest of us make of all this and in reality does it really matter which Party holds the Presidency and which individual it does not.

All the candidates are referring to the need for change and what the main problems confronting the USA and the rest of capitalism are- the economic down turn and credit crunch, resulting is loss of jobs and jobs insecurity and lowering wages, the escalation in house prices brought to a dramatic halt, with repossessions and difficulties raising the finance to enter into the market or move homes to get work or improve employment positions. There is concern about no having enough energy to sustain the existing general standards of livings and concern about the thereat from international terrorism. Then there are the secondary issues concerning the need for good child rearing and good education and appropriate health services when we get sick and become old. Only when the problems facing the majority are effectively tackled do we want to allocate more resources to dealing with the underclass of those who do not want to work, are unable to work regardless of job availability and who are unrepentant and persistent criminals. Yes we should do all we can to prevent their children from continuing anti social behaviour but finding solutions to help the majority has to be our priority, and this applies especially to the problems and needs of other nations unless it is clearly in our direct interests to help them.

The problem is not Russia or the Middle East conflict between Muslim and Jew and Muslim and Christian, the problem is that of the one thousand three hundred million population of China in the midst of quadrupling its economy within the next twenty five years, building four hundred million new homes and one thousand new cities as it transforms from an agricultural peasant economy into a USA type industrial one and does so without the limitations and constraints of the democratic process. In the short term this provides great additional profits for international corporations and, international fixers and financiers because the costs of energy and food will escalate but in the medium term it will destroy the planet if the present use of natural resource energy continues, because all available supplies will be used up and level of pollution and climate change will also escalate. China has the intention to only double its energy use instead of quadrupling as would be normal in terms of its economic expansion but there is little evidence that this will be so. In the land of the free and the democratic if you put up a building which does not confirm to the last environmental energy requirements you will not be able to use it. In the Communist dictatorship of Russia you put up the building, contaminate the air and the water supply and no one takes action, except during eh couple of weeks of the Olympic games.

The acceptance speech of Barack Hussein Obama was set on a special stage built within the stadium of the Denver Broncos - the Mile High stadium and over 70000 people responded positively to the programme of endorsement intermingled with music from established performers. The grand daughter of Dwight Eisenhower introduced a collection of US Admirals and Generals, several black and several women. There was also endorsement from a representative group of hard working men and women all middle aged who had seen jobs disappears overseas or because of other policies of the Bush administration. The highlight speech during the evening before Senator Obama came from Al Gore who has devoted himself to the issue of Global warning and sustainable energy, an issue which clearly divides the two parties and will be discussed further later. He rarely makes Party political speeches these days.

It was during the warm up that I came across the China Today interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair in which he was full of praise for what the Chinese had achieved through the Olympic Games and how London and the UK hopes to respond in 2012 . He had come to China on a private holiday for the games and to deliver a lecture to the University of Beijing, he appeared very relaxed. He has lost nothing of his charm and natural diplomacy.
And then it was time for Barack Hussein Obama, a serious contender for the Presidency of the second most important nation on the planet. You have got to stop claiming you are the most important and worse still the best.

I was even more impressed with the Barack acceptance speech than I had been with Hilary Clinton. It was brilliantly crafted, talking first of his background, his mother who would wake him up with the dawn to go over his school work. This aspect of hard work and committed fatherhood was evident in the part of his speech about political intentions and programmes. The emphasise was on a political system which protected and rewarded those who worked and contributed to society. Similarly father's had to play their part, sentiments usually defined with the conservative, religious right and no different from the declared position of Governor Palin but who came across as far more of a feminist.

A great chunk of his approach is based on giving the political system back to the ordinary working class people, which is a preposterous proposition if anyone took the gesture seriously. If you are part of a Party Machine then the Party machine rules and the last thing you want is to have share power with the people. The millions spent supporting candidates by sectional interests is not donated out of charity. Everyone expects a return for their investment. Ok so Barack had a difficult childhood and worked hard to get himself through college and started of working to help the underclass but now he lives with his family in a million and a half dollar home and has a million dollar annual income and does not feel uncomfortable socialising with the mega rich and mega powerful. After all that is what he aspires to become. For the moment there is much to commend him.
I particularly liked the way he rounded on the issues which the Republicans are exploiting in relation to nationalism, the armed forces and his inexperience especially what could happen in the middle of the night when called upon to act the Commander and Chief. He commented that he got the message and told Senator McCain that if that is the way he wanted to play the game then bring it on. His best jibe was in terms of the failure of the Bush administration to capture Ben Laden and although he promised to bring the troops back in a responsible way as quickly as possible he indicated there would be a switch of attention to Afghanistan and Pakistan. However it is evident this does not mean flooding Afghanistan with American forces

He saved the revivalist part of his speech to the end reminding us that the question is not what can America, the Government or its President do for you but what can you do for yourself and you community. One of big pitches was support for families and children with a massive input into pre school care reminiscent of the emphasis of the Blair and Brown administrations at home and the emphasis on universal health care telling us of the concern of his mother about costs in relation to her health insurance when she got the cancer which caused her death. There was a moral anger just beneath surface on many issues raised during the evening which I found worrying.

