Nutshell Truths

MK Dons fans are (almost!) the best-behaved in the football league

2011-12-29T23:18:00.001Z

Hats off to Dagenham and Redbridge, though (or do I mean, damn you Dagenham and Redbridge, for keeping MK Dons off the top!)

Taking the banning-order stats from here http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/football-arrests-banning-orders/fbo-2010-11?view=Binary

and the average attendance from here: http://itv.stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/attend.html

Dividing the number banned by the average attendance (and multiplying by 10,000 to get values above 1) you get the following table.

Hats off to Fulham, too, being by far the best behaved Premiership team, but, heck, I'm glad I don't live in Aldershot!

Rank	Team	Number Banned	Average Attendance	Number banned per 10,000 attendance
1	Dagenham	0	2081	0.00
2	MK Dons	1	8247	1.21
3	Fulham	4	25272	1.58
4	Gillingham	1	5487	1.82
5	Yeovil	1	3898	2.57
6	Stevenage	1	3608	2.77
7	Watford	4	12820	3.12
8	Wycombe	2	5047	3.96
9	Reading	9	18539	4.85
10	Ipswich	9	18344	4.91
11	Brighton	10	18397	5.44
12	Wigan	10	17861	5.60
13	Burton	2	2960	6.76
14	Morecombe	2	2430	8.23
15	Barnet	2	2232	8.96
16	Wimbledon	4	4393	9.11
17	Macclesfield	2	2056	9.73
18	Manchester City	46	47000	9.79
19	Peterborough	9	9057	9.94
20	Charlton	17	16893	10.06
21	Bolton	25	23433	10.67
22	Norwich	26	23549	11.04
23	QPR	21	16913	12.42
24	Preston	15	12009	12.49
25	Accrington	2	1599	12.51
26	Crawley	4	3196	12.52
27	Arsenal	76	59948	12.68
28	Derby	33	25971	12.71
29	WBA	32	24989	12.81
30	Notts	8	6173	12.96
31	Blackburn	31	23172	13.38
32	Manchester United	101	75486	13.38
33	Doncaster	13	9596	13.55
34	Blackpool	17	12547	13.55
35	Sunderland	53	38631	13.72
36	Southend	8	5790	13.82
37	Liverpool	64	44911	14.25
38	Stoke	40	27291	14.66
39	Cheltenham	5	3339	14.97
40	Everton	52	33834	15.37
41	Northampton	7	4396	15.92
42	Carlisle	8	4800	16.67
43	Tottenham	62	36072	17.19
44	Bournemouth	10	5751	17.39
45	Aston	63	34540	18.24
46	Leicester	44	23476	18.74
47	Bristol	25	13307	18.79
48	Leyton	8	4136	19.34
49	Newcastle	98	48484	20.21
50	Coventry	31	14867	20.85
51	Crystal	32	14809	21.61
52	Bury	8	3646	21.94
53	Portsmouth	32	14189	22.55
54	Wolverhampton	52	22572	23.04
55	Nottingham Forest	52	22430	23.18
56	Sheffield U	43	18408	23.36
57	Chelsea	105	41666	25.20
58	Hartlepool	13	5156	25.21
59	Barnsley	26	10154	25.61
60	Southampton	67	25744	26.03
61	Tranmere	14	4963	28.21
62	Walsall	13	4512	28.81
63	Burnley	43	14430	29.80
64	Bristol R	19	6212	30.59
65	Huddersfield	41	13308	30.81
66	Brentford	19	5749	33.05
67	Oldham	16	4823	33.17
68	West Ham	98	29430	33.30
69	Hull	66	18760	35.18
70	Sheffield W	72	19620	36.70
71	Shrewsbury	20	5433	36.81
72	Bradford	38	10254	37.06
73	Scunthorpe	17	4462	38.10
74	Swansea	76	19759	38.46
75	Crewe	15	3873	38.73
76	Middlesbrough	73	18103	40.32
77	Swindon	32	7838	40.83
78	Rotherham	15	3628	41.35
79	Oxford U	32	7449	42.96
80	Birmingham	84	18551	45.28
81	Leeds	106	23409	45.28
82	Plymouth	33	6125	53.88
83	Colchester	21	3874	54.21
84	Chesterfield	36	6624	54.35
85	Torquay	15	2693	55.70
86	Hereford	12	2120	56.60
87	Millwall	65	11177	58.16
88	Rochdale	16	2735	58.50
89	Port Vale	30	4940	60.73
90	Exeter	26	4184	62.14
91	Cardiff	143	22147	64.57
92	Aldershot	26	2961	87.81

A Conversation with Vlatko Vedral | Big Questions Online

2011-08-09T16:46:00.001+01:00

A Conversation with Vlatko Vedral | Big Questions Online

Civic Service

2011-07-03T20:58:00.000+01:00

I don't always feel 100% behind the Church I attend, the Church of Christ the Cornerstone. But then there are times I think they've got it right.

Today the 'Civic Service' was held there. This is the annual service - sometimes held at the Cornerstone, sometimes elsewhere - when all the dignitaries of the Milton Keynes Council turn up. I don't know the ins and outs of this, why there's an 'official' Church Service for the Council at all, and I expect there are many that wouldn't approve. But given that there is and did happen, I thought it was OK.

For one thing there was contributions from several different communities. (Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Greek Orthodox - there should have been someone from the Sikh community too, but they weren't there. I don't know why.)

Also, though, among the prayers were these words:

Praise God, whose will is justice and love,
who marks out no-one for privilege
and whose favour cannot be bought.

Praise God, who redresses the balance
in favour of the defenceless and the poor,
and calls us to do the same.

Praise God, who loves the foreigner
and finds a home for the stranger
and reminds us that we have all been outsiders.

Those seem to be the right sentiments for a Church to express before the great and the good of Milton Keynes.

All the beauties I love most are transient

2011-06-09T22:55:00.000+01:00

Don Cupitt has just published a new book: "The Fountain: A Secular Theology". I'll buy a copy, but in the meantime there's a review of it in the latest Sea of Faith magazine, which includes the following quote from the book:

We cannot conceive personal life except as temporal, and if I reflect I find that all the beauties I love most are transient, and that it is precisely for their transience that I love them. I cannot coherently wish them anything but transient and the same goes for myself

I remember someone once telling me about "The Sacrament of the Present Moment". Something about the fact that we only ever exist in the present, so our relationship to God is only ever 'now'.

I find these sorts of ideas - combined with a feeling that we have no idea what 'time' is - much more satisfactory than any idea of eternal life, though I have to admit if still feels that I need faith to believe them. They feel right, but there's still part of me that's not quite convinced.

Bike lanes.

2011-06-09T11:42:00.001+01:00

As well as death, faith and football, another thing I have strong views on is cycling.

As I once texted to a discussion on Radio 5 Live :-) I think we cyclists are the saints of the transport world and are badly done to.

Here's some evidence:

More on death and faith (some clarifications on my previous post)

2011-05-25T22:46:00.005+01:00

The trouble with writing anything is that the moment I've written it I invariable think it misrepresents what I really think. Fortunately you can edit posts, so that's what I've done with the previous post in this blog. And why not? This is my private blog and it comes with no claims of academic credibility!

Also a couple of clarifications/further developments:

1) I'm not saying that it is OK deliberately to lie to make make people feel better. Just that you should be sensitive. Dawkins and some of the New Atheists come across as insensitive to a degree that amounts to being cruel. I don't like people being cruel.

2) My own faith is not an easy solution to my fear of death. When I experienced le reveil mortel (the first realisation of eventual extinction - see Julian Barnes "Nothing to be frightened of") I was 13 or 14 years old, and, like John Betjeman recounts in 'Before the Anaesthetic' I was immediately aware that my Christianity - as I then formulated it - was no match for death. Basically I believed the science before the Christianity, and I couldn't, however much I wanted to, 'choose' to believe in that way. Forty years on, and the way I see it now is that in faith - faith, not belief - there is way forward. For me, faith in the resurrection of Jesus contains within it - among other things - faith that we are not defeated by death. It is not saying that extinction does not happen, but that whatever it is in extinction that I fear is not what I think it is. That love is greater than death.

Yes, I am afraid of death (but I'm not afraid of the dark)

2011-05-17T21:02:00.004+01:00

I've been wanting to say something like this for a while, and I saw an opportunity as a comment on this article in the Guardian.

