BS: No Olympics Football

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 12:46 PM

I think they are all countries, but blood runs thicker than water and like it or not, we're all pretty much the same underneath on these Islands.

Twll dy din di!

stigweard the inhabitant of these Isles and bollocks to all your countries and misplaced nationalism my ancestors where here before they were invented anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 12:56 PM

Frankly Doug, I much prefer Gandhi as a person.

Oh yeah? - see Here.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:02 PM

TMI! (Too Much Information).

The International Olympic Committee is NOT going to allow a different set of nations to participate in a single discipline/sport (i.e., football) than in the event as a whole.

If FIFA lets the various countries of the UK enter separate teams in the World Cup, so be it, and you various nationalists should be glad of it. Such an arrangement might not last forever!

If the governing bodies of the sport can't select a UK football team that includes UK citizens other than Englishmen, that's wrong, and can only serve to field an inferior team. On the other hand, if there should be a competant and entirely fair selection process and not a single Scot, Welshman, or Irishman were skilled enough to qualify, shame on them.

How would the Opening Ceremony "parade of nations" work if the Olympics were to accept separate football teams from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, while accepting UK teams and individuals for competition in track/athletics, swimming and diving, rowing, greco-roman wrestling and every other major and minor sport? Ridiculous!

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:04 PM

Why do people talk about Great Britain as if it was a country . It isn't, it's an island, part of the UK, with no separate political identity.

What annoys me is that there's been virtually no coverage of the football in the Olympics, just because there's no home team to yammer on about.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 02:03 PM

Needs must - I just picked up a Bitish passport renewal form, whilst in Durham for the folk Gathering, but I'll be quite happy to fill in suchlike again if and when England becomes independent. And, further to Goatfell's further and further, Flower of Scotland is on my Top Friends if you'd like a listen (as I do now and again).

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 04:12 AM

stigweard,

a bit of sense here I think,

I agree with you that we are all different COUNTRIES, but we are all part of a place called UK,

SNP/PLAID CYRMU

These are the parties for me.

and if there was an English independence party, or a Cornwall independence party I would vote for them as well.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: ard mhacha
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 04:41 AM

Goatfell, "go to N Ireland and tell them it is not a country", Goatfell go to any nationalist area of `the wee six` and tell them it`s not a country, and you will have all the drink you can swallow.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: GUEST,Hawkwind
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 05:24 AM

I am counting down the hours to the closing ceremony of the Olympic games.

Every time I turn the bloody tv on it's Olympic bloody games. In the end it all adds up to a select bunch of egotist individuals who get money thrown at them from the lottery and government and we have to tolerate their bloody faces for two weeks as the hug eachother.

It astounds me that if a coloured British athlete isn't going so well we hear his parents are from the West Indies or Jamaica. If they win a gold, it's Birmingham or Brixton will be delighted at their favourite son or daughter !

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 07:26 AM

I know that N.Ireland/Scotland and Wales are Countries, and also I know that some people that live in Cornwall want to be free from London rule, but we can't unless we get the people on our side and get rid of the Unionist parties in these places, or try and tell them the truth.

Free from London rule the quicker the better I say.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 07:27 AM

but this does not mean that I hate the English, I just don't like London telling us what to do.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 09:06 AM

"and if there was an English independence party"

It'll never happen. The second the flag of St. George is waved you'll start hearing cries of 'racists', 'fascists' or whatever; associations will be made with skinheads, right-wingers etc. This issue is at the heart of a struggle for identity for English people. To many, the overt displays of nationalism seen in Scotland, Ireland and Wales are something to be envied and they don't see why they can't do the same. However, this view is tempered by a sort of collective guilt for the events of the past, although I think these are spun in some quarters to further nationalist agendas; I also think the true struggle has always been a class issue to a degree and the more visionary militants (Winstanley, Connelly, Marx, Paine) of the past have recognised this. To many from Scotland, Ireland and Wales any display of English nationalism is seen as threatening and living proof the old enemy is still on the march towards imperialism. Until the home countries can truly learn to accept the past is done and we can coexist, and we can each express our national identity in non-threatening ways then things will stay as they are. I strongly believe a radical re-assessment of the history of the Isles since the Norman invasion from a class perspective would enable us all to see our modern relationships in a new light.

It's a problem. I strongly believe in independence for all the home nations, but I also believe that we're all more closely related than most countries and this is a strength that should be built upon. I personally am not a flag-waver or a nationalist of any sort, but I'm also not willing to let any my cultural heritage(s) go meekly into the night, either wandering lost or forced out by others.

"I just don't like London telling us what to do."

