After the farce of Frank Lampard's disallowed goal for England, that so obviously crossed the line as everybody watching on TV and most people in the stadium realised, with the match finely balanced at 2-1 to Germany, and England's consequent defeat 4-1 (with England committing more players forward preceeding Germany's last two goals in search of an equaliser), I set up a group at Facebook to exert pressure for technology to be brought in that determines if a ball has crossed the line.
One of the pundits at half time on the BBC1 coverage of the match said everybody (probably not literally) agreed on bringing in such technology, except for FIFA president Sepp Blatter. He is responsible for this farce and should be sacked, particularly if he remains so obstinate afterwards.
Somebody on the group has suggested a video referee, which is also a good solution (that could have made a difference with Tevez's offside goal in the Argentina-Mexico match too). Come to the group and join the debate!
You can find the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133017933385075.
I decided to boycott the rest of the World Cup finals after this farce (although missing Ghana matches will be hard since I wanted an African team to do well from the start).
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Friday, 11 June 2010
Bet on Diane Abbott to become Labour leader
My bets on the general election weren't terribly successful, but I didn't lose much compared to the couple of thousand pounds I could have made if they came off!
Rather more modestly, I put a bet yesterday with Ladbrokes on Diane Abbott becoming the next Labour leader (I think they said "permanent" Labour leader to distinguish the winner of the leadership election from an interim leader such as Harriet Harman) at 25/1. I bet a tenner so stand to make £250 if it comes off.
The odds in the Guardian and Mirror yesterday morning were 33/1, so presumably I wasn't the only person who thought that generous. Who knows what will happen between now and when the voting takes place (it's complicated since a third of votes come from trade unions, and it probably depends on individual TUs when/if they hold votes of their members, but Labour Party members are balloted in September according to http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-timetable) - a Greece-style revolt to the Tory/LibDem coalition's proposed cuts, the complete collapse of the Euro, or other events to radicalise the population, could happen in the meantime.
The voting takes place using Alternative Vote (practice for the next general election if the coalition gets this proposal passed), so you can specify transfers if your first choice drops out. On the one hand, this means that tactical voting is unnecessary - you can vote for Diane knowing that it won't cost a soft left candidate (if you believe any of the other four fills the criterion) anything; however, it tends to result in victories for politicians with lowest common denominator compromise politics which may favour the "grey men in grey suits".
I checked with Ladbrokes again today and the odds on Diane winning are still 25/1.
[For the benefit of those who think I shouldn't make money out of my political analysis, I have spent tens of thousands of pounds over the years on socialist causes (with my own initiatives and contributing to organisations such as the Militant Tendency/Socialist Party). I'm not selling out; I will continue to help the left.]
Rather more modestly, I put a bet yesterday with Ladbrokes on Diane Abbott becoming the next Labour leader (I think they said "permanent" Labour leader to distinguish the winner of the leadership election from an interim leader such as Harriet Harman) at 25/1. I bet a tenner so stand to make £250 if it comes off.
The odds in the Guardian and Mirror yesterday morning were 33/1, so presumably I wasn't the only person who thought that generous. Who knows what will happen between now and when the voting takes place (it's complicated since a third of votes come from trade unions, and it probably depends on individual TUs when/if they hold votes of their members, but Labour Party members are balloted in September according to http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-timetable) - a Greece-style revolt to the Tory/LibDem coalition's proposed cuts, the complete collapse of the Euro, or other events to radicalise the population, could happen in the meantime.
The voting takes place using Alternative Vote (practice for the next general election if the coalition gets this proposal passed), so you can specify transfers if your first choice drops out. On the one hand, this means that tactical voting is unnecessary - you can vote for Diane knowing that it won't cost a soft left candidate (if you believe any of the other four fills the criterion) anything; however, it tends to result in victories for politicians with lowest common denominator compromise politics which may favour the "grey men in grey suits".
I checked with Ladbrokes again today and the odds on Diane winning are still 25/1.
[For the benefit of those who think I shouldn't make money out of my political analysis, I have spent tens of thousands of pounds over the years on socialist causes (with my own initiatives and contributing to organisations such as the Militant Tendency/Socialist Party). I'm not selling out; I will continue to help the left.]
Arrested for disrupting an Orange Order parade in Glasgow, singing "Manchester Shitty FC" and "9/11 Inside Job" songs
On Sunday, I came across an Orange Order (based on ultra-right "loyalists" in Northern Ireland) parade from Glasgow's West End (which I knew was a Protestant stronghold) to the City Centre. I was wearing a pro-Palestine T-shirt (from the previous day's demo in Edinburgh against the brutal Israeli attack on the "Freedom Flotilla" of aid activists bringing supplies to Gaza) and decided to disrupt it.