Here's what I said (later edited - you can always follow the link above if you want to check what I wrote at the time - and then see also the following post):

Hawking:

I'm not afraid of death, ....There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

Wenham:

the idea of extinction holds no more fear than sleep. It really is insulting to accuse me of believing there might be life after death because I'm afraid of the dark.

Well you two are different from me then. I'm bl**dy terrified of extinction. You people who don't have this fear, should read, for example, Julian Barnes "Nothing to be frightened of", Larkin's "Aubade" or Betjeman's 'Before the Anaesthetic". If you people really don't have this fear you don't know how lucky you are. (And actually I think it displays a lack of imagination.)

I can only assume that the likes of Hawking and Dawkins who love to mock 'afraid of the dark*' really don't understand this fear. If they did, and they continued to disabuse people of their only escape from the terror, they are no better than the 'hell fire' preachers who at least offered an escape.

*The dark? The dark? Is that really what you think I'm afraid of? I love the dark, but extinction is NOT the dark and if you think there is any parallel then it just proves that you don't understand the problem.

Why my MP is saying no to AV (and why I'm saying yes!)

2011-04-26T22:39:00.000+01:00

My MP, Mark Lancaster, has a blog he's using to campaign against AV: http://marklancastermp.wordpress.com/

In theory he allows comments (that's to say he hasn't turned off the comment facility on his WordPress blog) but there aren't any visible yet. Here's what I tried to say. It is awaiting moderation, but somehow I suspect it could be waiting for some time!

Why don’t you come clean. There’s one very big reason you want to say no to AV: you wouldn’t be elected under AV! You were elected with 43.5% of the vote last year, so 56.5% of those who voted in your constituency did NOT want you*. It is a pretty safe bet that the vast majority of Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat voters would NOT have put you as one of the alternatives so almost certainly Labour would have been elected.

* How is THAT fair?

It seems it would be such a small change, yet it would mean I could vote for who I really want - I wouldn't be forced into chosing between voting tactically (which is what I've always done) and wasting my vote. Under AV I would almost certainly vote Green first, then Lib Dem followed by Labour or vice versa (depending on the individual candidate).

Arthur Peacocke

2011-02-03T10:22:00.000Z

One of my heros. I heard him speak at Oxford in 1979? Sadly he died in 2006. Here he is interviewed after he'd received the Templeton Prize in 2001.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow

2010-02-03T15:32:00.002Z

A couple of people have pointed me to Csikszentmihalyi's idea of 'flow' over recent weeks. This 18 minute talk is a nice overview (thanks to Robin Faichney).

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow | Video on TED.com

Bible quotes in gun sights

2010-01-19T12:25:00.004Z

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found. [...]

The company's vision is described on its Web site: "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom."

"We believe that America is great when its people are good," says the Web site. "This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals."

Old Testament "Thou shalt not kill" would seem the more obvious choice.

Lord Carey calls for immigration cap

2010-01-06T08:06:00.005Z

Even if it were politically the right thing to do:

Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, shatters the Anglican consensus on immigration

None of his fellow bishops has signed the document, which says:

"We are gravely concerned about the rapid increase in the population of England that is now forecast. We note that the official projections show the population of the UK will increase from 61.4 million in 2008 to exceed 70 million by 2029. Over the next 25 years the population will increase by 10 million, nearly all of the increase being in England. 70% – 7 million – will be due to immigration. We believe that immigration on such a scale will have a significant impact on our public services, our quality of life and on the nature of our society."

From report in the Telegraph

These are not the priorities of the Kingdom of God, and the Church should not be associated with it. It was very wrong of Lord Carey to sign. "What on earth is the Church for?"

Christmas poster from Down Under

2009-12-15T23:10:00.000Z

This poster is set to ruffle some feathers in New Zealand!

The hard-hitting climate change advert.

2009-12-15T14:37:00.001Z

I did see this on TV once, but there was a fuss about it being too frightening and that it'd be banned. I don't know what happened in the end, but it's pretty powerful, isn't it?

You could argue that the add is trying put the onus on us, the consumers, to act, rather than the government making hard decisions. But I think this add prepares the ground for the hard decisions.

PS, I know this is old news. Sorry, this Blog's never going to be up-to-the-minute!

Posting from my mobile via email

2009-12-10T22:19:00.001Z

It is possible but is it worth bothering?

Kit Kats, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance

2009-12-07T13:17:00.003Z

Does Nestlé's annoucement that Kit Kat is going fairtrade mean I can start eating Kit Kats again? Boycotting Nestle has been second-nature for decades (because of their appalling record promoting formula milk to mothers in poor communities - see http://www.babymilkaction.org/)

The thing is, it sounds like they are going for the real thing: proper Fairtrade certified fairtrade, not the fairtrade-lite that is the fashionable Rainforest Alliance certification. So it sort of makes Nestle an ally in the RFA-Fairtrade debate.

I don't know, I can't help being suspicious and it's not convinced the Boycott Nestle people. I'll stick to fairbreaks or chocolate from the co-op where possible.

Added later - some people think it brings fairtrade into disrepute.

Britain leads the world...

2009-12-02T14:03:00.003Z

... in tax havens (or rather, Crown Dependencies do).From Tax Research UK.
Which means Crown Dependencies lead the world in helping the rich stay rich at the expense of the poor. Christian Aid says tax dodging denies the poorer countries of the world £160 Billion.

Cycling and the car culture

2009-12-02T09:25:00.001Z

See this excellent blog post about cycling and the car culture by Martin Porter, a barrister from London. Says it all. Read the whole post, but here's a taster:

The main tenets of this car culture can be summarised as follows:

1. The inevitable attrition is a price well worth paying (by unknown others) in return for individual autonomy and convenience (often now described as necessary to the way in which we live our lives).

2. Every physically competent adult has a right to drive, removable only as a punishment for serious or repeated criminal offending and, even then, only temporarily.

3. Conduct which might be regarded as dangerous in any other walk of life is, in a motorist, merely careless and that which would otherwise be careless is excusable. This tenet is coloured by a sense of ‘There but for the grace of God, go I’ in the mind of the individual scrutinising the conduct in question.

4. Road safety efforts should be focussed upon segregating the vulnerable road user from motorised traffic (at the expense of ensuring the safe sharing of road space) and upon encouraging, or even mandating, personal protection to ameliorate the consequences of the collisions which are accepted as inevitable.

5. A myopic view of the fundamental laws of physics which permits motorists to argue that their responsibilities and actions in controlling 1,000+ kgs at up to 70mph should be judged in a similar manner to those controlling less than 100kgs at up to about 20mph. It is not necessary to be an apologist for red light jumping or pavement riding cyclists to point out that the risks they pose are many orders of magnitude less than the risks to pedestrians and cyclists from poorly controlled motor vehicles

Why beauty matters

2009-11-28T21:22:00.006Z

Watching Roger Scruton on BBC2:

Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives.

In the 20th century, Scruton argues, art, architecture and music turned their backs on beauty, making a cult of ugliness and leading us into a spiritual desert.

Using the thoughts of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and by talking to artists Michael Craig-Martin and Alexander Stoddart, Scruton analyses where art went wrong and presents his own impassioned case for restoring beauty to its traditional position at the centre of our civilisation.

BBC2 28/11/09

Some notes from the prog below. Seems to me he's missing the point that an idea can be beautiful (though Alexandar Stoddart - who Scruton approves of - says precisely that), and there is beauty in understanding something. If an 'ugly' work of art helps us understand the world better, that is beauty, surely?

I do have sympathy with his comments on architecture, though.

Someone else "Enables people to see the world they live in in a different way"

Scruton: "To see the ideal in the every day, to transfigure it."

Scruton: "We need useless things [like beauty] as much as useful"

(Oscar Wilde: All art is absolutely useless)

"Beauty is assailed from two sides: the cult of ugliness; and the cult of utility"

"The greatest crime against the beauty the world has yet seen. The crime of modern architecture"

"If you consider only utility, soon the things you will build will be useless" (Example of Reading town centre)

Beauty is to fill the God-shaped hole created by the loss of religion.

Moments we understand as sacred - experience of being in love, the presence of a dead body.

"A denial of love" "determined to portray the world as un loveable"

"There is all the difference in the world by something which aims to transform the everyday, and something which just shares the untidiness of the everyday"

Alexander Stoddart. People in any sphere, such as lawyers and politicians, can have a beautiful idea but it isn't art. Conceptual art is completed in the descrption "a calf cut in half and put in formaldehyde" - you don't need to actually see it.