What you call England, the English call London (er, sort of). What I mean is the Isles have been ruled from the South-East of England since the arrival of William the Bastard and that area of England has had a disproportionate influence on all of the home countries and many English counties ever since. What it might interest out neighbours to know is for many English people the government in London is as ignorant, misunderstanding and uncaring of their cultures as they are of yours. Fact. Always have been, always will be.

So we don't like London telling us what to do either.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 09:16 AM

good

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 09:24 AM

we who want freedom from London, we don't care what race or gender or what tickles yer fancy, there are people in Scotland/Wales think that the SNP/PLAID CYRMU are anti English, we are not we are as I have said we're anti London/Westminster, and we believe that the people have the right to make their own mistakes.

give the people a voice it is like someone coming into your house and then telling you what to do I mean would like that I don't think so.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 11:02 AM

Whatever.

As I've said, I'm not subscribing to anyone else's ideas of country when it comes to these Islands. My family have been here since the year dot and even if they'd only arrived yesterday but felt at home in the dales and fells, glens and becks, cwms and loughs they have as much right to be here as anyone else as long as they contribute and are tolerant.

I love the land, languages and cultures of the islands I live on, and not one person owns any bit of them any more or less than I do as far as I am concerened. And in the spirit of that, I would gladly enter a football team made up of my brothers and sisters from across the isles to represent all of us who can see beyond our flags and sad little nationalistic viewpoints.

Up yer arse!

diddley diddley diddley dum di diddley
diddley diddley diddley diddley
diddley diddley diddley dum di diddley
diddle diddle dee dum dee diddley

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 01:04 PM

"I just don't like (Scottish New Labour in) London telling us what to do." (Goatfell; plus me, in parenthesis). I, too, much prefer the SNP, English Democrats, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 06:09 PM

What's needed is an MRL - Movement for a Republic of London. Non-racist, multicultural, and left of centre, like the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: GUEST,Earlyriser
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 04:00 AM

Who the hell is the Benny Hill look a like with the Birmingham accent presenting the Olympics for the BBC ?

Christ where do the find them ???????????

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 06:43 AM

(Morning - I think you mean Adrian Chiles, Earlyriser.)
I'm not going to start another thread about it, but some of the sports that females are participating at in this Olympics is, frankly, offensive to me. I.e., sports that require brute strength, such that medal winners nearly always have bulging muscles and veins in their limbs, or sports where they try and kick each other in the head, or wrestle in ways that produce cauliflower ears. Here, rather, are a couple of good sports for females - table tennis and netball.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 07:27 AM

I like him Adrian(His name)?

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 07:36 AM

walkaaboutverse,

I think that statement is rather offensive and sexist to boot, women have the right as any man to do any sports they feel they can do, and who is to say that they can, If they want to compete with the men then let them compete with the men, after all they are human the same as you.

And Walkaboutverse welcome to the 21 century.

equality in sport for both Men and Women.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 03:47 PM

... And why is it that the team for England, N.Ireland, Scotland & Wales is labelled as "Team GB"? Northern Ireland has no representation in that title.
Similarly, Wales has no representation on the Union flag. Is it any wonder that in the past Welsh athletes have done their 'lap of honour' carrying the Welsh flag?

Anyhow, back to the soccer. At least the English Football Association never tried to claim that the F.A.Cup was for world competition (unlike American footballers). They only changed the name from "The English Cup" after Cardiff (Wales) won it!

Cymru am byth!
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 04:01 PM

I'd be quite happy for the next Archbishop of Canterbury to be a female, or to work under a female managing director, Goatfell, but, as a production manager, if I saw a female trying to pick up a 25KG bag of polymer, e.g., I'd stop her and do it myself - somethings/attitudes WERE better mid-way through last century, frankly. For more on this, see poems 210 and 211, if you like.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 04:11 PM

...and then there's cricket, Nigel...from what I've gathered, the Welsh could field a pretty handy cricket team these days.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 10:08 AM

Just watched the handover Olympics performance - there was "Olympics football" for one Englishman, David Beckham, as he kicked a ball out to athletes who did participate; but the rest was American culture performed around a bus, a hedge, and umbrellas (which were lookin up).

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 01:05 PM

In a one day Cricket match in Cardiff in 2002 Wales beat England by eight wickets!
BBC Sports

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 01:34 PM

So, Nigel, the England and Wales Cricket Board should definitely dissolve, along with the monarchy.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:40 AM

Apparently, Alex Ferguson has been appoached to manage a GB 2012 team - if he wishes to go beyond managing a wealthy world-11 against other wealthy world-11s in England, I suggest he applies, rather, to manage Scotland's NATIONAL team.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: GUEST,Fife
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:44 AM

"Apparently, Alex Ferguson has been approached to manage a GB 2012 team"

What are they going to allow bath chairs on the side lines ? Sorry but the ex Rangers Ferguson is getting too old and hasn't he had a few brushes with the law that exposed an alcohol problem ?

