Anti-terrorism police arrested several men earlier today in Stoke, Cardiff and London. I read the story but I was still in a state of geographical bafflement. I mean, where on earth did they mean? Stoke? Cardiff? London? What are these strange places? If only someone, somewhere could print an illustrative example of cartography that could unravel this mystery. Thank heavens, then, for Her Majesty's Daily Mail online which rode to the rescue and published this map to accompany the story and thus, ensure that not a single one of its several million ex-pat readers would remain in the dark for a minute longer than necessary.
As published in Mail Online today (I know they will probably claim it's for foreign readers but pur-lease!)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A PR pal called Mark Borkowski, stung by a £30 fine he received for cycling through a red light recently, has come up with a wheeze to support a charity in which £30 buys a year's education for a child in Zimbabwe. Simply break a minor law, don't get caught but, instead, pay the fine to the charity so your conscience is clear.
Of course, I wouldn't want to incite anyone to commit a crime by mentioning that if you shoplift £30 worth of goods from Topshop then pay the charity, the only person who loses is Philip Green and he could, perhaps, count it as going towards the multi-billion tax bill in this country he is legally avoiding while at the same time advising the government on how to cut costs - such as trebling tuition fees. So stealing from Topshop to give to charity would be helping education after all. Of course it's a scurrilous idea and I want nothing whatsoever to do with it. But the charity link is http://www.justgiving.com/educatechildrenzimbabwe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well done Tony McCoy. I know it's a crap award and has nothing to do with personality despite being called The Sports Personality of the Year Award, but at last it's gone to someone who rides horses but doesn't look like one. And well done Phil Taylor on coming second. He's from Stoke so look at the map above to find out where that is!
But it has led to the most hilarious conflict of views on the Guardian's website, with many railing against AP McCoy for having the best horses (and therefore it's nothing to do with him that he wins so many races) and that Phil Taylor is playing a game not a sport.
Right, AP McCoy gets good horses because he's a good jockey, possibly the best jump jockey ever. In fact, he often gets ordinary horses and makes them good. If trainers and owners thought anyone could ride their horses, they would simply book the cheapest pilot. Guardian readers who say Mark Cavendish should have won - bollocks. Though I admire the dedication and grit of cyclists (not to mention the homo erotic clothing, pharmaceutical expertise and self obsession), horse racing is more skilful. So too is darts. Cycling requires the fittest athletes in the world, which is tremendous, but it's all about being physically better than opponents, not more skilful. But then the discipline and regime to ride a horse - which AP does every day, not once a year in the French sunshine - is very similar to cyclists in some ways. He permanently exists at a stone and a half below his ideal weight and trains daily, often in great pain. If there is any argument against McCoy it is that he is a role model for anorexics.
As for Phil Taylor. He has dominated his sport in a way no one else has dominated their sport and not just this year but since John Major was in power.
For anyone who thinks either McCoy or Taylor should have lost out to a boxer who has beaten bums, a teenager who falls into a swimming pool or a very pretty girl who didn't even bother to go to the Commonwealth Games, then you try riding a horse over fences, or standing in front of 10,000 cheering drunks trying to get three darts in the same tiny space and see how difficult it is.
Bully for Tony and the Power....cheers, Solly
No comments:
Post a Comment