My emphasis - precisely, so likewise conceptual art can be beautiful.

Only eat animals you know

2009-11-17T12:32:00.005Z

Years ago I had friend from a farming background who said he'd only eat animals he knew personally. When I first heard of this I did a double take: it sounded barbaric and yet I knew him to be gentle and compassionate. But when it was explained that it was because he would only eat animals that he knew had had a happy life, it made perfect sense.

Up until now this wasn't something I could copy - I don't know that many farm animals - but Milton Keynes Parks Trust are launching a scheme to sell meat from parkland animals. I see some of these animals each day when I cycle to work - I've rescued one them from a cattle grid many years back - and I can vouch for the fact that they look happy, most of the time anyway. If it is bit expensive, so be it: meat should be expensive. We should eat less of it:

Less meat, more veg … and we won’t eat the planet

Joanna Blythman Herald Scotland

[...]

Eating The Planet?, a joint report from Compassion In World Farming, the impeccably well-informed and thoughtful animal welfare organisation, and Friends Of The Earth, our foremost environmental group, argues that we don’t need to go veggie to feed a booming world population and save the planet from climate change and forest destruction. It says that we can indeed produce enough food for everyone in the world, but only if we are prepared to ditch factory farming for more natural and humane farming methods

Recalibrating our livestock production away from factory-style processes and back to humane and ecologically sustainable farming methods will reduce the quantity of animal foods we produce and make them more expensive. That is a good thing. Intensive farming has provided us with previously unheard of quantities of “cheap” protein, but it can only be considered so if you put no price on animal suffering and turn a blind eye to the environmental degradation it leaves in its wake.

The absurd last-century idea that eating limitless piles of cheap, low-grade meat and dairy was some sort of democratic entitlement needs to be looked upon as an aberration in world history. We have to reverse the meat-and-two veg expectations of the last half-century. A correction is long overdue. Eating lower down the food chain and making the bulk of our diets more herbivorous and plant-centric is definitely where it’s at.

Thérèse de Lisieux

2009-09-25T08:34:00.007+01:00

According to an item on today's BBC breakfast news, something like 3/4 of the population of Ireland visited the relics of Thérèse de Lisieux when they were taken around the Island. They are now in England - currently in Liverpool Metropoliton Cathedral.

There's lots in Catholic doctrine and practice that I really, really, do not go along with - but there's nothing wrong with veneration of the relics of a saint. Or there needn't be anyway. We need things to help us focus outside ourselves - or maybe I mean focus inside ourselves - think about 'deeper' concerns anyway. It's like viewing an original rather than reproduction of a painting, or standing among the stones of stonehenge, or visiting the site of a famous battle; there's something in the 'physical' presence that makes a difference. Or that we think makes a difference, and if we think it does then it does - like placebos.

Of course it could be used, manipulated by the unscrupulous, but then most things can.

Suffering, and Darwin's loss of faith

2009-09-17T18:10:00.002+01:00

Alerted by a tweet from Richard Dawkins, I read this is the Guardian:

Darwin's complex loss of faith

It wasn't evolution that led Darwin away from religion, but nor was it simply the loss of his beloved daughter

[...]

In reality, Darwin's loss of faith was, as he recognised, gradual and complex. The reasons were not new – suffering always has been and always will be most serious challenge to Christianity – but they were newly focused. Plenty of Darwin's scientific contemporaries, men like John Stevens Henslow, Charles Lyell, Asa Gray, George Wright, Alexander Winchell, and James Dana, could accommodate their Christian beliefs with the new theory. Indeed, as historian James Moore has remarked "with but few exceptions the leading Christian thinkers in Great Britain and America came to terms quite readily with Darwinism and evolution."

But Darwin, brought up on William Paley's harmonious, self-satisfied vision of creation, could not.

(My emphasis.) I'd go along with that, but also note that suffering is at the heart of Christianity in Christ's suffering on the cross. Sort of obvious, and yet somehow it gets forgotten.

Susan Blackmore on Peter Singer

2009-08-12T10:21:00.002+01:00

Susan Blackmore in her Blog in the Guardian, says Peter Singer is wrong

Singer is right to point out the psychological differences in how we respond to the toddler in the pond as opposed to the distant starving child, but wrong if he concludes that we ought to be as generous to one as the other.
There are lots of reasons for not giving money to try to save the life of someone you have never met, in a country you have never visited, and in a culture you do not understand

It sounds like an excuse to me.

(My thoughts on what Peter Singer is saying.)

Isaiah Berlin, and difference

2009-08-12T09:53:00.004+01:00

From Adam Phillips' review of Isaiah Berlin, Enlightening: Letters 1946-60 in the London Review of Books:

All of Berlin's writing is an attempt to pesuade people not to talk on other people's behalf.

This links, in my mind anyway, to arguing that geography is not history. It is about acknowledging differences.

Updated my personal webpage

2009-07-21T15:08:00.003+01:00

I get a little pleasure from poking around in a most amateur way with my personal webpage.

Today I used a nifty facility, the Google AJAX Feed API to put in feeds from my blogs.

One thing that was almost spookily neat, was that on the AJAX Feed page it was sufficient to type 'intropy' and 'nutshell truths' for the wizard to find the URLs for my two blogs.

Armed forces day

2009-06-28T21:55:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was armed forces day. I was wondering why we should have a day for the armed forces but not, say, social workers*, medical workers, police, or whatever.

Maybe it is because the armed forces risk their lives for their country? But so do others - albeit to a lesser extent. Police certainly do at times, and don't underestimate the risk faced by medical staff or even social workers.

And of course we already have a day to remember all people killed in armed conflict - remembrance day.

The unique thing about the armed forces is that we ask them to kill for their country. That's a pretty big thing to ask of someone, so maybe it is right that we have special day for it. But maybe we need to be clear that that's what this day is about.

* I mention social workers especially because I happen to think they do a particularly thankless task. They are poorly paid, they get all the flack when something goes wrong and precious little appreciation for the good they achieve.

Humans prefer cockiness to expertise

2009-06-23T16:21:00.003+01:00

From the New Scientist:

Humans prefer cockiness to expertise

EVER wondered why the pundits who failed to predict the current economic crisis are still being paid for their opinions? It's a consequence of the way human psychology works in a free market, according to a study of how people's self-confidence affects the way others respond to their advice.

This is one of those things that rings true. There are a few people I could point to...

Peter Singer

2009-06-02T12:39:00.003+01:00

About Peter Singer in the Guardian 23/5/09:

Singer's argument, as first laid out in an essay in 1971, isn't hard to follow. "If it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it ... If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing." As he added, however, the "uncontroversial appearance" of this argument is deceptive. Considerations of distance, or of how many potential rescuers there might be, are irrelevant to Singer: the child you see dying of malnutrition or a preventable disease on the foreign news has as much of a claim on you as the child in the pond. Spending your surplus income on consumer treats rather than efforts to end extreme poverty, he concludes, isn't greatly different morally from leaving the toddler to drown.

[...]

Needless to say, this is a challenging position - "almost impossible to argue with", as the political theorist David Runciman once wrote, "but also very difficult to accept."

[...]

Singer's own approach to ethics, a version of utilitarianism, has deep roots in the English-language tradition, but it's scarcely uncontroversial. One famous criticism, associated with Williams, is that it's implausibly demanding, making people as responsible for the things they fail to do as the things they bring about. Williams's ultimate point was highly technical; Singer, in discussing it, soon brings the argument back to practical outcomes. "I think we can set standards that limit our responsibilities to help people. But I wouldn't want to say, therefore we're only responsible for our acts and not for our omissions.

If we want to be moral, I can't see any way out of this other than, for me, Christian forgiveness. It's another reason why I remain in the church while not, in any straightforward sense anyway, 'believing in God'. Things they fail to do has strong echos for those of us brought up in the C of E:

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done,
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done,
And there is no health in us:
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders
Book of Common Prayer

I don't know you'd find much support for that expression ('miserable offenders') nowadays - within the church or without - but, there you go, the money I spend on, say, going to watch the MK Dons, could have saved lives. How can that make me anything other than a miserable offender?