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 12:31 PM

...and George Burley, a Scot who competes for his OWN country as manager, has said that the Scottish FA remains against a GB football team - and God's speed to them.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 12:50 PM

"but some of the sports that females are participating at in this Olympics is, frankly, offensive to me"

Jesus wept on a Sunday morning - who are you to decide what people do with their lives WAV?

Good luck to each and every one of them, they've more integrity in their little fingers than some people have in their entire body.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:17 PM

Any limitations on that Stigweard - how about females playing rugby, or boxing? How much harm can be done to a lady's breasts in such heavy contact sports?

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: PoppaGator
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:33 PM

One of my former coworkers is on an all-girl rugby team; she's not in the office now since she recently returned to active duty in the Marines. More power to her, I say ~ even though we may not see eye-to-eye on politics and international relations. And, while she may be a bit on the "big-boned" side, she is certainly attractive and feminine enough in her own postmodern fashion.

I know a few young women in our local neo-roller-derby contingent; their sport may be even rougher-and-tougher than rugby, and I have no problem with any of them, either.

I've yet to hear of any mammary injuries in connectiton with such athletic persuits. Like WAV, I occasionally wonder just why that's not a more serious concern, but I figure that, as someone lacking those anatomical features myself, I can't really imagine what's involved in maintaining their integrity while participating in contact sports. However, I have been able to observe that those who do have to deal with such complications manage to do so easily enough.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:44 PM

"Any limitations on that Stigweard - how about females playing rugby, or boxing"

No - they're quite capable of making their own minds up on what sports (or anything else for that matter) they pursue. I think you'll find one of the daughter's of a Mudcatter was in the weight-lifting competition for Team GB.

In fact, despite the fact I'm a bloke I'm also a lardy git and I do have a pair of tits (moobs) and can vouch for the fact I've never injured them playing rugger or boxing (two sports I never actually play, as it happens).

I think you're winding me up WAV - and if you're not, norks to you my son.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:14 PM

No kidology intended Stigweard - and, the fact is, as with many other matters, in the 1950s, e.g., most here would have agreed with me. Attitudes don't always change for the better - can we at least agree on that?

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:18 PM



Well luckily some of live in more enlighted times.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 05:43 PM

"Norks" you say, on The Weekly Walkabout thread, Stigweard?...Sounds more like Aussie cutlery!

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: goatfell
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 11:39 AM

well I take it you have never heard of female weight lifters then, that could maybe lift you over their shoulders.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:30 PM

Attitudes don't always change for the better - can we at least agree on that?

I thought I'd dreamt this one in the depth of a terrible nightmare, but now I see that it's all too terribly real...

Anyway, back in the 1950s such prejudices were positively encouraged by the powers that be by way of pacifying the potential unruliness of proletariat. The best that working-class women could hope for was to live in constant drudgery & servitude, destroying their knees by daily-polishing their oven ranges & doorsteps for fear of being ostracised by their so-called communities. Black & white times; well & truly the Dark Ages, but they're mostly all dead & buried now along with all the repressive insanity that enslaved them.

You want a golden age of England, WAV, you're going to have go a long way further back than the 1950s, which was probably one of the bleakest times in our history, with few compensatory factors for those unfortunate enough to have lived through them. I see them yet, those dark-eyed refugees of the mid-years of the 20th century; the sort of people who express sympathy for the BNP because of the repressions they were forced to take such pride in. Washed-up, washed-out, alienated & cast aside, they can't even smoke in their pubs & clubs any more; having become addicted to cigarettes at a time when their GP would have encouraged them to take it up.

These people would no doubt agree with you, WAV - and... but hey, wait a minute, what the fuck am I saying? That was before immigration right? So it must have been better...

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Rapunzel
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:42 PM

Regarding danger to breasts and people of the 1950s agreeing with you, design and technology of supportive underwear has moved on a lot since then. With the invention of lycra in 1959 and advancing technology since then, we now have supportive bras designed specifically for sport activity. This means most women, even those fairly generously endowed, can enjoy physical activity without pain or damage to breasts.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:52 PM

A masculine female weight lifter possibly could lift 74kg me over her shoulders, Goatfell; and the top female players (often with heavy strapping on their limbs, these days) probably would beat me at tennis - for what it's worth..?

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: Stu
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 04:47 AM

""Norks" you say, on The Weekly Walkabout thread, Stigweard?...Sounds more like Aussie cutlery!"

Brummie vernacular.

Subject: RE: BS: No Olympics Football
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 06:08 AM

Okay then, Stigweard...so I guess you Brummies won't start saying: "Dinner's nearly ready - can someone set the norks on the table, please"...or maybe you do?! :-)>