Goodbye David Beckham

This end of season there have been three major retirements from football – Sir Alex Ferguson, Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.  Of the three, I have most respect for David Beckham.

On his day he was a fantastic player, the best crosser of a ball I can remember and a great free kick specialist.  However, he was more than that.  He was and still is a gentleman, on and off the pitch.  That is a rare thing nowadays when money matters more than anything.  A fantastic family man too – he is usually photographed with Victoria and their children.  He has always been dignified, always willing to stop and sign autographs and not been involved in a scandal of his own making.

I imagine people mock his lack of intellectual quality because they envy his personality, good looks and characteristics – and, yes, his money and lifestyle too.  If they would take time out to step back and see the man for what he is they would replace their mockery with respect and admiration.

I say thankyou, David Beckham, and enjoy your retirement from the game.

What’s Missing from Politicians’ CVs?

When David Cameron kept a straight face and once said, “We’re all in this together”, my first thought was ‘bollocks.’  You are not in this situation with us; you helped to create the economic disaster and plan to make it much harder for the working man and woman while thinking of yourself and your cronies.

What this Government and any future Government needs are Ministers who have spent time on the dole and can remember the despair that goes with it; who have struggled to run their family cars and pay bills and remember what it felt like to sit down and think how they were going to cope on a week by week and day by day basis; who have been unable to afford a week’s holiday because it would have been a luxury beyond their means; who have gone shopping seeking out the cheapest tins of beans and tubes of toothpaste because it was all they could afford.  This is the reality for perhaps most of the country today.  And Government ministers in certain posts (particularly the Chancellor and, indeed, the Prime Minister) should know the reality at first hand.

The last few Governments certainly have given us all the impression of ‘them and us’, separated by a life of ‘need and need not’.  Only when this changes will we have a Government for the people, by the people and with the people.

Margaret Hodge’s Rant against Google

Margaret Hodge, chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, announced on May 16 that the internet firm, Google, were “calculated, unethical and EVIL” for not paying a fair amount of tax on its British profits. 

She is another one of those Cameron puppy dogs who feel they must be heard doing their jobs – shout something from the rooftops so the master will take notice of the fact I am working!

Someone, however, should have told her that Google simply were exploiting a loophole in the law on how to report their income.  They did pay £6m in 2011, more than some other multi-national companies.

Someone should also have advised her to reserve the word EVIL for people such as Syria’s Assad and the Taliban and Stuart Hazell – you know, people who kill without the slightest remorse.

Her rant does, however, highlight this Government’s obsession with money and the economy over and above everything else.