But, back to Singer in the Guardian, on why you have to include 'things undone':

If you draw a hard line there, you end up saying that really quite trivial things are wrong because they're violations of my positive responsibility not to cheat or whatever ..." He casts about for an example. "Well, we have it all over the tabloids, don't we: I charged the government £5 for watching porn movies, right? I had the opportunity to save a child's life, either by ruining my shoes in the pond or by giving some spare money I had to Oxfam, but somehow that's not as important to assessing whether I'm a decent person or not as whether I cheated the government out of £5 to watch a porn movie. And I think that's the wrong set of priorities, that sends the wrong sort of message."

This leads into issues of moral equivalence (I don't think that's quite the right term, but it'll do for the moment), and I'd like to explore, for example, fiddling expense against the death of hundreds of thousands. Shame Hazel Blears is implicated in both! But thats for another time.

MP's expenses

2009-06-02T12:37:00.001+01:00

Everyone has a view on it. We can easily agree, no-one is going to defend the ducks island. But, I'm wondering if its Parkinson's Law of Triviality (more time spent on discussing the colour of the bike shed than decisions on a nuclear power plant because everyone can understand the bike shed).

I'm not defending the duck's island either, or the fiddling around with the second homes and the like. But, maybe the hours spent on it - dominating the news for weeks - is out of proportion? Maybe, I don't know, global warming, poverty, injustice, maybe some of these are more important?

It'd be intesting to explore whether there is any correlation between the behaviour of MPs over expenses and how they vote. I was pleased to hear that Hilary Benn was clean over expenses - claimed a total of £140 last year, if I remember correctly. That sort of fits with my simple view of the goodies and baddies. Tony Benn is a goodie, and so to, it seems, is his son.

Play-off semi finals: Scunthorpe

2009-05-18T22:26:00.006+01:00

Away: 1 - 1
Home 0 - 0, then lost 7-6 on penalties.

A went to the away leg with 3 friends from uni. V & I watched at David Lloyd leisure.

J came with V and me to the home leg. J's conclusion: I don't want to come to anything like that again!

Heartbreak. Jude had the chance to win it for us in the 'sudden death'. It should have been glorious, the player who more than any loves to be loved by the fans. But instead it was agony - saved easily. I'm sure that moment will haunt him for years to come.

Earlier Puncheon had his saved, much to the disgust of V.

Gueret took one - a good strike that went in.

But in the end it was Flo who missed, to end all hope.

Got a sympathetic email from C in Stockholm.

Season all went wrong this weekend. Livepool's chance of winning the premiership disappeared on Saturday with ManU picking up the point they needed from Arsenal. Then by losing to Liverpool The Baggies were relegated on Sunday. The one time I wanted Liverpool to lose - what would it matter - and they win 2 - 0.

God has to justify his (her) existence?

2009-05-17T15:10:00.004+01:00

(One of what might be a series of half-formed, half-baked, thoughts that need developing.)

I read things that talk as though God is a 'given' and we can work-down from God to understand the world. I'm thinking that God has to justify his existence.

Susan Boyle and the resurrection

2009-05-11T20:21:00.011+01:00

The story of Susan Boyle was used in a sermon a couple of weeks back. The preacher spoke of the sacrifice that Susan had made. Earlier in her life she had chosen not to pursue her singing ambitions, instead looking after her mother and doing voluntary work, visiting the elderly members of her church congregation. A parallel was drawn with the resurrection: from 'nobody' to global fame in the space of a few days. Her sacrifices were rewarded.

Yes, but.

Susan was not a nobody before her fame. She was the same person before and after. She could sing beautifully, whether or not anyone could hear. Her value does not reside in the recognition that the world gives to her. Her glory was not in her discovery, it was there all along. (Her glory doesn't even reside in her ability to sing so well - though that is a wonderful thing. God values each and every one of us because we are human beings. Full stop. That's the point of God. Human life would be intolerable otherwise. But that's a different story. Let's run with her singing for the moment.)

This is one of the problems I have with the resurrection - or with the way the resurrection is sometimes portrayed. If the resurrection is a happy ending, then how do we cope with events that don't have a happy ending? Because we can't pretend things do always have a happy ending. Unless of course it is 'pie in the sky when you die'. But that doesn't work for me.

No, the glory of Susan's triumph was the way it revealed to us what she had always been and would have been whether or not she'd been discovered. So too the resurrection has to be about life before death, whether or not Jesus was raised from the dead.

But again.

You start writing and the words flow. 'Resurrection has to be about life before death'. Maybe it has to be, and those are the right words for Christian Aid Week, but that's hard, isn't it.

Hereford away, 2nd May 09

2009-05-07T21:14:00.003+01:00

Last match on the season, before the play-offs. Won 1-0.

And so we should, since Hereford were bottom and already relegated and we were third. Interesting stadium. We were high up, like in the balcony of a theatre, almost alongside the centre line. Excellent view, except when close to our side of the pitch when in disappears from view. J commented that it was much more entertaining watching football when you've got such a good view, but that is was a shame the match was so boring...

We all went - J, A, V and me. Time for a snack in the cathedral coffee bar before the match, and J and I had a walk alongside the river while A & V went on to savour the pre-match atmosphere.

After the match we went on to a B&B near Barry in South Wales. Two nights there, and eplored the coast the next day.

"...and that's a tragedy"

2009-05-06T10:48:00.005+01:00

I've never (well, hardly ever) subscribed to the 'they're all rogues, out to look after their own interests' line on politicians. I really do think that most politicians embark on a life in politics out of a desire to do something worthwhile.

And this interview of Hazel Blears by George Monbiot doesn't change my views. I think that Ms Blears believes she and her fellow Labour MPs are 'decent people' out to do good for the world.

But, how can anyone say this:

... despite, you know, that hundreds of thousands of people have died, and that is a tragedy, I still believe that is was the right thing to do...

so jauntily?

I don't know what I'm expecting. But "and that is a tragedy" is somehow not enough coming after "hundreds of thousands of people have died". Shouldn't anyone who has been party to a decision that has resulted in hundred of thousands of deaths show some sort of stress?

Is she really so sure that the right decision was made? I know I worry too much about things I've done. And I know a politician is making what are in effect life-or-death decisions every day, so their jobs would be impossible if they agonised over every one. But, again, you know, hundreds of thousands of people have died.

Northampton away, 28th April

2009-04-28T23:36:00.003+01:00

Won 1 - 0

Went with V, and also MR, who lives close to the stadium. Is not a football person, but was interested to see a match since he lives so close.

When we got the tickets I expected it be a real hum-dinger, reckoning that it would be crucial both for us and the cobblers, as it was of course it was not such a big deal for us, but for the cobblers a draw would have been enough to secure survival. We were in control the first half, I thought, playing with confidence. But second half they came at us with some desperation, forcing defensive - sometimes also desperate - play from us. But we held out.

Not sure it will have convinced MR to become a regular. Cobblers fans invaded the pitch at the end, though I can't think why! Dons all just left of course, and so I was a little bemused to hear the tannoy ask the Dons fans to leave the ground... what did he think we were doing?

Forgot how long it would take to get out of the car park (we'd driven, since it is so close), so it was daft that I'd turned down an invitation to have a cup of tea with MR - we just spent half an hour in the car instead.

Walsall home, 25th April

2009-04-26T21:35:00.004+01:00

Lost 1 - 0, and since Peteborough won, we can no longer get automatic promotion!

It felt like 'going out with a whimper', though of course we are still in the play-offs - guaranteed a place in the play-offs. The trouble is, the last two, away, league games are now of limited significance, all they can do is determine who we'll play in the play-off semis.

Most memorable feature of the match was the antics of two pigeons. One, a white Dove of a pigeon, was on the pitch from the start. He/she was joined by another, more pigeon-like (ie plumage of a rock-dove) pigeon, towards the end of the first half. The two of them seemed oblivious to the game going on around them, or the 12,049 spectators. They calmly grazed on the pitch for the whole match.

Scunthorpe away 18th April

2009-04-20T21:48:00.001+01:00

Won 1 - 0

We took a detour to have fish and chips on Cleethorpes sea front. Short walk on the beach, watched turnstones, wasted some money on the slot machines...

Walk from Scunthorpe station to the stadium was unexpectedly pleasant.

Good attacking play from both sides.

Memories of a Morris Traveller

2009-04-14T22:18:00.003+01:00

A post by John Naughton has prompted others to reminisce about their Moggies.

