Thursday 31 January 2013

What Has Parliament To Do With Soccer?

On the matter of overpaid MPs with altogether too little to do ... may we ask Mr Quango what business his colleagues have pronouncing on the shortcomings of the Premier League ?

We have become wearily accustomed to Keith Vaz and his Home Affairs committee grandstanding on any issue he considers is worthy of a sound-bite on the News and fleeting paragraph or two in the tabloids, so I suppose we can't be entirely amazed when the Culture committee does likewise.  But can there be any reason whatever why a nano-second of Parliamentary time is devoted to this topic, or why the Sports Minister greets the 'report' with "If football does not deliver then we will look at bringing forward legislation" ?  

Is a state subsidy required to keep Walcott at the Arsenal ?  Is soccer distracting the yeomen of England from their archery practice?  Does Balotelli's haircut contravene Health and Safety ?  Are soccer stadiums occupying land urgently needed for agriculture ?  Is there perhaps a Trade Descriptions angle: are people falsely being promised cultured football or something like that ?  Is the carbon footprint of a Cup Final going to make the UK bust its emissions targets ?  Was the hair for Rooney's transplant obtained from people-trafficked minors ?  Was Bercow once wrongfully thwarted in his ambition to play in goal for West Ham ?

What is going on ?

ND


16 comments:

Blue Eyes said...

I think our politicians must be bored. They've realised they can't sort out the economy so they are interfering in successful industries instead. Remember the early Blair years when Brown kept the purse strings tightly closed so the government just went around banning things because it was cheap?

Timbo614 said...

What's going on? - distraction. Simples. Bread and circuses etc.

Electro-Kevin said...

Politicians don't like to be left out.

I suspect the reason for becoming one is not so much to do with altruism as it is to do with being included. Celebrity for ugly people as they say.

They know that football has enormous influence within the country and recognise that - in order to be included - one must do football.

I think it wouldn't be too far fetched to say that I've lost jobs (in an indirect way) because of my disinterest in football.

Electro-Kevin said...

To be able to make cogent comment on football is an important social skill. To be unable to do so illicits suspicion and distrust.

"Yew don't like football ? Yew ain't normal."

Yes. Those very words. More than once.

Social skills are more important for advancement than practical ones in most careers.

Blue Eyes said...

Also, why is the government bailing out people who bought complicated financial products they didn't understand? It's not as thought these businesses were forced to buy interest rate swaps.

We do not live in a free society.

andrew said...

If important things are going wrong and there is nothing you can do about it,

Make a big noise about something that is unimportant that you should do nothing about.

Once dumb people have got over the errr moment and the rest of us have finished pointing out that this is [irrelevant|not in their competency|a waste of time] some time has gone by.

During this time no-one has been giving them a hard time.

It is a sad reflection of our modern attitude that we think they can make an immediate difference.

Anything done now will have full effect in 5-10 years time - a 30% cut in capital expenditure has no real effect now, but you may or may not notice in 5-10 years as you sit in a traffic jam or break your suspension on a pot-hole.

Yes imo, management is vastly oversupplied and overrated in all spheres of life as it is natural to do something rather than nothing and proper leadership (direction, tone, morals, courage under fire etc) has rarely been more lacking.

Jer said...

EK

Try singing "cricket lovely cricket" in a travesty of a calypso style when people bring up the subject.

Sort of works for me...

roym said...

glad you posted this. just been having a twitter exchange with a Labour Mp who is asking for a debate on ticket prices for away fans!

when i asked him why? (and why not other events that people may be priced out of) he replied 'it is an issue of concern for many and needs attention drawn to it'

as others above had said, these twunts just want a chance for some populist grandstanding.

Timbo614 said...

@E-K I know nothing about football either :) Can make for a boring Friday night sometimes! If the people who DO understand it spent as much effort to understand financially/politically what is really going on around them and vented as much venom against the unfairness or otherwise of certain decisions - there would actually be a revolution. I mean last Friday they were discussing the "Kick the ball-boy" incident and they knew in what matches under what rules more than one ball is allowed (i.e. ball goes out into crowd - chuck in a different one). The conclusion (it seemed to me) was definitely a red card incident BUT he did not actually deliberately kick the boy. Huh?

roym said...

ok, i no have this

'[ticket prices] tied into wider football governance issues - if authorities don't get act together soon then they will need to be forced'

i am puzzled. these are privately owned companies are they not? apart from swansea which is some sort of Fan's trust. surely the price point for their product is at their discretion? what legislation can the govt enforce?

Budgie said...

EK, I know what you mean about being a social pariah - I've never been to a football match and I don't have a TV.

As for MPs time wasting - better them mouthing off about football than squandering £billions of our money on HS2.

The real culprit is the EU which has taken most important legislative work off MPs so they have nothing do.

Demetrius said...

Football is now a diverse business construct with substantial financial involvement with various elements and foreign interests and dependencies. It might be a means of money laundering and tax avoidance/evasion. It this form it is much the same as Parliament and our government. They are twin activities in our media money world.

Bill Quango MP said...

I must get onto twitter at once..there does appear to be a disturbing lack of teams from poorer areas - Bradford, Hull, Shefield, Addlestone reaching the top of the premiership.

Perhaps fans from poorer clubs should be given a guaranteed seat at the stadium of a richer club?

No fan left behind!

Blue Eyes said...

We should definitely look into all this foreign money flooding into the country. It's bidding up the price of London property and the football transfer market. Should there be a residence test for investment into the football industry? Some kind of connection with the local borough?

Also, all these footballers coming over and stealing the jobs!

British football for British footballers!

Anonymous said...

The hair for Rooney's transplant

LOL

Agence communication said...

well said "" We have become wearily accustomed to Keith Vaz and his Home Affairs committee grandstanding on any issue he considers is worthy of a sound-bite on the News and fleeting paragraph or two in the tabloids, so I suppose we can't be entirely amazed when the Culture committee does likewise. But can there be any reason whatever why a nano-second of Parliamentary time is devoted to this topic, or why the Sports Minister greets the 'report' with "If football does not deliver then we will look at bringing forward legislation" ?""