Bill McLaren RIP

Sad news about the death of Bill McLaren.
I was lucky enough to speak to him a few times and he was decent, self-effacing man with a real passion for rugby.

FIFA fudge over Henry handball

FIFA have refused to punish Thierry Henry for the handball that gave France a World Cup place in the play-off against Ireland.
They say there was 'no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement'.
It's time FIFA rewrote their code of conduct to encompass such flagrant cheating.
What happens if this happens again - and again and again. Football will die.

Jonathan Ross quits the BBC

The Daily Mail are gonna love this.
Wossy insists he's not leaving in the summer because of financial reasons.
Will he now sign up for I'm a Celebrity?
Ant and Dec must be getting twitchy.

Whale war

This is pretty shocking behaviour from the Japanese whalers who rammed the whale protest boat Ady Gil. The anti-whalers were stationary at the time.



BUT - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society can, will and should make huge political capital of an ill-judged act of almost homicidal aggression.

Pomagne supernova

The Daily Telegraph claims that the earth could 'soon be wiped out by the explosion of a star more than 3,000 light years away'.
Let's have a closer look at this outlandish story about the 'imminent' supernova soon to befall T Pyxidis that also appears in today's Sun.
'Although the star is thought to be around 3,260 light-years away – a fairly short distance in galactic terms – the blast from the thermonuclear explosion could strip away the Earth's ozone layer, the scientists said,' writes the Tele.
So should we be worried?
Well, bearing in mind that this supernova is unlikely to blow for at least ten million years I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Majestic Wine - in vino veritas

Majestic Wine has seen sales rise nearly 12 per cent over last year's figure.
The company reduced the minimum purchase from 12 to six bottles back in September after years of standing firm on the 'case-only' proviso.
While the board must be pleased, they must also be wondering why they didn't do this years ago.

Middle Class Blues

I've written a song called Middle Class Blues and my musical guru Tim Ball has been kind enough to 'get it down' digitally.
It's on my Myspace page.
I think it may be the only song that features Fred Goodwin, Labradors (Coco, left) Volvo, Aga and school fees in the lyrics.
Singing it made me feel better and I hope it does you too.
I'd like to get it on to You Tube with a video. If anyone can help that would be great - there's no money in it of course.
Contact me if you fancy it.