Tony Blair is going to be taking calls on Radio 5 Live's 606 football phone-in programme tomorrow night following the England game. Is there nothing he won't do to court popularity? Expect a lot of y'knows and dropped 'h's as he tries to speak estuary English. What a pity Alan Green won't be presenting it. Perhaps Adrian Chiles will ask about his memories of sitting in the stands watching Jackie Milburn at Newcastle - only trouble was there weren't any seats when Jackie Milburn played for Newcastle.
I'm sure English football fans will give him the kind of welcome he will never forget. If you get my drift.
30 comments:
It's tonight.
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe...looking forward to that!
Blimey! Next he'll be cycling to work with a flag on the back of his bike and blagging his way into a Beckham party.
Oh...
"Is there nothing he won't do to court popularity?"
You know the answer to that, Iain. I worked out how cringingly awful the man was from his vacuous "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" slogan in 1993/4.
Trouble is, courting popularity with complete ruthlessness and shamelessness worked for him for long enough. You can fool all of the people for some of the time ...
The bit about Milburn is an urban myth that has been regularly exposed as untrue. You are not up to speed Iain
When I last saw it discussed on TV I did not write down chapter and verse in the expectation that blogs like yours would be maintaining the myth. However it was a case of press distorting words. Happens to the best.....
Not that old chestnut again Iain.
He never said he watched Jackie Milburn, he said he was a hero of his when he grew up (like all Toon fans) - even though he was a bit before his time.
The interview was dredged up recently and it was confirmed that that was what he actually said.
And there were seats at Sid James Park when Milburn played.
And to suck up still further, I thought he looked quite comfortable discussing the beautiful game on Football Focus last year.
By the way, who does Dave support? Or does his sporting knowledge only extend to the Eton wall game ...
Not strictly true Iain. Don't get upsetting our geordie friends, they've had seats at Newcastle for over 100 years. His mistake was saying he used to watch Wor Jackie from the seats behind the goal at the Gallowgate End, which was not seated then.
Tony sitting in the Gallowgate end...Urban myth, I'm afraid. It came from a Radio Newcastle interview he did that was then parodied in a local newspaper, then picked up as fact by the nationals.
I think I read a few months ago that the Jackie Milburn / Newcastle story was a myth and Blair never actually made the claim that was attributed to him.
I think I read a few months ago that the Jackie Milburn / Newcastle story was a myth and Blair never actually made the claim that was attributed to him.
And the time the daring young scallywag stowed away on a plane to the Caribbean from Newcastle Airport? What a scamp! But Newcastle Airport says it has never had a single flight to the Caribbean. Oh, dear ...
- Anonymousette
The question to ask is why is he bothering ? ( I saw pictures of him in 2 local newspapers back in Essex recently in the same week. ) He also appeared in The Chemical Engineer in the same week.
Why does he need to be 'personally' popular ? That sort of naked campaigning, rather than doing the job he's paid to do, that Reid is now engagdegd in can at least be linked to the next election ( for Labour leader ;-) ).
Why is the Blair personality cult getting the Izzard i-Pod treatment ? (This is what Mr G Brown should be asking himself when he can drag himself away from the World cup.)
He really is a tosser.
Stripped of his briefing sheets I suspect he knows as much about football as my cats do.
How much longer do we have to suffer the indignity of this guy in Downing Street?
Am not even a Labour supporter but that Milburn story really annoys me.
On Footie focus they clearly showed that it was a myth.
Get yer story straight Dale.
So the BBC are dumming down their sports coverage again.
I doubt this will get on to the BBC Have Your Say so may i saher my 2p worth with your readers:
"Surely with British troops involved in an illegal war we only participated in to shore up Blair's prayer-partner he has worthier ways of spending his time?
Perhaps he could really show his support for 'our boys' and help man a checkpoint outside the comfort of the Green Zone?"
