Monday 30th March 2009

What is Madonna thinking? This weekend's news has been dominated by her sick publicity stunt of adopting four year old Mercy, a deprived child from Malawi in Africa. I could understand if Mercy was an orphan, but the fact that she is being looked after by her father and uncles and Madonna is taking her away from her family puts an immoral twist on this whole saga. If Madge wanted to adopt an African child then she should start looking by in an orphanage perhaps. The newspapers have described this as a "shopping trip to Africa" and this is exactly what it is. Angelina Jolie has recieved much media attention after adopting three children in recent years and Madonna is clearly hoping for the same kind of attention. She hardly spends any time looking after her first adopted child David, who no doubt spends most of his time in the care of nannies and this is just another photo opportunity for Madonna. Also, the adoption process is long and complicated and most people wishing to adopt will spend years on a waiting list, but Madonna being Madonna gets to bypass the queue and jump straight in. This is exploitation of children by celebrities at its very worse.

In other news, I see a pattern emerging with female New Labour cabinet members being embarassed by their husbands. In 2006, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at the time Tessa Jowell was heavily scrutinised by the press after her estranged husband David Mills was investigated for tax fraud in Italy. This incident put great pressure on Tessa Jowell and threatened to ruin her political career. Now, three years later, home secretary Jacqui Smith has been embarassed by her husband after he watched pornographic films and claimed them on her expenses. I think Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Hariett Harman needs to make sure her husband stays out of trouble if she wants to live up to her ambitions of one day becoming leader of the party, as we've seen all too clearly how these New Labour husbands can so easily publicly humilate their wives.

I was pleased to see Wayne Rooney score twice in England's 4-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday. It looks as though he's finally starting to fill his potential on the international stage. When young Wayne announced himself to the world at Euro 2004, there was a real sense of optimism that he was the future of the England game and the World Cup in South Africa next year may be his chance to prove his worth, providing he stays injury free. On his day, Rooney is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world, but he needs to perform well in an England shirt against the biggest teams on the biggest stage, so next year is his big opportunity to prove to everyone he is world class. After what we saw from Rooney on Saturday, lets hope for more of the same.

Thursday 26th March 2009

I'm always being told that the internet is the future of journalism and events this week have provided strong evidence to support this. Conservative Member of European Parliament Daniel Hannan launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, pinning blame on him for the current economic troubles. The three minute Strasbourg speech, in which Brown was present, was initially not reported by the BBC, ITV or Sky, but became a massive hit on YouTube within hours. It just goes to show how the internet has changed news.

The speech itself was interesting. Of course its going to be critical as Hannan is a Conservative, but he really goes all out in attacking Brown and his government and this is definately a news worthy story. The last line ,"you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government" may have been taken from John Smith's attack against John Major in 1992, but perhaps it is suited to the current situation and while everyone may not agree with Hannan's views his public speaking skills can't be criticised. Daniel Hannan represents the South-East in the European Parliament and this will definately influence the very few voters, myself included, who will turn out for in the European elections in June.

My local MP in Newbury Richard Benyon recently raised a very good point in his blog regarding the RBS business going on at the moment.
"I am cynical enough to see the dead hand of spin doctors in this. Sir Fred’s behaviour gave the press a classic hate figure for the country to vilify while with less coverage, the Government announced another £25 billion of support for his erstwhile employers."
Sir Fred Goodwin has certainly been on the recieving end of much hatred in recent weeks and its clear to see now that the government welcome the change in direction of hatred and blame. "Fred the Shred" has taken Gordon Brown's place as scapegoat for now, but I wonder how long it will be before this changes.

Thats all from me for now, I shall try to update over the weekend.

Monday 23rd March 2009

Another quick update, want to write more now, but haven't got much time.

I'm starting to wonder if Southampton FC are destined to go down to League One, as its starting to look that way following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Blackpool. It may be good to pick up an an away point, but we conceded a very soft penalty early on which I know many referees wouldn't have given a second glance, then hit the post with the last kick of the game. Thats a third draw in a row for Saints now, three games unbeaten, but I can't help but think how much comfortable things would be if those draws were wins. Seven games left until the end of the season now, I think we need to win at least three of those games to be in with a chance of surviving.

Next up is Charlton at home on April 4th, which on paper looks like an easy three points, as they are, after all, the only team below Saints the table. However, lets not take that for granted, as this season most were expecting Saints to beat Blackpool, Nottingham Forest and Doncaster Rovers at home, but all three of those games ended in defeat. In my opinion, the game against Charlton is huge and one that has to be won.

Afraid thats all for now, want to write some more, but have to get to lectures and then take on the quiz at the SU this evening. Lets hope for some luck in that tonight, lots of questions on Sport and Politics would be very helpful...

