So Manchester United play Manchester City…an hour to kick off.
Will there be an impeccably observed Minutes Silence to mark the passing of Margaret Thatcher. Hardly a lover of Football….Hillsborough and Heysel to hcore dubious credit. Black armbands anyone?
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Yeah, for MCFC’s clapped out season… Last night was a consolation prize… Happy to concede that the better team won…
True. nd congratulations.
But all round this is an awful season. Premiership clubs are completely off the European pace.
This ill b the worst Unitd team to have won the title….Wellbeck, Rafael, Young, Jones (our best player last night) Carrick, Cleverley, de Gea…well below standard.
Never saw the game, so was there a minute’s silence?
No I wrote that about an hour before the match started.
Im avoiding TV (and united losing last night gives me two reasons to avoid TV today) but there are some people, notably Ken Bates at Leeds who are big Tory fans.
A political figure…particuarly one as divisive and as anti-football as Thatcher getting a minutes silence at a Premiership games would be a bad sign. Frankly I think there re too many silences and rounds of applause at games (indeed the applause was introduced to drown out noise during silences).
I don’t of course care how Thatcher is treated but am slightly disturbed at the thought of a ceremonial (sic) funeral.
Will be posting on the state of the EPL again later this week… Think its crusting up on too much cash amongst too few clube…
[PS, have they gone back to silences at matches?]
To be honest, I don’t know.
The recent Hillsborough event at Liverpool was Silence…but I think this is now a non contentious event which trumps tribal loyalty.
Tribalism endures when it’s contentious or marking the passing of a blameless club stalwart and they opt for Applause.
I will be frank. I think it is over-done and once started, is hard to reverse.
As a Man United fan it is worth noting that the Club was actually a bit heartless in dealing with the under-insured survivors from Munich. Harry Gregg WAS quite angry that his friend Johnny Berry, injured at Munich was forced to leave his club house (for Shay Brennan) just on this after Munich.
The survivors and indeed the deceased families did not benefit from Munich. The Club…initially unwittingly and latterly more calculated have benefitted.
Harry Gregg is lucky tha he lived long enough for the club to belatedly acknowledge it.
But certainly a a youthful supporte I recall no more than Kenneth Wolsrenholme ccasionally mention it each February.
Contrast thi with Liverpool and Hillsborough.
I am almost afraid t say that Liverpool as a city wallows in tragedy…Jamie Bulger for example.
But hav we gone too far with public displays of Grief.
A few weeks ago a teenage girl was murdered on a Birmingham bus and teachers are called upon to pay tribute. Her “friends” tearfully erect an impromptu shrine.
Certainly at Old Trafford after the Soham murders of two little girls wearing Manchester United shirts there was an extremely poignant Silence. But did it do anything other than glorify David Beckham and build his image.?
Where did it start?
Diana Spencer maybe.
But do we need these localised and (British) national displays of grief…the Philpott children for example?
I am entirely neutral on this.
I’ve made fairly caustic comments amount Thatchers funeral…ceremonial indeed.
Perhaps a more balanced website should analyse it in a more neutral way.
In less than a month there are council elections in England.
Will Thatchers ceremonial funeral and unrelenting eulogising on 24 hour channels help them?
One last vote for Maggie?
Are 24 Hour News Channels a problem here?
Besides the one liners on Twitter, one sided Blogs like mine and the partisanship of “Rust in Peace” there IS a serious debate to be had.