Leading by Example

Only a day now to the big kick off and until there's some actual football for the media to cover at the expense of well, pretty much everything, the newspapers have been getting in the mood with some very odd "World-Cup related" articles.

The free newspaper in my hotel (I'm in Birmingham prior to a NSS conference) has got 32 pop stars to review the anthems of the competing countries. None of them are very complimentary, which as I'm familiar with some of their own stuff via my daughter's attempts at singing along to her iPod, is particularly ironic.

For example (no pun or play on words intended), Example — a singer, songwriter and rapper — doesn't like Argentina’s tune as it's "hard to sing along to and the words sound like something the Gallagher brothers might have written".

Having heard some of his stuff - second hand admittedly - I've looked up what I thought were the lyrics to a recent single, and had my suspicions confirmed.

His song All The Wrong Places contains this snippet of wisdom:

Like a rabbit in the headlights
Get your head right
Start a new life
Shiver in the moonlight

Not exactly worth adopting as any country's national anthem is it?
Not only does it not appear to have any consistency of phrasing of syllables, there's also a few substantial flaws.
Would any rabbit in the headlights even consider going to get his head right? The very nature of the phrase suggests that confusion and indecisiveness is presumed, and if the animal in question was in full command of its faculties then surely it wouldn’t be stranded in the headlights, about to get run over?

Equally, the idea that a rabbit seconds from becoming a stain on the tarmac is in any position to be embarking on grand lifestyle changes is at best optimistic. At this point in a rabbit's life it really is too late to consider the big questions.

As for shivering in the moonlight; it's hard to imagine a more pointless act in the circumstances. Mr Example really should be imploring Mr Bunny to get the hell out of the way. Anything else is pointless.

I agree that there are some very dreary national anthems out there, but it's hard to see how any of them could be improved by utilising Mr Example's lyrical insight.

Mirror Miller on the Wall....

As a life-long supporter of Leeds United, that the MP Damian Collins (Conservative: Folkestone and Hythe) has submitted a private member’s bill to the House of Commons calling for an extension to football’s so-called fit and proper persons’ test is particularly noteworthy now that Tim Kerr QC has overturned the Football League’s ban on Massimo Cellino buying the club.

Collins wants to give the Football Association the power to reject as a potential club owner any individual thought to be corrupt or untrustworthy, whether or not they are able to find ways to circumvent the official criteria. A laudable idea as I'm sure you'll agree; but why stop there? There are corrupt and untrustworthy people inexplicably escaping significant official sanctions in every walk of life. It's possible that even a member of the Government might not be a 'fit and proper person', and may be 'inclined to act solely, or mainly out of self-interest'. Lets say for example, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. What if that person then fiddled their expenses, attempted to use their power and influence to bully the investigating watchdog looking into any offence, and possibly even got an acolyte to threaten journalists working on the story?

Surely anybody who acted like that is the last sort of person who should be allowed any authority?
And if such a morally-bankrupt individual did manage to rise to such lofty heights, shouldn't there be procedures in place to prevent them continuing to defraud the country at our largesse if they were discovered?

It really is an excellent proposal.
Perhaps Mr Collins will be kind enough to explain the nuance of separation in principle between Cellino, convicted fraudster ("capable of using every kind of deception" according to his arrest warrant) and now the owner of my beloved Leeds United, and Maria Miller, recently exposed expenses cheat and, yes you've guessed it: still Minister for Culture, Media and Sport?