Super Gabriel, super Gabriel...

A new hero

Well, almost. He plays for Villa. But apart from that Gabriel Agbonlahor is a top bloke. Apparently he 'challenged' some one direction bloke, 'clattered him to the ground' no less, according to the papers. I watched the clip. He ran into him. A bit. Minimal does not do justice to the slightness of the physical contact.

Anyway. One direction bloke went over like a grandma on a frosty morning, hobbled about a bit, then had to go off, to chuck up.

This is properly in that hashtag just saying zone, but: two weeks ago we saw a rugby player dash off, head covered in blood, get sewn up, bandaged and back on in no time at all, without reaching for the sickbag. Players go off on stretchers, with broken limbs, ligaments in tatters, all manner of cuts and bruises. Some come back to the fray, some go off to A&E. They don't chuck up.

I have seen players throw up. They usually blame the beer last night, the curry last night, or last night's beer and curry.

Agbonlahor has had death threats on twitter. If he boy band fans are made of the same stuff as their idols, he need not worry.

Anyway, just saying, boy band bloke, little tap from football bloke, puking up all over the place.

Why do people despise politicians?

According to Chris Huhne, it's all that nasty Rupert Murdoch's fault. Nothing to do with MPs swapping speeding points with the missus to avoid whatever was coming their way, oh no. He's properly in denial here, despite the recent Mori poll returning 18% of the population believing that politicians can be trusted to tell the truth, a lower score than journalists and bankers.

According to Huhne, the media's approach 'corrodes' the public's trust in politicians.

That trust isn't corroding, it's rusted away to dust (at least here it has). The facts are simple:

For over 2,000 years the politicians have been saying this:

“Give us power over you little folk, and we'll make things better.”

For over 2,000 years, there's been famine, wars, inhuman treatment of others. Before blaming the press for your bad press, look at yourselves and your performance. There's a fifteen to twenty year cycle of economic recession and misery (Gordon Brown broke the boom-bust cycle, before the bankers broke him and reinstated it through greed and recklessness). The same proportion of the world population is worried about the next meal as ever was. Have yourself a little film-style segue here: a toga'd senator tell the assembled masses that he'll make things better...fade to...kings with swords and horses leading peasants armed with very little into battle...fade to...Hitler thumping the lectern...fade to...Maggie's police beating up the miners...fade to...Tony, son of Mags, and Dave, in his red coat riding out with the hunt.

“Give us power over you little folk, and we'll make things better.”

That's why no one trusts you, because you want the power over us little folk, to dictate and preach and enforce your evangelical beliefs and codes and whatever on us, without ever delivering that thing about making it better.