I, too, had a Morris Traveller. Or, rather, my better half did. Her grandfather had worked for Morris Commercial in Birmingham, and got a Traveller when he retired. We had it until about ten years ago, when we were told it needed about £7000 of repairs to keep it going long term. Reluctantly we decided that was not a priority in our lives and sold it. It went - slightly indirectly - to a firm that hired out wedding cars, and the owner told us (somewhat apologetically) that they were going to paint it white for the wedding business. (It was previously Rose Taupe, AKA dull grey.) The firm was local, so we've been keeping an eye out for it ever since, but without success to date. Please let me know if you see a Morris registration no. FUY 663C.

Nicci French talked about the stir a traveller caused in Sweden, and we had a similar experience in Brittany. One of the times that it broke down on a holiday over there (... yes, that was one of the reasons we got rid of it in the end... boring modern cars do tend to be a little more reliable) it was repaired by a local garage and clearly provided some excitement for the mechanics. They said that it was rare to find old cars in France because they don't enforce the annual MOT in the same way as in the UK, with the result that cars were not maintained as well and don't last as long.

By contrast, when it broke down on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides the island's mechanic took it in his stride. Cars of that vintage were nothing special out there.

Bristol Rovers home, Easter Monday 13th April

2009-04-13T22:12:00.004+01:00

Won 2 - 1

I missed the build up to the first goal because I was reading the words on the flags the Rovers fans had brought with them (like "we all hate city"). I suddenly realised that everyone was getting excited and looked back just in time to see Gerba score. Apparently he'd just robbed a defender and done it all himself. Actually this is not an uncommon experience for me. I usually need my sons to tell me what has happened in the run-up when there's been a goal or some other event.

Reading the flags had set me remembering what I think was the first competitive top-flight football match I went to see, back in 1977 or sometime around then. It was in Bristol and involved Everton. From memory I'd thought it was against Rovers, but Rovers weren't in the top division, so it must have been City. Prior to that, the only professional match I'd seen was a friendly between Liverpool and Hertha BSC (as they were described in those days) in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. My main memory of that match was the pickled-gerkin sellers who extracted the gerkins from a bucket using wooden tongs.

Easter at the Cornerstone, reflections on Mary Magdalene

2009-04-12T22:41:00.005+01:00

David Tatem's Easter sermon at The Cornerstone, was on the theme of 'The God of Surprises', and included a comment that the resurrection narratives contained a 'time bomb' that has only being going off in the last few decades: that the first apostle was a woman, Mary Magdalene.

Meanwhile, in the foyer of the Church is David Moore's latest sculpture, on the theme of Mary Magdalene and how she has been mis-represented by the Church over the centuries. He (David Moore) introduced his sculpture and carried the same theme into the prayers.

'A' commented on the fact that the two Davids (especially Moore) were so outspoken about the treatment of women by the Church, wondering if it was potentially confrontational with the Roman Catholics (and maybe inappropriate for an Ecumenical Church). Of course the Catholics hardly have a monopoly on the oppression of women within the Church... Anyway, it seems to me that David Moore has never flinched from saying things that some people might find uncomfortable, without ever being needlessly confrontational. But then I don't recall disagreeing with anything he has said from the pulpit, so I'm not really in a position to judge whether anyone else would be offended.

For myself, the role of women in the Church is not an issue that I feel the need to grapple with. I don't see the issue: there is no justification for discrimination. That might seen dismissive, but we can't all take on all issues equally. This does not feel like my battle.

Southend away: Good Friday 11 April 09

2009-04-11T10:11:00.007+01:00

Won 2 - 0

V & I went by train. A got a lift with friend B.

Bah! The car drivers got there way before us. We'd set off early to have a chance to see the mile-long pier before the match. Just as well, as it meant we got there just in time for kick off. There'd been a fatality on the line at Wolverton, so in the end there was a replacement bus service to Watford, where we could only get the 'London Overground' to Euston (18 stops!). Then to add further difficulties engineering works on the underground meant we ended up walking - running part of the way - from Bank to Fenchurch Street (didn't know that station existed outside Monopoly), arriving just in time to catch the 11.40 to Southend. Would have got a taxi at Southend if there'd been any outside the station, but there weren't so walked the mile to the ground. I was determined to go down to the beach, so we delayed our return journey a little (it was 1 pm kick off so the natch was over by 3) to have an ice cream, skim some stones on the sea and gamble some 2p pieces in the amusement arcade. V would probably want me to confess to my faults that meant we missed an earlier train home from Euston... vis, forgetting where I'd put the tickets then when we'd gone through the barrier getting on the train on platform 11, when he'd already told me we wanted the one on platform 10. So we saw the one on platform 10 leave without us..

Great day out, though. Two excellent goals from Mark Wright. Well made goals too: not the scramble over the line types. Wright gets a lot of stick from some of our fans. Don't really know why, but 'what do I know' (actually I really don't know much when it comes to football....) Couple of brilliant saves from Gueret, and Southend helpfully missed some easy chances. They should have won, but we'll take the 3 points. (Especially since Peterborough could only draw with bottom-club Cheltenham and Millwall lost to Yeovil!. Maybe automatic promotion isn't out of the question after all.

Madelaine Bunting on the New Atheists

2009-04-08T12:34:00.003+01:00

Real debates about faith are drowned by the New Atheists' foghorn voices. Guardian 7 April 2009.

They [philosopher John Gray and historian of religion Karen Armstrong] see the New Atheists mirroring a particular strain of fundamentalist Christianity with no knowledge of the vast variety of other forms of religious faith. In common with their Christian opponents, they share "the inner glow of complete certainty" [...]
Armstrong and Gray converge again on where they pinpoint the key mistake. Belief came to be understood in western Christianity as a proposition at which you arrive intellectually, but Armstrong argues that this has been a profound misunderstanding that, in recent decades, has also infected other faiths. What "belief" used to mean, and still does in some traditions, is the idea of "love", "commitment", "loyalty": saying you believe in Jesus or God or Allah is a statement of commitment. Faith is not supposed to be about signing up to a set of propositions but practising a set of principles. Faith is something you do, and you learn by practice not by studying a manual, argues Armstrong.[...]
The author Mark Vernon [...] argues that the most interesting conversations about faith are among those just outside religious traditions and those just inside - along the borders of belief, if you like.

I've long felt that those on both extremes can't abide those of us on the boundaries. Our lack of dogmatism is seen as not legitimate.

Palm Sunday and G20 New World Order

2009-04-05T21:14:00.005+01:00

Mary Cotes sermon at the Cornerstone on Palm Sunday made an interesting link between the adulation of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and the claims of a 'New World Order' emerging from the G20 summit.

My interpretation of her starting point was a parallel:

G20 "New world order",
What it ought to be:
A new world with justice for the poorer nations
What crowds want it to be:
Recovery of a comfortable lifestyle in the rich countries

Jesus riding into Jerusalem:
What Jesus means:
A new world based on justice and love
What crowds want it to be:
The end of the Roman occupation and Israel back on top

Brighton Home 4 April

2009-04-04T22:05:00.005+01:00

Won 2 - 0

Brighton are looking at relegation, so this should have been easy. We were much better than them, but after going 2 up by half time we again didn't really take control of the game, and it took a couple of top-class saves from Willy to keep us on top.

Mark Wright played for the first time for months. I don't know why he's not been used, I think he's good and indeed he got the assist for the first goal.

There was a special offer of £5 tickets - some promotion with the local paper - and we got more than 15,000*, so it was good to win in front of lots of new people. They did an attempt on the world record for the most people hugging each other at one, before kick off. V, A and I did a 3-way hug. Quite glad I had family there to hug, I'm not really in to hugging strange men.

*Compare 15,000 for a league 1 football match with 35,000 at the London Rally.

The Kingdom of Heaven

2009-03-31T22:21:00.014+01:00

What were the Churches and Christian charities doing among the socialists, the unions and the anarchists at the G20 rally ... marching through central London, surrounded by the police and standing alongside people calling for the death of neo-liberal capitalism?

1) Well, to get started, how can we tolerate such injustice in the world? How can we go on leaving people to starve to death, when there's so much wealth? How can we consume, consume, consume, when we know what climate change is doing? (If you believe the scientists, of course... but we do, you know, most of us Christians, whatever Richard Dawkins would like to think)

The world has enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.

We've all heard it before, so we can move on and think about something else? But that doesn't make it OK. The world is NOT OK. It's in a bad way. And its our fault (us human beings).