I resent the suggestion that it is only women who are going to be bored and exasperated by the coming weeks of incessant football rubbish. Many men also strongly dislike this coarse sport of cheats and oafs. And even if they like the sport, they often don't like the noisy, drunk behaviour of football supporters, who seem to think that the whole world must be rearranged to suit their tastes.
I intend to live in a cave during the world cup wanking like a chimpanzee and eating bananas.
So you don't remember Margaret Thatcher on 'Jim'll fix it' a few months before an election then? The genial Mr Saville was heard to say something along the lines of 'if I could I'd fix it for her to be in Number Ten forever'. Can't remember if that was before or after he got his OBE....
The Jackie Milburn thing may be a myth, but I do recall a certain blogger claiming that he had watched Paolo Di Canio 'from the terraces' at Upton Park. The ground had been all-seater for several years before the flawed Italian genius arrived.
Who does Dave support? Aston Villa. Maybe it's an Old Etonian thing - Prince William supports them too. Either that, or it's an extreme expression of his desire to win over Middle England (are there a lot of Villa supporters in Edgbaston?)
"Is there nothing he won't do to court popularity?" Oh, come on now! This coming from Tories who stay mysteriously quiet whenever Cameron pulls a PR stunt, like riding with huskies and going to the Beckhams' party.
"Stripped of his briefing sheets I suspect he knows as much about football as my cats do." No need to be so cynical - I understand that Blair is a genuine football enthusiast.
>> I understand that Blair is a genuine football enthusiast. <<
I understand he told the nation Saddam not only had WMD but could could deploy them in 45 minutes, that he told Parliament Saddam could remain in power if he gave up those (imagined) WMD, that the anti-terrorism powers he begged parliament for would be used only when neccessary (i.e. not against 70 year old hecklers), that he was "tough on terror" at the same time he let out real terrorists gave sinn fein a veto over government policy.
There's a pattern there and you don't have to look too hard for it...
From TB's radio comments, as reported on the BBC site:
"He also urged England fans to lay off under-fire Owen Hargreaves.
Hargreaves, who has been booed, could even learn lessons from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, who had bounced back after a barrage of media criticism, he suggested."
If anyone can read that without feeling physically sick, he or she is a stronger person than I am.
No, Croydonian. I couldn't handle it. My stomach lurched.
- Anonymousette
Sidetrack alert
Annymousette - high time you got yourself a blog, as you have a fine line in strong opinions.
In defence of Iain, no-one has ever conclusively "proved" that the Milburn story was an urban myth.
Blair was asked in a radio interview who was his childhood hero, and replied "Jackie Milburn." As Bob Piper noted, he then went onto talk about watching from the seats at the Gallowgate End which was then an all-standing area. To suggest that these two comments were unrelated, and that he wasn't talking about watching Milburn from the Gallowgate End seems to me a typical piece of New Labour hair-splitting.
Furthermore, it is a matter of indubitable fact that Milburn retired in 1955 when Blair was three years old, which is why many Geordie journos thought it odd that he had named him as his childhood hero.
Paul,
Jackie Milburn was my childhood hero - and I was born in 1980.
Readers might me interested in the letter I sent to The Daily Echo, Southampton's local rag, as produced below;
Dear Letters Editor
Echo readers may not have been entirly surprised that Prime Minister Blair got on the football bandwagon by pledging that getting the 350 disappointed British pupils- including children from the South Coast- back out to Germany to watch another game was "something we need to work on" following an alleged ticket scam. (Echo Report 30 June) and then subsequently the relevant government department downplaying hopes it could help.
Following on from 'Burger-gate' where members of the parliamentary football club such as Southampton Labour MP Alan Whithead were given free tickets by corporate sponsor McDonalds, Blair should ask them to donate their tickets for the remaining games and suggest they get back to parliament and do some work...
I would be interested to know what the Labour Party makes locally of what has been nicknamed Alan Whitehead's 'McFreebie'
Your sincerely,
Matthew Dean
Officer without Portfolio
Southampton Test Conservatives
I got cut off mid-flow. Damned Beeb. They filter the questions so I had to lie about what I was going to say in order to get on.
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