It's Rubbish Being Talked Here

Of course the point of the story is nothing to do with our dialogue with migrants. It is a nifty way for those in Government who are of a euro sceptic/xenophobic bent to plant the message that Bulgarians in Britain is a problem that needs action. My guess is that these negative ads will never appear, we in globalised market are not going to trash ourselves. But there will now be lot of frothing about the EU being the root of all evil and us being swamped by an easily vilified group.

It's Rubbish Here

We are going to deter Romanians and Bulgars by advertising the downsides of British life ( insert own personal Room 101 list of Colonel Blimp Grumbles). It won't work of course. When Idi Amin was busy expelling Asians Leicester tried something similar. If I recall the story the council took out newspaper ads saying basically 'don't come here, there are no jobs and we are full.'

The outcome was that the one place at the forefront of people's minds when they arrived was Leicester.

So, it is a really rubbish plan. Stop it now.

Cyclists - Nice Supportive People

I was in Butlers, browsing the sale and overheard a young racing snake talking about watching a 4th cat race. Now for all those not in the know, the 4th Cats are the minnows, the complete newbies. Below is my half recollection of what our correspondant had to say:-

'The 4th Cats were chaos, they were not taking the corners properl,y following the racing line. They cut right in and kept peddling. I knew somebody was going down. Well the surface was like this sandpaper. I said, there's gonna be spill here, lets go and keep an eye out. Sure enough, crash, over they go. With that sandpaper stuff  it took their skin right off, right off.'

That was a promotional message from British cycling.

Alarm Call

Steve and Ross- from the Kibbutz

'Wake me up in the morning.'
It wasn't a request. Ross knew this was a fools errand. He wanted to be away from Steve already, move out of the hut, into one of the others, the empty ones. Steve scared him. He was intimidating enough when he was awake, but at least then he was under control, had self control. It was when he slept that scared Ross the most. He had already been woken out to find Steve sat on his chest. The night terrors, Steve shouting and fighting in he sleep, then sitting bolt upright eyes staring full of rage, until he slumped back into more uncomfortable sleep.
Steve had told him the story. It came from the time he was in Wandsworth for burglary.
'The screws don't try and fight you when you have a screamer, no they pin you down, and get you with the chemical cosh. Then when you are conscious but still dopey, fucked but awake, then they beat you, heavy blows, no sharp edge bruises.'
*
Dawn approached. Ross wasn't going to let his alarm go. As quietly as he could he got up and pulled on his shorts and boots. The fridge was humming outside the door, his breakfast was in it so no need to mess around in the room. Steve was turned on his side, very asleep, quietly grumbling to himself.
Carefully Ross clicked open the front door to the hut and stepped outside into the cool of the morning. Then closed the door behind himself. He sat there for a few minutes until the watch came round to the time. Then, nervous but from  the safety of his side of the door he started.
Bang bang bang, wake up Steve, time for work, wake up.
Inside there was a crash, a roar, curses, Steve woke up fighting something. The attacker all too real in the imagination. After a few moments the rage subsided and a voice came from inside.
'Thanks Ross'

Free Gift from the nice but expensive people

Received a nice order of expensive but lovely cycling stuff from Rapha the world leaders in nice but expensive cycling stuff. Opened the box and was thrilled to see they he sent me two very swish cappuccino cups as a free gift with my order. Wow, that is treating us loyal customers well.
Sadly when I had dug through my order to the delivery note I realised  it was not largess.

Dear Mrs C of SW1
The nice but expensive cups you ordered are not going to arrive today as they have been sent to me. I will let Rapha know and return them. I hope you don't need them for a present this weekend or anything. They do look very nice though. I would post a picture but that would be cruel.

Bravery is all about timing

So Wiggins accuses Lance of being a 'lying bastard' over his claim to have been clean in 2009. Ahh yes.  Now that the big beast is at bay people are so much braver. If a few  senior pros had stuck their heads above the parapet earlier we might not be in the quite this depth of doodoo now. It is all a bit late.

But there is something that is not too late. Last time I looked the UCI was still run by a discredited leadership. They may or may not have conspired to cover up doping but they have lacked the strength to tackle the problem with the tenacity required. So, British Cycling and Team Sky go on record give a clear vote of no confidence and demand regime change.

The Pro's in Women's Football- not there to be nice

The lowly status of the women's version of our national game is to be honest a disgrace. I have commented before about the huge inequality in cycling, where Sky pour millions into a men's team while our world class women are basically semi pro. Nicole Cooke, a world and Olympic cycling champion, winner of the Women's Giro d'Italia in a good year pulled down £50k! Brad's sideburns earned more last year.

But the differences in earning power between  the top men and women is even greater in Football in this country. TV revenue drives football and has done for a very long time, and it has all been about the boys. So it is great news that there is a decent deal being put together for the women's Super League.

That presenters of the status of Clare Balding is getting behind it can only be a good thing. Balding set out what she thought were the attractions of women's football to those jaded by the excesses of the men's game. These included less diving, racism, spitting, and abusing the ref. All to be applauded. As a game fashioned in the 21st rather than the 19th Century I hope it will long keep racism (and homophobia and sexism) away.

But I also think she was missing the point. The Corinthian ideal is so much easier when nobody is watching, nobody is paying and the outcome matters only to those on the pitch. For me the sign that women's football has made it will the day that in a cauldron atmosphere a gifted super star buys a soft penalty, the opposition surround the ref, and the next day it is headline news. Why? Because then we will know it matters. We will know it  has moved out of the list off things we will politely support, to something a lot of people actually care about.

