When did Transfer Deadline Day become a day in it's own right? With capital letters! Full programmes dedicated to this new phenomenon. Rumours abound of players being spotted at different clubs and entire fictions are built around these phony sightings.
Tweets pour in relentlessly from people who "work just across from the club and have just seen suchabody go in". Whooh! This drivel ends up on national radio with everybody wittering on about it as if it actually matters.
Sky has a lot to answer for: turning every small detail into world shattering news. Their dedicated programme to Transfer Deadline Day consists, generally, of 10 hours of will he, won't he? maybe, maybe not. Looks likely, looks unlikely. Etc. Then during the last hour, the anti-climax, where it becomes apparent that you've just been conned into spending a full day finding out that Wolves have a new midfielder whom you have barely heard of.
When did football become this self-obsessed? Do yourself a favour, get yourself a life.
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Thursday 25 August 2011
Rioting and its Aftermath
The recent riots have brought the problems of this country into sharp relief for a lot of people. Days of recriminations followed with the left blaming the right and the right blaming the left. The problems are manifest: lack of education, lack of discipline, parental absence, welfare dependence, etc.
The once thing the two sides of the political spectrum seem able to agree on is the need for better education and the real lack of good schools in deprived areas. Whether this is because of lack of discipline, poor teaching, no parental support is something that is constantly argued over. Nobody seems able to come up with a solution and now with the debt crisis and the cuts a solution would appear to be further away than ever.
So, what to do? Because something does need to be done. You cannot just ignore whole schools full of disaffected children and hope that nothing bad will come of it. The people who want to see this situation turned around: they are plentiful. They are journalists, authors, sports personalities, actors, comedians, parents, grandparents, neighbors, etc. Te list is virtually endless. How about all those people look at themselves and think about how much time they have on their hands. If each one could give up 1, 2 or 3 hours per week to go into these failing schools and help out in the class, if you could have 3 or 4 extra bodies in each classroom to help the teacher, think what a difference it would make. Discipline would be under control (it's easy to make a nuisance of yourself when there is one adult in the room, not so easy when there are 4 or 5). The extra bodies would be able to help the teacher with all the little things that take time and end up costing lesson time. They could support any pupils that just need a little extra help. Imagine the morale boost, not just for the pupils, who would be able to see that people do want the best for them, but also for the teachers who are under unimaginable pressure struggling to teach 30+ unruly pupils.
Just a couple of hours a week from all the professionals who profess to care deeply. A small sacrifice. But a sacrifice is what is needed for these children to see that people care what happens to them and for them to care what happens to themselves.
The once thing the two sides of the political spectrum seem able to agree on is the need for better education and the real lack of good schools in deprived areas. Whether this is because of lack of discipline, poor teaching, no parental support is something that is constantly argued over. Nobody seems able to come up with a solution and now with the debt crisis and the cuts a solution would appear to be further away than ever.
So, what to do? Because something does need to be done. You cannot just ignore whole schools full of disaffected children and hope that nothing bad will come of it. The people who want to see this situation turned around: they are plentiful. They are journalists, authors, sports personalities, actors, comedians, parents, grandparents, neighbors, etc. Te list is virtually endless. How about all those people look at themselves and think about how much time they have on their hands. If each one could give up 1, 2 or 3 hours per week to go into these failing schools and help out in the class, if you could have 3 or 4 extra bodies in each classroom to help the teacher, think what a difference it would make. Discipline would be under control (it's easy to make a nuisance of yourself when there is one adult in the room, not so easy when there are 4 or 5). The extra bodies would be able to help the teacher with all the little things that take time and end up costing lesson time. They could support any pupils that just need a little extra help. Imagine the morale boost, not just for the pupils, who would be able to see that people do want the best for them, but also for the teachers who are under unimaginable pressure struggling to teach 30+ unruly pupils.
Just a couple of hours a week from all the professionals who profess to care deeply. A small sacrifice. But a sacrifice is what is needed for these children to see that people care what happens to them and for them to care what happens to themselves.
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