Sunday 22nd March 2009

I read recently that the credit crunch has meant Portsmouth FC have had to shelve their plans for a brand new 36,000 stadium. Putting aside the Portsmouth/ Southampton rivalry, surely the credit crunch has helped Pompey; building a new stadium would put even more financial strain on owner Alexandre Gaydamak and the club is clearly in decline (unless they can get investment and fast) so is there any point having a brand new stadium when they won't be filling it playing in The Championship? Look what happened here in Southampton, when the club moved from The Dell to St Marys, then found themselves relegated a couple of seasons later and as a result there are 15,000 empty seats week in week out. If Pompey get the investment they need, then fair enough, the "bike-shed" has to be replaced, but its no good counting your chickens before they hatch, as, like most clubs at the moment, the future looks uncertain. And why the club and fans feel the need to move to a bigger ground when Fratton Park doesn't even sell out (unless the big four/ AC Milan play there) is beyond me!

Sure, attendance is decreasing almost by the week at St Marys, but Portsmouth fans can't turn around and mock this. Ten years ago this month, when Portsmouth were in the second tier of English football, 13,337 turned up to watch them lose at home to Barnsley. In comparison, Saints 0-0 draw at home to QPR last week was watched by 18,691, 5,000 more than our friends up the road when they were going through similar difficult times. I would also like to point out that when Pompey played Blackburn in a League Cup game in 2000 less then 3,000 fans turned up to Fratton Park. I just wonder how many of these plastic fans who jumped on the bandwagon when Pompey got promoted in 2003 will still watch their beloved team if they 're playing Championship football next year.

I think the chant "Where were you when you were s**t?" is aptly applied to Portsmouth FC.
I would love to write more, but have to get ready to go out, getting back on the Karaoke tonight, will update again soon.

Wednesday 18th March 2009

Its been six months since I last updated this blog, but after finding out people actually read this blog (thank you Sam, Danilo and Chris) I thought its about time I pulled my finger out and wrote something here.

The last six months have seen some tough times for my beloved Southampton FC. It's looking increasingly likely we'll soon be playing League One football and there really hasn't been much to shout about this season. Three home victories all season says it all and even though I'm an optimist I can't realistically see Saints staying in The Championship (though who knows, great escapes do happen). Today I wish to write about a certain Mr Lowe and why he needs to go.

When will he realise that no one wants his pompus, arrogant attitude at our club? Southampton haven't been in English football's third tier in 50 years and if they do go down at the end of this season Rupert Lowe should do the right thing and step down, but of course, he won't. He's done nothing but divide the fans, something I'm sure anyone who was at Saints vs Doncaster in January will agree with when supporters in all four stands in St Marys started fighting with each other as well as stewards.

There are are football club chairmen (and women) who love football and care about their club, for example John Madjeski at Reading and Delia Smith at Norwich. Its very clear that Rupert Lowe isn't one of these and sees SFC as simply a business venture. Ok, so previous chairman Leon Crouch didn't do a fantastic job at running the club before, but at least this man cares about the club and has often been seen at away games this season (apparently he bought a round for 10 fans in the pub at Doncaster away). I believe that one day, albeit in the distant future, Saints will play top flight football and the sooner Lowe and his cronies go the sooner this will happen.

Mark Wotte hasn't done a terrible job since becoming manager in January, but I can't warm to him for the simple reason he doesn't have a good rapport with the fans and is merely a puppet for Lowe. He showed shocking ignorance a few weeks ago when he said the recent protest marches were "just a bunch of kids". How does he know this? Did he see them? Having been to both protest marches I can say that out of the 500ish that marched each time only 10% were "kids". Mark Wotte should concentrate on the football side, which is what we're all trying to do until the end of the season. At the moment all we can do is get behind the team for the 90 minutes then concentrate on getting these mugs out after the game.

Moving away from Saints now and onto Politics. Like Southampton FC, the economy has significantly worsened since I last wrote here. Figures released today show unemployment figures rising above the 2 million mark for the first time in 12 years and its hard to predict when things will get better. I've been very critical on Gordon Brown and his Government in the past, but will bite my tongue now and not say too much about their latest schemes just in case I'm left eating my words. However, after watching "The Prince of Darkness" Lord Mandelson on Sky News this morning claim "no job centres will be closing", when 3 in London have closed I can't help but feel New Labour are up to their old spin tricks again.

I enjoyed watching the recent Channel Four Political Awards, hosted by Jon Snow and available to watch on 4OD. Vince Cable deserves an honorable mention for picking up the Opposition Politican of the Year award. The crown jewel of the Lib-Dem front bench is one of the few whose reputation has improved rather than been tarnished in this time of economic crisis and with his accuarate prediction of doom and gloom made a couple of years ago if there was to be a coalition Government sometime soon he would have to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I was also pleased to see John Prescott pick up the Politics in the Media award for his entertaining documentary The Class System and Me. He seemed to enjoy talking to youngsters who thought they weren't working class because they don't work and watching the man bust his moves on the dance floor is a great comic spectacle. Whether you love or loathe him, few could argue that "Two Jags" puts the entertainment into politics.

Thats all for me for now, need to go for a swim then grab an all day breakfast sandwich, will update again soon.