2) I expect most of us, Christians or not, know about that (what a bloody mess we've made of the world), and know that it's wrong. But maybe Christians are more inclined to think it is worth trying to do something about it? Because of our limitations, we will always get it wrong, but we believe in 'forgiveness', and that frees us up to have a go. And of course there's just the fact that if we go to Church we keep hearing people talking about these things - those 2000 verses (see snippet no 3) in the bible about poverty and justice.

3) For me, I guess, it is sort of what remains of my faith. You might say I don't believe in God*, but whatever I do believe in leaves me thinking that we can't just accept the way the world is. Quite often I'm embarrassed to 'be a Christian' - when I see and hear what is done and said in the name of Christianity - but in London last Saturday it seemed right.

*One day I'll explain a bit more about what God I don't believe in

Snippets from the Put People First G20 rally.

2009-03-30T21:44:00.015+01:00

"On 28th March 2009, 35,000 marched through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their summit on the global financial crisis.

Even before the banking collapse, the world suffered poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. The world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fuelled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental.

Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.

There can be no going back to business as usual."

From www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk

I was one of the 35,000. Here's some snippets from my day

Crowd of Socialist Workers outside Embankment tube station. Selling the paper, handing out leaflets and offering placards. (I wish I could recall what each of the different organisation's placards said!) The first of many contingents of various flavours of socialists, all with own newspapers.

Service in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Not full, but I was on balcony and there must have been well over 1000 all told. Can't say Andy Flanagan and Band's electric music was quite to my taste... but the speakers were worth listening to.

Peter Meadows of the Bible Society spoke of the 'Poverty and Justice Bible'. Apparently there are over 2000 verses refering to poverty or justice in the bible, and if you remove all the pages containing them, there's not much of the Bible left. Someone had done it and he showed us the resulting slim volume.

Father Joe Komakoma from Zambia talked about the reality of the combined consequences of the financial crisis, climate change, and the pre-existing inequalities on people in Zambia. Over half the population don't get a proper meal each day, for example.

Christine Elliot of the Methodist Church had us doing one of those little things that I'm not sure I'm too keen on, but I have to admit was effective. Alternate members of the congregation asked to stand up: we were the poor. Then everyone else invited to stand up 'in solidarity' with us. Then they sat down again. "How do we feel?" "How do they feel?" "What do we want to say to each other?" etc.

Several more speakers... Revd Joel Edwards of Micah Challenge stood out for me. (I later learned that Joel is of the Evangelical Alliance - a very long way from my theology!)

I've not listened to it again, but the whole service is here

Left the Hall in groups to join the main march. Selection of placards to choose from on the way out... I ended up with a CAFOD one "Kick the carbon habit'

Carnival atmosphere on the march. Most of the bystanders seems friendly (strangly, more so, it seemed to me, than those in Coventry for 'Countdown to Copenhagen' march a few weeks back.) Never seen so much photography going on - the media, people on the march, and the 'general public'. (No photos from me, sorry. My phone's just a phone.)

Lots of foreign unions present, gave extra colour to the march. They tended to be more vocal.

"The-workers. United. Will-never-be-defeated". It's a long time since I've heard that!

Lots of fun fancy dress. A curious green creature was sat on top of one of the bus-shelters.

Seemed rather an unnecessary density of policemen along the route near Hyde Park.

More newspapers for sale: Socialist Worker (again), Socialist, Morning Star and The Respect Paper.

Events in Hyde Park hosted by Tony Robinson: always good value! A range of speakers from across the world: environmentalists and union leaders. eg:

"We were all backing Obama (sounds from the crowd, most in support, some dissent), but we now need him to deliver, We were all asked to chant: 'yes we can; yes we must; yes we will'"

"We own RBS now, so they should do what we want"

Tony Juniper quotes Gandhi about the difference between what we are capable of and what we actually do

Lots of famous people. Eg Susan George, a very famous name. Trouble is I can't now recall what she said.

Mark Thomas doesn't mince his words. "Neo-liberal capitalism is on it's knees and we must kill it off."

Mark Thomas again (I think). There was an average of less than one council house built per council last year.

Some thoughts on being a Christian at the rally

Leeds Away 28th March

2009-03-29T18:38:00.003+01:00

Lost 2 - 0

I missed this one because I was putting people first.

The rest of the family went. I reckon I had the better day, apart from when I got the updates by txt.

Crewe home: 24th March 2009

2009-03-27T21:33:00.003Z

2 - 2

2 - 0 up after 20 minutes and we were comfortable - although we were lucky with the goals (one big deflection off a defender up over the keeper, and the other the keeper seemed to fumble) - but we seemed to think we'd won it and didn't bother playing after that. Crewe were clueless at that stage, but their confidence grew and the inevitable happened. The second was a penalty foolishly and needlessly conceded by Gueret.

Even I didn't applaud at the end.

Yeovil Away 21st March

2009-03-23T21:23:00.005Z

0 - 0

Gueret saved penalty.

We could find no way through: Yeovil defended with skill and with Baldock still off, had no other ideas. Some of our fans were calling for Jude. I would have liked that - since we were just not getting anywhere, why not give him 15 mins up front?

The four of us travelled down to Weymouth Friday evening - via Clapham Junction so we got a 'not via London' cheap ticket. Glorious spring day Saturday, so J and I paddled in the sea - very cold! Then the three of us went up to Yeovil by train while J took in some coast. We all travelled home from Yeovil after the match, ariving MK 23:30. (Encountered lots of drunk English rugby fans in Clapham - England having beaten Scotland in the 6 nations.)

Relaxed, friendly atmosphere - helped by spring sunshine. Chatted with Town fan as we walked to the agreed picking-up point for our taxi. If we couldn't have the 3 points, almost wish we'd lost to help Yeovil stay up. I said 'almost'.

Yeovil Town website gives NO guidance on getting to the ground by public transport.

Millwall Home, 17th March

2009-03-23T21:22:00.001Z

Lost 1 - 0

No Baldock - hamstring problem, and we missed him!

Oldham home 14th March

2009-03-23T21:16:00.003Z

Won 6 - 2

A came home for the weekend - via London - and met us at the stadium. 2 -2 at HT Dons having come from behind twice, then Oldham sort of collapsed in the second half. Good match for A to come back for!

Baldock was back on form. I think that what was happening was that we were playing to his strengths - using him correctly. Recently he hadn't seem to have much impact, but I think that was less to do with him and more to do with the team not making best use of his particular abilities.

Tuesday 10th March Huddersfield home

2009-03-11T20:57:00.004Z

1 - 1 again.

Disappointing. After we scored we stopped playing and wasted time instead. It seemed inevitable that Huddersfield would get an equaliser - annoying but I couldn't begrudge them it.

V and I went after V's piano lesson. His lesson finishes 7.30 so we're off in the car, park in the industrial estate and dash down to the stadium. Arrive just after kick-off so I have to be searched. For some reason the moment the whistle goes, anyone entering has to be searched. Slight extra delay this time as when we were walking to the ground I noticed V was still carrying his piano music!

Swindon Away 7 March

2009-03-08T19:59:00.003Z

1 - 1

...and Dean Lewington was sent off for a 2nd yellow card

V and I went by train. Have to go via London so not very efficient.

Dons were lucky not to lose, as Swindon contrived to miss three of four easy chances, hitting the woodwork or skying the shots. (Willy, once again, was crucial too - some exceptional reaction saves.) Dons fans were in fine voice again, singing pretty much throughout the match - unlike the home fans who only got going towards the end.

We were high up in the stadium, on the side, more or less in line with the goal. Views out of the stadium over the rooftops of the surrounding houses. Stadium is in a residential area but close to the town centre and the train station. Went to MacDs after the match (V had burger - I got a much healthier 'meal-deal' from the nearby Boots), and had friendly chat with the lad serving, who was a 'Town' supporter. Said he was not surprised Town failed to take their chances, that they often do that. But that is the sort thing fans often say about their team - one of the 'standard' beliefs about your team.

Northampton Away 3rd March

2009-03-04T21:26:00.002Z

Abandoned due to waterlogged pitch at half time with the score 0 - 0

Went with V on the coach. Cold and wet... waste of time and money... Lightened a little by the humour of the Dons chants, such as something about 'backstroke' when one of the cobblers players was on his back in a puddle.

Leicester home 28th February

2009-02-28T22:41:00.002Z

2 - 2

Cracking match. Leicester equalised in the 96th minute, though there was only supposed to be 5 mnutes added time. Still, we easily matched them, and it was Championship football. In keeping with the tradition, Ex-Don Lloyd Dyer got a standing ovation from the home fans when substituted. We're a friendly crowd (sometimes!)

