Yearly Archives: 2011
Kate o Catherine
Según fuentes del Palacio de Buckingham, Kate Middleton ha tenido su primer desacuerdo con el Príncipe Charles, precisamente sobre el asunto de su nombre. A Charles, nunca le ha gustado los nombres diminutivos, ya que les parece de poca clase y populistas. Nunca le ha agradado el hecho de que su primera mujer fue universalmente reconocida como Lady Di– y no Diana- y lo de Kate le suena a presentadora del tiempo. En cambio Kate insiste que quiere llamarse Kate y no Catherine- rompiendo así con otro legado de la …
Classical encounters Round 2 (Part 2)
Five months is evidently a long-time in La Liga. Those of us who watched FC Barcelona’s 5-0 victory over Real Madrid last November could be forgiven for wondering last night at the Mestalla whether it had really just been an illusion. Let’s be blunt. The Barca that played the first half of the King’s Cup put on probably one of the worst exhibitions under Pep Guardiola’s governance since his infamous first league match as boss when they lost against Hercules. This was a team that seemed to have lost the …
Classicals encounters:Round 2 (Part One)
I went to bed with two competing chants ringing in my ear – one “Asi Asi gana el Madrid”,the other “Madrid, Madrid, Madrid.” From a radical Barca perspective, FC Barcelona was robbed of victory at the Bernabeu by two failed referee decisions: a refusal to give a penalty when Villa was taken down early on in the match, and his willingness to give one when Marcelo dived. From a radical Madridista perspective, the penalty scored by Ronaldo was not only justified (if unfairly lacking a red card) but just recompense …
I am against the culture of abuse
As FC Barcelona and Real Madrid limber up for the first of their serial four epic encounters, the usual abuse has began to fly across the netwaves between some fans. Does this hysteria really benefit anyone other than the pent-up hormonal levels of the main abusers? I think I am not alone among thousands of universal football lovers who, regardless of their particular loyalties, would like to see some mutual respect being shown by supporters of the two greatest clubs in the world. Ok there is a historical rivalry here but …
Tales of the Imagination
As Barca limbers up for its serial encounters with its arch rival, I thought it worth commenting on the rather worrying urban myth that has been fuelled in recent times by Real Madrid fanatics. Out of respect to both sporting institutions, and weary of falling foul of libel laws, I will have to phrase this as delicately as I can-but suffice it to say that the quite unsubstantiated and untrue suggestion is that Barca has only managed to have got to where it has got to-record results across three major …
The rivalry that defies Logic
A long-term friend in Barcelona and wise cule thinks that Pep Guardiola, having assured himself of qualification tomorrow for the semi-finals of the Champions League , should go on to the Bernabeu with his reserve team. His reasoning? Beating Mourinho that way would make an even bolder statement about the philosophy of La Cantera – and even if Barca loses, it would not mean losing La Liga, while strengthening the first squad for the other challenges left in the season-the Copa del Rey and the road to Wembley. Of …
The ghost of Olivares
Let’s be honest- watching Mourinho and Real Madrid thumping Spurs last night would have been an unsettling feeling for most cules. Not only has the wishful thinking that Barca might face Redknapp’s boys in the semi-finals evaporated (what a pity for us Londoners) , but its biggest rival looks like a tight army unit that has identified the main target and will relentlessly pursue it. Mourinho has clearly given up on winning La Liga and is hoping to pull off something of a record by taking yet another club to …
Madcap (Non) Policing
This evening the Conservative-led Wandsworth Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee plans to agree in principle to a scheme to cease the current much loved Parks Police service and move towards negotiating an agreement with the Met as reported in yesterday’s London Evening Standard. Some Conservative Councilors are putting a gloss on things insisting that the plan will not undermine current policing levels in the popular Battersea Park. But comments by police officers in recent weeks about cuts the Met is facing generally leaves me with no doubt that the ability …
A noble colleague
Today’s FT includes a thought-provoking and beautifully restrained piece by my former colleague Charles Clover who was expelled from Libya at the weekend and is now back in his Moscow bureau. Apart from being a thoroughly nice human being, Charles is an experienced journalist who has reported with excellence on other hot spots of the Middle East. But he knew he was taking a professional risk by writing a very personal eyewitness account of the incident that led to his expulsion. Charles was breakfasting in his Tripoli hotel and meditating on …
A Better Recipe for demos in London
Former Met senior officer Brian Paddick has provided some worthwhile advice to his former colleagues about how to better control the next anti-cuts demo and prevent it from descending into headline grabbing violence. He suggests quite rightly that prevention rather than reaction is the best remedy and those suspected of planning to turn a peaceful march into a riot should be required to show their faces and be thoroughly searched before hand, and, if necessary ‘taken out’ by being arrested. These are the kind of tactics-together with more focused intelligence …