Armstrong, It was really nothing

So Lance has come clean, a bit. Kind of washing his hands, without soap. The grime remains,visible to anyone who cares to look.   Consensus seems to be that it was too little too late and his performance was not enough. Maybe redemption in the Oprah sense was never on the cards. With a Tiger Woods it is all about a disastrous personal life tainting the sporting legend. This kind of cry for forgiveness works because what we loved them for still kind of exists.
To the extent anyone loved Lance it was about his sporting achievement with the backdrop of his battle with cancer. Tear away he sporting triumph and what is left to care for? A charmless driven man?

Part of his battle with the press especially the cycling press reminds me or Morrissey's travails with the NME. A star so huge he dominates a genre, that like Morrissey front page, a Lance front page will shift units in way nobody else will. But like with Morrissey the relationship is tainted, largely due to the actions and words of the icon themselves.

A Dip in the Nostalgia Bath

I felt moved to say something more about the demise of HMV, something about buying a record by Adam and the Ants, maybe commenting how you can down load a David Bowie album for the same price I paid in 1981 or reflect on how eclectic these stores were in their hayday.

But Alex Petridis says all this so much better in The Guardian today and even manages to work in a reference to The Cash Pussies proving that he was a hip young gunslinger even aged 9. Over 40? Alex is running a nice warm nostalgia bath for you.

Goodbye Cookie

Sad to hear today that Nicole Cooke is retiring from procycling at just 29. For an Olympic gold winning, former world champion she seems to have missed out on most of the limelight that has fallen on cycling this year.

She was responsible for one of the most exciting wins I have ever watched. In the 2008 world championships she was in a select group in the final laps. With two Germans in the group they should have been able to work the others over. But they couldn't make it stick. Cookie, all over her bike, looked like she was just fighting to stay in touch. Crucially the super dutch rider, Marianne Vos, burned to much energy chasing down the German attacks. By rights she should have been able to take Cookie in the sprint but not this time. Fresh from her Olympic gold Cooke as too strong.

Despite winning the gold in Beijing she had to play a supporting role this year. I always sensed she was something of an outsider, making her way in road racing when for British Cycling it was all about the track. Then when the BC machine turned its attention to the road, they chose the talent they had groomed from the off. Cooke was not about to be Yoda to Armitstead's Skywalker.

She seemed to fall out with teams a bit to easily, end up in squabbles with team mates. When interviewed she could not shine like Pendleton or provide the atriculate commentary of Pooley.

But lets be honest, Cav likes a good row, Wiggins is often lousy in front of the press and Hoy is not the most exciting presence off the bike. If Cooke was a bloke, with her palmaris she would be a household name.

Good luck Nicole and thanks for everything.

Ill Fares the land

Tony Judt took this as the title for his final book. It is a reference to a society where some prosper while their neighbours rot. I was so pleased to hear David Milliband echo those sentiments. In saying 'I do not want to live in a society where we can pretend we enjoy the good life while our neighbours lose their life chances' he makes that very point.

If we continue to portray the poor as the architects of their own misfortune, and allow that to be a justification to further stigmatise and marginalise then we are all damaged. From the top to the bottom.

We are in this together. Ill fares the land where we fail to understand what that truly means.

I am Reliable

After my stint with Croydon Radio yesterday it was starting to look like a pretty decent weekend, and that continued this morning with the West Kent RC Reliability Ride. A misty if mild morning, the Red Guard of the Old Portlians was there in force. With ten riders entered a minor miracle took place. We actually rode together as a group! Not the usual devil take the hindmost attitude.
It is mostly on good roads but with a couple of tough old climbs. It was Carters Hill, famous as the great leveller at the end of the Circuit of Kent that was looming large in our minds. With that out of the way we cracked onto the finish, getting there in around 3 hours for the 47 miles.
Exhilarating stuff. Great start to the 2013 season.

Thanks to the WKRC for putting on a cracking event once again.

Croydon Radio - a biased interview

I have been talking on and off to Croydon Radio about interviewing writers for them. I have finally got my act together to kick things offat 11am this Saturday. Thanks to Tracey at the radio station it is going to be a bit of a treat.

Chris Winter,  the author of Crystal Palace FC A Biased Commentry is coming in. Given that Palace are probably playing the best stuff we have in years it is a great moment to chat with man who has produced two wonderful books on the Club's history.

If you fancy taking a look - follow the link.
http://www.redpost.co.uk/

Chris was asked to pick a few of his favourite tunes. If you are a Palace fan you won't have any trouble guessing what at least one of them will be.

Morning after the night before worth Jools

Years ago Jools Holland's show was a much needed blast of not always fresh air in the New Year's Eve TV schedule however by last year it felt like it a long since run out of gas. This year was made merrier by an intriugingline up. With no disrespect to Emile Sande, Paloma Faith or Jake Bugg the show seemed to be about erm older talent, much of which was clearly coming back from some dark places.
The spectacle of Adam Ant was a sad reminder of the problems he has faced and Dexy's annoying jaunty reworking of Geno a reminder of what a frustrating git Kevin Rowland can be. But emerging, looking like the 3rd bloke in the queue at the Post Office, was Roland Gift and what is still an absolutely incredible voice. He went at his material like it mattered, a quality that he shared with The Dubliners who despite being more that one member short of their classic line ups tore into the stuff with a zest.
There is a gift that some artists have of always being in the picture even if it is not about them. Billy Bragg was the master at this. It is clearly a gift that Paloma Faith shares, her teeth and eyebrows were barely out of shot all night ,and in huge disproportion to her rather low key formal contribution.