UNA SERIE DI EVENTI DELL'INSIEME BIZZARRA

So.... yesterday, in England, Harry Redknapp was found not guilty, by an English jury of 8 men and 4 women, of tax evasion.

Yesterday too, Fabio Cappello resigned after a row with the FA following his comments in an Italian tv interview over the FA's sacking, without reference to him (the England Manager), of John Terry as England captain following accusations of racial abuse.

Yesterday too (wasn't it all happening), in what the Mail called "a bizarre twist" (maybe in an effort to divert attention what what is staring us all in the face), Harry Redknapp, who will not now be going to prison, became the bookies' favourite to succeed Sr Cappello. 


A bizarre twist indeed. Isn't co-incidence an amazing thing? 


Interestingly, the BBC, with it's well known attention to detail, originally reported that Redknapp had been found guilty of one of the charges of false accounting.


However, perhaps in an effort to make up for their shortcomings, every BBC news programme since has covered the footballing part of the story as if it were the only thing happening in the world, with opinions from everyone and his dog, including his honourableness the prime minister, who apparently is allowed to express his opinions on sport on the BBC, unlike the first minister who is not. 

I have a couple of theories about this. Perhaps the BBC is aware that as no one believes a single word Cameron says, there is no point in refusing him the right to say whatever he fancies, whenever he fancies it, as it's a bit like the commercial brake on other tv channels: we all go and put the kettle or use the lavatory, leaving Daz,  Kellogs or Cameron to talk to an empty room.


Or, maybe it's just that the BBC knows that he holds the purse strings and regardless of the rubbish he spouts, they have to be nice to him. Whereas Alex Salmond doesn't, and they don't. 


I was also amused to hear that the job of England manager is "the most difficult job in football", which might explain the £6 million a year salary (about which, in the midst of all the fuss about Hester's £1 million salary + £1 million bonus, we have heard very little).


I just wondered why it was the most difficult job in football, more difficult than being the manager of Germany, or Brazil, or Italy, or Scotland... Any ideas?

I noticed this comment from Malcolm G on Political Betting. I hope he won’t mind me copying it here. It sums up for me just how completely useless the government in London is. He’s talking about the riots in English cities and Cameron’s (and I suppose other's) reaction to them, dithering about whether or not to come back from holiday:

"It once again shows how inadequate Cameron is and what a pathetic leader he is, no matter what happens he is always behind the curve and forced to act. He seems to have no clue and whilst he can talk plenty it looks like he would have trouble running a bath never mind a country. Having surrounded himself with a bunch of similar types who will have been unlikely to have to even dress themselves so far in their lives never mind understand what is going on in the world, we seem to lurch from gaff to gaff. This lot are useless."

The unfortunate thing for Londoners is that the Metropolitan Police is similarly cursed with leadership you wouldn’t wish on a playgroup.

Cameron’s other great gaffe this week, rather less important perhaps, and one that should never have reached the press in my opinion, was the Italian café incident. He made his order at the bar and asked the girl to bring it out to the terrace. She replied that she was too busy, and he declined to leave a tip (which he was entitled to do if he thought the service substandard). However, ever the PR man, when he heard that the matter had caused what we call a “stooshie” in Scotland (a bit of bother), he went back, tipped her massively and had his photograph taken with her. Awwww. Of course, firstly, it is quite possible that, like in some French cafés, you will only be waiter served if you sit inside; if you sit on the terrace, its self service, so he may have been asking a busy barmaid to do something that was not her job. However, that may not be the case in Italy, at least in the upmarket cafés the likes of Cameron would frequent, and he may have been correct not to tip. If so, why did he go back and do a PR exercise? Dithering idiot.

Two questions on the financial crises in the world, that this economics illiterate finds puzzling :

Firstly, who or what is Standard and Poor? They are one of three credit agencies, so if they downgraded the US economy to AA+, why haven’t the other two? Who is right? On the basis of two to one seems to be that S&P isn’t! Does it have an agenda?

Secondly, if the € is in such a mess, how come it is more or less holding its own against the £?

CASANOVA OF ROME WINS TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY

London is not the only city where “ordinary people” have protested about the blindness of the political class, living in a world of their own.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi today scraped a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament by 314 to 311, sending Rome into the worst street violence in many years and making people wonder how on earth the BILLIONAIRE managed it.