I started by chanting "Viva Palestina" and "Freedom to Palestine". The agenda of divide-and-rule whipped up by the Orange Order is similar to the strategy of the Israeli regime so it seemed appropriate to switch to chanting "Catholics and Protestants unite" and "Celtic and Rangers fans unite". [Celtic players used to have to be Catholics and Rangers players used to have to be Protestants, and there is still a strong correlation among the fans by followers of the two religions although the clubs have acted against such sectarianism somewhat.] I moved on to my "Manchester Shitty FC" song (which you can hear on my MySpace page http://myspace.com/stephenkimwallis, guessing that they were the sort of people who like the domination of football by big business. Rangers have had a very good season compared to Celtic (largely due to hard man and former home secretary John Reid taking over as Celtic chairman and the end of Gordon Strachan's reign as manager - in my Galaxia song "Things Can Only Get Bitter", see http://myspace.com/galaxiamusic, I commented about his "1984-style dirty tricks" and "retiring from politics" but it is clear that he is continuing to play an odious role), so the Orange Order were probably in a good mood, but Man City missed out again on a Champions League spot (narrowly defeated by Tottenham Hotspur).
So I sang about Man City being "by far the richest team the world has ever seen" and being "shit". I varied the lyrics when it got to "if you'r shit and you know it clap your hands", to say "bang your drums". Far more serious, and much more of a threat to the powers that be was the "9/11 Inside Job" song by my band "Red Day", again about divide-and-rule (this time the strategy of George W Bush and the Project for a New American Century of dividing Muslims from Christians and Jews) and police officers moved to arrest me when I approached the end of that song. [Listen to it at http://myspace.com/reddayband or download it for free from http://www.red-day.org.]
A police officer accused me of "frightening children", but there was a girl (aged about 12) with some cymbols on the parade who held them completely motionless once I'd sung about "banging your drums" if you're shit and you know it". Instead of "frightening" her, I'd won her over from the odious clutches of the Orange Order. Once it was obvious that I was going to be arrested, I wanted to be recognised as a political prisoner and compounded the catch-all charge of "breach of the police" by assaulting an (ugly) police officer, resisting arrest and failing to provide details of my address (although I said where I worked and wanted to test out the extent of the surveillance state and let them work it out themselves). The police lied by saying I'd be in Barlinnie Prison permanently until I gave my address. In the police station cell, I commented that if that was the case I'd ask Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie to get a bill passed in the Scottish Parliament to change such an appalling law!!!
What happened next will form part of my on-going on-line autobiography, published for free at http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net.
I started by chanting "Viva Palestina" and "Freedom to Palestine". The agenda of divide-and-rule whipped up by the Orange Order is similar to the strategy of the Israeli regime so it seemed appropriate to switch to chanting "Catholics and Protestants unite" and "Celtic and Rangers fans unite". [Celtic players used to have to be Catholics and Rangers players used to have to be Protestants, and there is still a strong correlation among the fans by followers of the two religions although the clubs have acted against such sectarianism somewhat.] I moved on to my "Manchester Shitty FC" song (which you can hear on my MySpace page http://myspace.com/stephenkimwallis, guessing that they were the sort of people who like the domination of football by big business. Rangers have had a very good season compared to Celtic (largely due to hard man and former home secretary John Reid taking over as Celtic chairman and the end of Gordon Strachan's reign as manager - in my Galaxia song "Things Can Only Get Bitter", see http://myspace.com/galaxiamusic, I commented about his "1984-style dirty tricks" and "retiring from politics" but it is clear that he is continuing to play an odious role), so the Orange Order were probably in a good mood, but Man City missed out again on a Champions League spot (narrowly defeated by Tottenham Hotspur).
So I sang about Man City being "by far the richest team the world has ever seen" and being "shit". I varied the lyrics when it got to "if you'r shit and you know it clap your hands", to say "bang your drums". Far more serious, and much more of a threat to the powers that be was the "9/11 Inside Job" song by my band "Red Day", again about divide-and-rule (this time the strategy of George W Bush and the Project for a New American Century of dividing Muslims from Christians and Jews) and police officers moved to arrest me when I approached the end of that song. [Listen to it at http://myspace.com/reddayband or download it for free from http://www.red-day.org.]
A police officer accused me of "frightening children", but there was a girl (aged about 12) with some cymbols on the parade who held them completely motionless once I'd sung about "banging your drums" if you're shit and you know it". Instead of "frightening" her, I'd won her over from the odious clutches of the Orange Order. Once it was obvious that I was going to be arrested, I wanted to be recognised as a political prisoner and compounded the catch-all charge of "breach of the police" by assaulting an (ugly) police officer, resisting arrest and failing to provide details of my address (although I said where I worked and wanted to test out the extent of the surveillance state and let them work it out themselves). The police lied by saying I'd be in Barlinnie Prison permanently until I gave my address. In the police station cell, I commented that if that was the case I'd ask Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie to get a bill passed in the Scottish Parliament to change such an appalling law!!!
What happened next will form part of my on-going on-line autobiography, published for free at http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net.
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