Tranmere Away 21st Feb

2009-02-25T23:26:00.006Z

Drew 1 - 1

Another complicated family w/e!

We were all up in York for a big family reunion. V and A travelled to Tranmere, I heroically remained in York. A kept me in touch with goals by text. I was in the theatre at the time, with my phone on vibrate, surreptitiously keeping an eye on things.

Hartlepool home 14th Feb

2009-02-25T23:22:00.005Z

Won 3 - 1.

It was comfortable in the end, but we had to come from behind and it took some late goals. At the time I was surprised by our substitutions, but it obviously worked.

Cheltenham Away 31st Jan

2009-02-25T23:15:00.005Z

Won 5-3.

J, V and I went by train to Cheltenham. J went on to Newport and did a bit of coast by bus, while V and I went to the match. Another great day out! We were cruising, but Cheltenham didn't give up, and by the end we were glad of the final whistle - sort of, I mean we were enjoying the entertainment, but just getting a little bit anxious. We remembered Carlisle.

I like these small lower-league grounds, despite what our fans were saying about garden-sheds!

Leyton Orient home 27th Jan

2009-02-25T23:13:00.004Z

Lost 2-1.

Oh dear, I can't at the moment recall much about it. We certainly ought to have won.

Peterborough away, 20th Jan

2009-02-25T23:08:00.005Z

0 - 0 draw - but a pretty entertaining match for all that.

I suppose the fact that my memory of the match is of Gueret's brilliant saves suggests Posh were on top. I'm not sure that it was very one-sided though.

Tuesday evening match that V and I went to on the coach.

Carlisle away 17th January

2009-02-25T22:56:00.006Z

Winning 2 - 0 at half time. And lost 3 - 2. How could it happen?

J, V and I travelled up by train Friday, staying Friday and Saturday night in Lancaster. Travelled all the way around the Cumbrian coast Saturday morning, up to Carlisle. A travelled up from York Sat morning and joined us V and me in Carlisle. Meanwhile J, together with L and friends got off the train at Maryport (?) and did a bit of walking. Then we all met in Carlisle after the match for dinner. Us four, V, A, J and I, returned to Lancaster for Saturday night. Confusing? This was, of course, a method for J to clock up lots more coastline.

Apart from the result... it was overall a very pleasant w/e. Except for the journey up. Didn't arrive in Lancaster 'till midnight, due to chaos in the trains following a fatality on the line south of MK. Mind you, we'd got really cheap advance tickets - something like £25 for the three of us return to Lancaster - so couldn't really complain.

[Reading this later it sound callous - cheap tickets and inconvenience alongside a fatality. That needs thinking about.]

Friendly Carlisle supporter chatted with V and me, while we waited for A before the match.

Colchester home, 12th Jan

2009-02-24T23:35:00.006Z

Draw 1-1

Ex don Clive Platt scored for Colchester. Even so, when he was subbed late on the home fans gave him a standing ovation. That's nice, that is.

It helps that he's said nice things about us since he left.

Southend home 28th Dec

2009-02-24T23:34:00.005Z

Won 2 - 0

Another match I now have no recollection of, though I know I was there.

Bristol Rovers away, 26th Dec

2009-02-24T23:30:00.006Z

The first league match I missed this season! But I was in Edinburgh. Eating a late pub-lunch when A's friend texted him the result. My haggis tasted the better for knowing that the dons could still win even without me there to support them.

Leeds home, 20th Dec

2009-02-24T23:25:00.006Z

Won 3 - 1

17 000 attendance, and the away support was the real thing: seriously impressive singing, as you'd expect from a recently-premiership side. But this resulted in a strange mis-match with what their team was up to on the pitch. The team was a pretty average league one side. It just didn't seem right, support like that really deserves better.

Brighton away 12th December

2009-02-24T23:15:00.005Z

(Friday evening) Won 4 - 2

V, J and I had a w/e down there. Terrible stadium - or rather terrible for the away fans, so far from the pitch because of the running track. As always, though, great atmosphere among us away fans - shared misery in the cold, turning to shared delight as we won. Truly magical goal from Puncheon at the end: totally bamboozled the defenders.

J clocked up more of her coast travel on Sat ahd Sunday. Our landlord for the B&B on Saturday night was a Millwall supporter, and was impressed that V&I had been to the away match there - and warned us to be careful when we play them at home. He was supposedly being kind - warning us of the unpleasantness of his fellow Millwall fans - but I guess it is still part of the Millwall identity "we're the hard men".

Sunday morning, ice cream at Beachy head in sub-zero temperatures... now thats being 'hard'!

Scunthorpe home 6th December

2009-02-24T23:13:00.004Z

Lost 0 - 2

Can't recall much about this, but A reckons Scunthorpe played defensively they caught us on the break

Hereford home, 25th Nov

2009-02-24T23:12:00.004Z

Won 3 - 0.

I was there, honestly, but at the moment I've no memory of the match. I'll come back and edit this, if any memories come back

Walsall Away 15th November

2009-02-24T23:08:00.005Z

Won 3 - 0.

V and I went on the coach. I don't like coach travel, but its made much more acceptable now I've got an mp3 player. Not for music, I soon bore of music, but radio 4 podcasts are great, plus a selection of poetry.

Hartlepool away 15th November

2009-02-24T23:00:00.005Z

Won 3 - 1.

We had a weekend away, taking the opportunity to meet up with A, who came from York. Surprisingly enjoyable w/e, in addition to the match. We had some pleasant walks on te beach.

On the Friday evening I was surprised by the friendly 'hellos' I got from a few people. 'I don't know anyone up here', I thought, 'yet they seem to be genuine'. It was only later I twigged that they must have been fellow Dons fans up for the w/e who might recognise me from other away matches! Doh, I can be slow sometimes...

I'm, writing this months after the match, so can't honestly remember a huge amount about the game.

Stcokport Away 3rd Feb

2008-12-01T23:20:00.001Z

Won 1 - 0, but this was the second league match of the season we didn't go to.

Tuesday evening during term time. And, you can not get a train back from Stockport - or even Manchester - after the end of the match! That seems pretty poor to me, for a main route like that.

Obama's commitments

2008-11-06T09:05:00.010Z

From an email from Avaaz:

... here's a list of 10 of Obama's campaign promises that concern the world – you can find his full platform here http://www.barackobama.com/issues/:

* Reduce the US's carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol
* Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country
* Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe
* Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center
* Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria
* Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions
* De-politicize military intelligence to avoid ever repeating the kind of manipulation that led the US into Iraq
* Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur
* Only negotiate new trade agreements that contain labor and environmental protections
* Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

There'll be plenty of pressure to prevent him delivering on these. Organisations like Avaaz will be encouraging him to deliver. I'm doing my (tiny, tiny, tiny...) bit by supporting Avaaz!

Tranmere home 1st November

2008-11-01T22:44:00.003Z

We managed to keep 11 men this time, and finished 1 - 0 up.

Close game and I think many of our players were tired after lots of matches recently.

Tranmere include two recent ex-Dons, Gareth Edds and Ben Chorley, both popular players here in their time. The Cowshed gave them a decent welcome, which is nice.

Poor Edds shot over the bar from a few yards out - one of those easier-to-score-than-miss chances - right in front of the Cowshed, who struck up with 'Eddsy, Eddsy, your a Don'!

Leyton Orient away 28th Oct (Tuesday evening)

2008-11-01T22:23:00.005Z

V and I went by train. It was snowing when we set off to the station, raining during most of the match and snowing by the end.

We started well on top and got two earlyish goals. But, again we went down to 10 men. Early in the second half Cummings was the last defender when he brought their man down in the penalty box. Though it was argued - including by some of the Orient fans in their forum - he got the ball so it wasn't really a foul, still a penalty was awarded and Cummings was off. Kindly they missed the penalty - well wide - but it was hard work for holding on for the rest of the match and they got a goal back at the end of injury time. Still, 2-1 to us.

Back home by midnight, but it is half term so OK for V to sleep in tomorrow.

Mixed feelings about our fans. Good attendance and we (well, I didn't contibute a lot) sang non-stop, in contrast to silence from the Orient for most of the match. But some of the 'banter' was arguably OTT, targetting one of their supporters - calling him a 'paedo' because, I think, of his clothes! Apparently after the match this guy threatened a few Dons supporters who, with their kids, were late leaving. Someone got the police before anything happened.