My immediate reaction is that he is a much more formidable man and candidate that I had realised and he has also to judge with having a wife who gave the impression in speech the previous evening being as strong and determined a woman as his mother. She is determined that he really will give smoking whatever the pressure of the campaign. That he has only recently attempted to give up smoking indicates that he is not a flawless individual.

The evening ended with fireworks and the appearance of all the families of the two candidates. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of Let the Sun Shine in from Hair and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. I understand now more clearly the choice of Joe Biden for the Vice Presidential position. The father figure he never hand and the father for the nation. It is good decision.

Sarah Palin is an amazing choice by any standards immediately reminding me of a young Margaret Thatcher who put the leaders of the Association of Directors of Social Services in their place when she first came as a Minister to an annual conference.

Sarah Palin was taken out as a child by her father to hunt Moose and Moose stew is said to be one of her favourite foods. She still shoots and has no problem with responsible personal gun use. She is full bloodedly pro life and anti abortion, a position where she is not too far away from the of Senator Obama who but whom also accepts the rights of women to choose. Governor Palin is a mother with five children one disabled and one about to serve in Iraq so she wins the family issue against Barack Obama. He husband was a fisherman who has moved into the oil industry and remains a trade unionist. She is more of an Washington outsider than Barack and in her position as governor she immediately sold off the former Governor's jet on E Bay for a profit and sacked people from party and other positions because of their involvement in corruption in a situation where Alaska had become notorious for its corruption, involvement with sectional and powerful interest groups and application of the old boy network, a phrase which she used to indicate her intention to have no truck with this at the White House. At times Senator McCain looked flabbergasted as she demonstrated she will be not just a strong supporter over the next 66 days but will expect him to deliver any promises when he gets into office. While her positioning will delight the individual conservative as he also came across as a dedicated feminist, praising Hilary Clinton for 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling but adding it was her intention now to break it. She is only 44 years of age while McCain is seventy two and may be considered too old to stand for a second term if he is successful which would then make her the front runner to become the first female President in 2012.just after the London Olympics.

And now I turn to what I believe is the major issue of this first half of the 21st century, energy resources and the impact on the environment. Senator Obama made it clear that he has no intention of allowing the oil companies to drill for off shore oil and that he will expect the oil companies to take their share of the funding of his programmes. I can see him increasing taxes on the oil companies while finding ways to off set the increased price at the petrol/gas pumps which has to be part of the strategy towards energy self sufficiency which is his aim to achieve over the next ten years. He wants to switch to safe nuclear power, and the development of other energy resources This was the point made strongly in a BBC programme about China in which one young Chinese Professor argued that unless there was a major switch in policy his country would destroy the world because they would use up natural resources with its negative impact upon the environment. The programme then concentrated on one test new building in Beijing where various government representative have come to check the instrumentation as they have found it difficult to accept the effectiveness in reduced running costs, energy use and environmental impact. The programme also featured a new apartment city using the latest technologies and where the flat roofs of buildings are to be areas not just of green but producing fruit and vegetables. It is also of great interest that Governor Palin does not support the Barack position arguing that action has to be taken into interim and that off shore drilling for oil should me approved until the long term strategy can be implemented. For me the issue is like smoking. I don't believe that scientists have not already come up with an alternative fuel to drive motor vehicles However it is not in the interests of governments or oil corporations to accept this development given the revenue and profits which the industry is now creating. For half a century we knew that smoked kills and yet pressure from the tobacco companies and the employment implications prevented effective action. It is a stain on all politicians who have been in government during this period. I do not understand why we do not ban the manufacturing and sale of tobacco except to provide supplies under licence for those presently addicted

An what of all this on the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Labour and the other parties in Great Britain. Where are the women leaders or those with non white ethnicity?

Tonight the news broke that Alasdair Darling. the Chancellor had warned in an interview with the Guardian newspaper made while still on holiday in Scotland that Britain was heading for the worst economic down turn in sixty years and that the Government was at fault for not explaining the situation to the British people. Who is expecting who to be dumped in the expected reshuffle before Parliament reassemble? Apparently he expressed the view that the public was " pissed off" with the Labour Party and that it was going to be difficult to win them back. Hopefully he watched, as have other Britain's, what is happening in the USA. My own view is that Gordon Brown and Alistair darling should consider giving whole hearted attention to furthering the aims of the majority of Scottish people who now seek independence.