“Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.”
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
The older I get, the more convinced I am that society is heading for a big crash of a sort few of us, used to centuries of order, might ever have expected. Pessimistic? At this point I hoped to illustrate my point with a story from Tuesday about the recent Bradford grooming gangs receiving £425,000 of public money in legal aid. Strangely, the T&A pulled the story. No matter because it is in printed form.
The explanation from the Editor, Nigel Burton was as follows: “We received a complaint about the figures and it has been removed while they are double checked. I believe they are correct, but the MoJ seems to have lumped costs from several sources into one whole.”
In English this translates as: “They have more lawyers than we do.”
It is yet another sick example of a system designed to feed the elite and sod the rest, blowing an astounding sum of money – whatever the true amount – to be trousered by the legal system and to hell with the abused kids. And for what? To attempt to exonerate scumbags, at the same time covering over failings in the establishment that led to this mess.
The system has shamed the children it failed over and over again. And who should we really be protecting? Our young or backward Third World practices?
Junior Coaching
In an era where opportunities for kids to experience, educate and engage in something both mentally challenging and physically demanding are increasingly linked to the ability to pay, you would have thought that the game of club cricket, cheap as it is, would retain some attraction? Fresh air, sunshine (usually), new friends and a unique game.
Sadly, as kids get ever more reticent to detach themselves from the current most fashionable gadget, the increasing scarcity of those wishing to stay active is alarming. And with it comes a sinister phenomena – the Dishonest Adult. The DA, too lazy to bother with kids who need constant nurturing to get to even modest levels of ability, will fill those of a slightly more modest level with all manner of bullshit.
So it is that we coaches contend with teenagers approaching us as if Premier League footballers. Hard as it is to penetrate their dopey skulls that an ever dwindling pool of people like us do this for free, Prima Donna struggles to see this having been convinced of their undervalued worth by DA.
What is even more remarkable is the spread of the curse to coaches being approached by clubs to “name your package” – I kid you not. Although the sums being touted would not tickle Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp, clubs who need junior structures in place to tick boxes but cannot be arsed to do the grind necessary are now brandishing dirty brown envelopes.
It is evidence of a society that has become so money centred it has created huge divisions. Were the age of the volunteer to be wiped out by a bung or two what would we have left?
G’Day!
Lured by the claims of great surfing to Bradford this summer, a big welcome to Tommy from Torquay in Australia. Dazed from a marathon flight, he was promptly “sconed” by a fierce drive at nets, an impact that would have felled most of us. As if brushing off a fly he shook his head and my fears of returning a cabbage across the seas were unfounded.
Unlike last year’s cultural exchange he rarely drinks, hates junk food and can just about lock doors too. Napolena’s in the village is rumoured to be closing down as a result.
Finally, no sandpaper jokes please…he’s heard them all. Welcome and our best wishes for the summer as the ground basks in sunshine, a beautiful testament to the hard core who have worked tirelessly to present it at it’s very best.
The Stuffs are at home tomorrow and admission, as always, is free.
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