Clashes have left 50 police officers and more than 40 protesters injured. Cars were set on fire as protesters threw stones and overturned bins. Streets were closed in an attempt to keep the protesters away, but they enough got through to throw paint and eggs at the parliament building. Police used tear gas on the crowds. Doubtless Theresa May was watching very closely.

But it was not just in Rome that the protesters were out. In Sicily 500 students occupied the main airport runway whilst in Turin students occupied the railway station and in Venice they held a demonstration on the Rialto Bridge. All are demanding a change in government.

Berlusconi, who is 74 and half way through his 5 year term as Prime Minister, has become a figure of ridicule over the past few years. His alleged corruption is epic; he has been involved with “young” girls and prostitutes; his wife very publicly left him because of his philandering; he bawled something at President Bush in a photo call after some event in Britain causing the Queen who was in the room, to be heard saying that she wished that man would keep his voice down. And only last night at a dinner he was blowing off about how he was unable to say 'No', and had ever bee thus. He considered himself lucky that no gay person had ever come to proposition him. As if!

His opponents say that he is too mired in scandal to continue as Prime Minister. He is certainly a figure of fun in the rest of Europe, and probably not what Italy needs right now as the economic crisis continues and Italy is in the line of countries at whose door the markets are barking.

What on Earth is it with these people? Like Brown (and Blair before him and Thatcher before him), they hang on and on and on to power. Does he think the women will like his less when he is not longer Prime Minister?

For heaven's sake you silly old fool, everybody's laughing at you. Just Go.


Pics (1) Protestors in Rome burned cars and threw paint on the parliament buildings; (2) The result is announced. None one knows how this very rich man managed to squeeze through by a whisker; (3) Syvio, in the lower house is taking a call on his cell. He’s never been able to say no and what with his expensive hair dye job, and the thickly applied make up to try to hide the deep canyons on his face, and his bulging....er wallet... you can imagine how incredibly appealing he would be to a certain type. He even makes Brown look a little less loopy!

ARE WE TO BE PUNISHED FOR NOT VOTING TORY?

We didn’t vote Tory and we barely voted Liberal Democrat, so the government probably feels within its can dump the worst of its miserable policies on us, with no political fallout. And to prove it, they are to launch a pilot scheme to remove people from Incapacity Benefit and put them on to Employment Support in Aberdeen (another one will be trialled in Northern England). It’s strange that the Tories didn’t want to do anything like that in their heartlands of the south, where half the population lives and where there are plenty Incapacity benefit claimants.

With targets to reach the medics (for they are not necessarily doctors) of a private (for profit) company, will examine IB claimants and try to get them off the more expensive benefits, which are paid in recognition of long term illness and inability to work. Perhaps Camerclegg think that the resultant rise in unemployment in Scotland can be blamed on the Scottish Government? Labour had the same idea and had to admit that, although the medics were happy to deprive ill people of their money, the courts were not. On tribunal appeal more than half the cases were overturned by judges and doctors appointed by the English Ministry of Justice.

Now it has emerged, thanks to a parliamentary question in the London parliament, that some Scottish rail services may have to be reduced because the new rolling stock may not be able to run on lines North of Edinburgh.

Mike Weir, asked the English Transport Secretary about something that those of us north of Edinburgh are concerned about: the future of direct train services between London, Aberdeen and Inverness.

The reply from Theresa Villliers was that the future of these railways services would depend on decision, yet to be made, about the type of rolling stock. Clearly this is a question of electrification. Lines from England to Edinburgh and Glasgow are electric, but no one bothered to electrify the lines north of Edinburgh. If then the new trains are electric, then there can be no direct service.

So, it seems that if you have to make the long (well, it is in the UK) journey between Aberdeen and London, or Inverness and London, then you will have to rely on local trains to get you to Edinburgh, where you will be obliged to change for London and the south (including the continent).

Labour had proposed purchasing duel fuel trains for the Scottish lines, but the Coalition has put that on hold. I presume that this means that despite the railway companies being private, making profits and giving their directors huge bonuses, the government, or the public if you like, still has to pay for the trains. Nice business.

Long distance travel in the UK is already a misery in comparison to travel in France, Spain, Italy or Germany, and the cross border trains that ply the continent at half the price and twice the speed of UK ones. Scotland's railways are, even by comparison with Englands, a travesty. Is it necessary for us to be subjected to further inconveniences and train journeys be made longer?
.