COYS!

This week I bought tickets to see Spurs when they come to Sydney in May and this week we'll find out if we got tickets to see Morrissey when he plays at the Sydney Opera House in the same week. I've loved Spurs since I was about 6. And I do mean love. I still spend a fair chunk of may day reading or thinking about Spurs. At about 20, I was put onto the Smiths & Morrissey. I doubt I'll find another songwriter who songs resonated so much with me. I don't quite feel the same connection any more (which I think is a good thing), but I'm still excited at the thought of seeing him again. I'm hoping we don't get tickets for his Saturday performance, because when it comes choosing between Spurs and Morrissey it's a bit of a mismatch. COYS!

In this edition

- Sheila Take A Bow
- Barbarism Begins At Home
- I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
- Milton Keynes Here We Come


Sheila Take A Bow

There is a quote from Bob Hawke about no matter what the ALP does, they'll always win seats around Newcastle. I wish I could find the actual quote to give justice to what a stronghold Newcastle is of the ALP.

 The Labor Party had won Newcastle at every election since 1927, except for in 1988 when an independent won the seat. Anyway when the ALP was annihilated by the Coalition at the 2011 NSW state election, Jodi McKay lost the seat.

Jodi was done in by being part of the worst NSW state government since the Rum rebellion and by a dirty tricks campaign after she stood upto boganaire Nathan Tinkler when she opposed a plan for a coal loader that Tinkler supported. And to make it worse some of her own colleagues were also part of the campaign to get rid of her. here

Jodi will stand for the ALP at the next state election, in my seat of Strathfield.  It's hard not to admire her for standing upto what was right and we could certainly do with some more people in government who make sensible decisions re developments.

I bumped into her today. I spoke to her about what had happened with Tinkler and Eric Roozendaal and asked her even if I admired her, how could we trust having another ALP government so soon after having such a bad and corrupt ALP government?

Jodi took the time to speak to me and about how painful it was to find out that her own colleagues conspired against her and how she didn't know for sure they had until the ICAC hearing. She also said if she wasn't convinced those corrupt elements had been removed from the ALP she wouldn't be running.

I'm glad that Jodi McKay is running for Strathfield. We could use somebody on Burwood Council who took a sensible approach to developments. It leaves me in a quandary because I like Jodi, but I'm not sure I have enough confidence in the NSW ALP to give them my vote again. Not yet anyway.


Barbarism Begins At Home

Earlier this week said 'Australians are sick of being lectured by the United Nations'. He was speaking of about a UN report that was critical of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers.

Good to know our PM has so little time for the UN. In 2013 & 2014 Australia was part of the UN Security Council.

Any Tony not all Australians are upset about reporting on Australia's treatment of asylum seekers.


I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

I have a problem that so often I book to do two things on one day, and just don't make the connection that I have done so. For weeks I have known that this Friday that a Wanderers game will clash with a Bulldogs game. I had chosen the Bulldogs game vs the Eels as the game I'd see. I also knew I had tickets to see England vs Afghanistan at the one day cricket world cup for this Friday. But for some reason I hadn't put together that there was a clash. Up until yesterday I was still planning on going to both.

Anyway I'll be going to see England vs Afghanistan even though the game is a dead rubber with both teams having no chance of making the quarter finals. Still it would be good to see an impoverished nation with such serious social problems, trying to master a sport that they haven't shown much talent for playing in the past. It will also be good to see Afghanistan play.


Milton Keynes Here We Come

Last Friday Spurs announced that they are coming to Sydney at the end of May.

It's been a big few weeks for the team I support. In bad news we lost the League Cup final (is it now called the Capital One Cup?) to Chelsea. In good news Spurs won a court case that means the building of a new stadium is one step closer (it could even by the final legal obstacle).

Spurs have bought all of the surrounding properties needed to build the new stadium. Bar one. Anyway they got a government compulsory purchase order for the property, but the company involved took them to court (and lost). I'm not sure why Spurs didn't just build around the property, sort of like you see from time to time in China, where some poor family's house ends up being right in the middle of a freeway. Some people might say that you can't really have an immovable structure in the middle of your field. However, we had Tom Huddlestone in the centre of our midfield for years, and really there wouldn't have been much of a difference.

Anyway it leaves Spurs in a quandary as to where to play whilst the ground is being built during the 2017/18 season. There has been some talk of playing at the Olympic Stadium or the Boleyn Ground or Wembley. All have problems that might mean that we can't play at them. It looks like the current favourite is the ground of the Milton Keynes Dons. There are some serious drawbacks to this plan. Their ground only holds about 30,000 people. It's over 50 miles from Tottenham to Milton Keynes, which with English traffic means it will take about 2 & 1/2 days to get to. And it's Milton Fucking Keynes!!!

Anyway there is another ground in London that has the capacity more in line with the level of our fan base. The team who plays there really owes a solid after we let them at our ground for six seasons during World War II. And their ground is only 4 miles from White Hart Lane. Of course I'm talking about the Emirates, the home ground of the Woolwich Wanderers aka Arsenal.

And despite all of these good points, it will not happen. And further we shouldn't inquire about the possibility of playing there. And if we did this would go down disastrously with our fans.

Spurs are currently running a fan poll for the best Spurs XI of all time. Defence has never been our strong suit. The 4 defenders I voted for were Steve Perryman (1 cap for England), Ledley King (21 caps for England), Mike England (44 caps for Wales) and Cyril Knowles(4 caps for England and one cracking song about him). Anyway all very good players, but they were hardly the British defenders of their generation even allowing for the fact that Perryman was terribly overlooked by English managers and if only Ledley had of had better knees he would have gone down as being one of the best defenders England had produced.

There were 12 candidates for the poll. Missing was a player who at one stage had been our club captain, and was captain when we won the 1999 League Cup final. He also  made 73 appearances for England and was widely regarded as being one of the best defenders in world football for a considerable period. It was no oversight that Sol Campbell's name was left of the list, for Sol left Spurs to join Arsenal. I'll leave that story for another day, but it's fair to say it didn't go down well with Spurs fan, most of whom still haven't forgiven him (also a lot of fans came to the conclusion that he is gay about the same time he signed for Arsenal).

Anyway it's good to be a  Spurs fan at the moment. We have a good young side, a new stadium looks likely and we're coming to Sydney. Now if we could only finish above Arsenal.