There was then some discussion of this in the MooCamp. One contributor objected to calling someone a paedophile, saying what next, homophobic or racist chants? Of course ironically it is because there is nothing wrong with being gay or a different race, whereas being a paedophile is obviously bad, that homophobic or racist chants are wrong in a way insulting someone by calling them a paedophile is not (though it might be wrong in other ways). Though the contributor obviously 'meant well', making the link arguably itself reveals subconscious homophobia and racism.

Cheltenham home 25th Oct

2008-10-26T20:47:00.003Z

The return of former manager Martin Allen gave us an exciting afternoon.

Won 3-1, two of our goals coming after Gueret had been sent off and we were down to 10 men.

At one point Allen was seen man-handling one of is own player back on to the pitch - clearly not accepting that the guy was injured. The ref then directed him off again.

It later transpired - so it was reported via the Moocamp - that this player had a broken wrist!

Allen contributed some things to the Dons in his season here (Winkelman says in the matchday programme that he gave us the determination to win), but I'm really glad he's gone. He was and is a bully.

Stockport home 21st Oct

2008-10-24T22:53:00.003+01:00

An exciting evening match. Got the first goal but lost 2-1. We did all the attacking, but sometimes luck doesn't go your way. We conceded right at end, when pushing all-out for the win. It was pretty frantic, passionate stuff. I'd rather that than settling for the draw.

Crewe away, 18th Oct

2008-10-24T22:46:00.003+01:00

A is away to uni, so it was just V & me. Travelled up on the train early and met with R, who took us to his house, then for a pub lunch. R has a wonderful house in the countryside.

Crewe struggling near the bottom of the league so we went in thinking it should be ours, and when we got an early goal it looked promising. But when theu equalised Crewe rallied and went in 2-1 up at half time. Meanwhile we hear that Liverpool are also losing 2-1 (to Wigan) at half time.

The dons equalise near the end, while Liverpool win 3-2. Crewe played better than their position in the league might suggest, though it was based very much on their tall strikers and 'the long ball'.

Carlisle home 11th Oct

2008-10-24T22:44:00.003+01:00

A, V and I, but A brought along friends and sat apart from V and me. This was live on Sky - hence the cheap tickets for A's friends. Comfortable 3-1 win for the TV.

Bournemouth (Johnstone Paint Trophy) home 7th Oct

2008-10-24T22:38:00.004+01:00

A,V and I loyally turned out for a somewhat miserable evening, to watch us go out 1-0 to a team near the bottom of league 2.

RdM was clearly playing some of this second-rank players which was fine, but it is a little irritating to read in the programme his claim that he takes the competition very seriously, wants to retain the cup, and that he will play his strongest team.

These players DO need to get competitative match experience, but don't claim this is the strongest team.

Millwall away 4th October

2008-10-24T20:18:00.003+01:00

A, V and I went on the train, though some people thought we were mad, given the reputation (for violence) of the Millwall fans.

Glad we did. Winning 4-0 away to Millwall - who are above us in the league. It doesn't come much better than that! The first goal - in front of us - was nothing special, but the second was a delight. Baldock rounding the goal-keeper and calmly slotting it in from a tight angle. Our third was an embarrasing (for them) own goal, and the Millwall fans were non-too-happy by then. A small group of youngsters who'd been trying to intimidate us now took to keeping the ball when it went out (or maybe they didn't start that 'till we'd got our 4th?). Time wasting when your team is losing!

Part of the experience of going away to Millwall is the intimidation, and they didn't disappoint! There's a fenced walkway from the station to the ground, so it is pretty intimidating even when the Millwall fans are not there. On the way out, they let us know how they felt, from behind a line of police, making it clear they intended to 'get us' on the train. In the end I wasn't aware of anything actually taking place - except that one of them threw a coin at us - and I expect for most of them it is all part of the theatre.

Still, it was nothing like I've encountered anywhere else. Contrary to what might be the not-football-watching-public might expect, I've never felt seriously threatened anywhere else, and at most places felt positively welcomed ("hope you have great day but lose").

Looking in on one of the Millwall fans forums though, they did not come across at all pleasant. Stuff like the damage they'll do to our stadium on the return match, and some thinly-disguised racism. The club itself have obviously been working hard to move on, but 'unreformed' still seems a good label for at least some of their fans.

Peterborough home 27th Sept.

2008-10-24T20:14:00.003+01:00

This feels like a local derby, somehow there's more rivalry between us and Peterborough than Northampton, so losing was a bit painful (2-1).

Again, though, I didn't feel we were out-played (as we were at Leicester, for example), we conceded through mistakes which we ought to be able to learn from.

Colchester away, 20th Sept

2008-10-24T08:48:00.003+01:00

V & I went on the train again.

We were nearly late for kick-off, because I insisted on going into the town before the match. I've got this idea that we are not spending all this money and time only on the football, so we should at least see something of the places we visit. A steward at the station, guiding fans to the shuttle buses (no parking at their new stadium, so there's a park and ride) told me I could catch the shuttle bus anywhere in the town. That was not true! However, a really helpful bus driver took us from the town to the shuttle buses (I think he may even have diverted his route slightly) and we arrived OK.

Comfortable 3 - 0 win. Great for us, but I felt really sorry for the Colchester fans - they were so miserable on the shuttle bus to the station. One of them asked ne what I thought of their new ground. When I said how nice it was, he agreed but 'just a pity we can't play any decent football in there'.

As usual, the home fans were encountered in the bus were friendly, just one old chap, as we got in the bus at the end and he saw our shirts: "bloody stupid name for a football club".

Oldham away, 13 Sept.

2008-10-23T22:50:00.003+01:00

We all went up to Manchester on the train, met J and C to visit the Museum of Science and Technology, then A, V and I went on to the match.

Lost 2 - 0, but Oldham were top at the time, so it didn't feel like a disaster, except that we missed a penalty when we were 1 goal down.

A sunny afternoon, so the run-down post-industrial landscape looked, to my eyes, quite artistic as we walked from the station to the ground. Imposing brick factories (mills?) with broken windows.

Before the trip I'd joined an Oldham athletic fans forum to ask advice on the public transport. Seemed like an intelligent and friendly crowd. There were some voicing their dislike of 'franchise fc', but mostly in a polite and intelligent manner... Others showed good understanding of where we're coming from.

Yeovil home, 6th Sept.

2008-10-23T22:49:00.004+01:00

V and me again, A still on holiday. But this time A did miss a good match. Well, we won 3-0 anyway.

Swindon town home 30th Aug

2008-10-23T22:43:00.003+01:00

It was just me and V, A being away on holiday. A miserable, dull, 2-1 loss, as I recall - neither side doing much until Swindon scored on 52 mins. Only consolation was that we conceded due to mistakes rather than being outplayed. You can learn from your mistakes.

Huddersfield away 23 Aug

2008-10-23T22:31:00.005+01:00

We were holidaying nearby (staying at Holmfirth) "by coincidence" and so all four of us (me, J, A and V) were able to be there. A glorious sunny day in a fine, open stadium. A 3-1 win: couldn't be better.

When we were 3 - 0 up, the Dons sing to Gueret "Willy whats the score" and he gestures 3 - 0 to us. Shame he then lost his clean sheet.

After we had conceded a goal, with less than 10 minutes to go, Gueret was clearly very agitated, so much so that one our fans shouted "DON'T WORRY WILLY!". Wonderful!

Impressed by the town of Huddersfield, with its fine stone buildings. Much better than I was expecting, for some reason (some prejudice about Yorkshire, probably!)

Northampton home 16 August

2008-10-19T09:28:00.003+01:00

Won 1 0. We were there, but for some reason I can't recall anything about the match. Must have been memorable, then.

Leicester away 9/8/09

2008-10-19T09:22:00.003+01:00

Went with A and V on the coaches.

Lost 2 - 0 but we didn't expect mcuh more. It was nice to see Dyer playing well for Leicester, and good that we - the Dons fans - were, reasonably, positive towards him.

I want it to go on record that I was always commenting on how good he was with us last season. A and I often pondered why Andrews was getting all the plaudits, when Dyer seemed a far better player.

Pre season friendlies

2008-10-08T17:53:00.004+01:00

We went to a few

Keeping track of the MK Dons season

2008-10-07T13:41:00.003+01:00

I'll be at most home matches and quite a few away this season.