Wednesday 17th September

Saints played again tonight, managed a 2-2 draw at home to Ipswich. As usual, we looked threatening going forward, but very poor at the back, need to get Michael Svensson back to full fitness back ASAP. Once again Kelvin Davis kept the saints in the game with a string of fine saves in the first half and I was glad Ipswich 'keeper Richard Wright got a good reception from the home fans after his successful loan spell here last season. Whens saints went 2-1 down early in the second half, the response from the fans in the Northam end (where I sit) was great, we kept the faith by out singing the away fans who had just taken the lead. I think that kind of support even whilst losing is vital and played an important part in Pekhart's equaliser for the saints. We've got a very young squad and they can only grow in confidence if we get behind them and sing our hearts out for the lads like we did in the Northam last night. Next up is Barnsley at home on Saturday and even though its still very early in the season a lot of people are saying its a must win game against a team who are clear favourites for relegation. My only worry is that Barnsley will come here and their strength and experience will cancel out our attacking threat, as was the case at home to Blackpool a few weeks ago. We can only get behind the team again and hope for three points.
Onto politics now. I was impressed with Nick Clegg's speech to the Lib Dem party conference, he seems a much better option to Ming Campbell, who I think had lost touch with the modern voter. I was fortunate enough to meet Mr Clegg last year and he may have made the mistake of revealing too much of his personal life to Piers Morgan for GQ magazine (Clegg claimed to have slept with "no more than 30 women"), but I generally feel he is the right man to take the party forward, with the support of Vince Cable. His speech declared that the Liberal Democrats are "heading for government" and though it may be long time yet, I think he might be right, they just need to capitalise on the decline of Labour by becoming the number one left wing party. I confidently predict that the Liberal Democrats will be in power by the year 2030, ending a hundred year wait.
That's enough from me for now, will update sometime over the weekend.

Sunday 14th September

Today I went to London to watch my beloved saints lose 4-1 to QPR, not the best result I'm sure you'll all agree, but on the plus side I didn't get lost in our nation's capital like I usually do.
I got the 11:25 train from Southampton to Waterloo, then the Jubilee line to Bond Street, switching onto the Central line to White City.
I spent a large part of the journey reading the Sunday papers and took particular interest in the politcal stories of the day. I don't know why Gordon Brown doesn't accept a leadership challenge. His reputation took a dive around this time last year when he refused to call an Autumn election and surely refusing a contest this time will make him look like even more of a bottler. Gordon needs to put his party's and the country's needs first and just accept that the people don't want him as leader. And whatever happened to free speech? That seems to have gone out of the window after three (and counting) of Mr Brown's "colleagues" have been sacked for suggesting a leadership contest is in the best interests of the Labour party. Whatever happens in the coming weeks, one things for sure the upcoming conference season will be interesting.
Enough of the politics (for now anyway). I got to Shepards Bush and went to a delightful sandwich bar with some fellow saints fans who had also got the train before joining some more supporters in Walkabout. After that I met my mate Sam and we headed into Lofus Road. This was my first visit to QPR's ground and I was impressed with it, its great to sit so close to the pitch. The only problem with Loftus Road is the two-tier lay out which means fans are split up, so its more difficult to create a good atmosphere.
Southampton got off to the worst possible start, Dexter Blackstock put Rangers 1-0 up after about 35 seconds. What is it with ex saints scoring against us this season? We've already had Kevin "shagged his wife" Phillips nick the winner for Birmingham in our first home game of the season.
Things went from bad to worse on 30 minutes when debutant Oliver Lanchashire recieved a straight red for a reckless tackle on Delaney. To be fair to the ref, it probably was a red card, but he didn't help himself afterwards, with a number of shocking decisions going against the saints. We went into half time lacking confidence, but faith was restored early in the second half when saints equalised, Adam Lallana putting the final touches on a brillant team goal.
We went mental in the crowd for 10 minutes, but the joy was short lived, as QPR went 2-1 up with a goal that was clearly offside. Its such a shame that this decision went against us, as I believe if the goal was rightly disallowed we would've held on for a draw. QPR scored again twice late on in a game that was closer than the score suggests.
The lads did well out there, playing with 10 men for an hour, played some nice attractive football but there was a lack of end product and the inexperience as well as lack of physical strength really showed, particularly in defence. Kelvin Davis was superb in goal again today. Kelvin clearly isn't as good as Richard Wright, who impressed here on loan last season, but he did well today, making some crucial saves.
Saints need to start getting some points on the board and most fans are hoping to take at least 4 points from Ipswich and Barnsley at home this week, otherwise we're in even more trouble.
I got back to Southampton at 8:30pm and immediately drank the night away at the Avondale and Walkabout.

Work Experience Diary

On Sunday night, just hours before starting my work experience at Channel 4 news, I was in a relaxed mood and looking forward to the week ahead. I was somewhat stepping into the unknown, I had never worked in a broadcast newsroom and Channel 4 is one of the biggest news broadcasters in the country. But one thing I was sure of was this would be a very interesting week and I was right…

Monday 1st September, ‘Circumcision’:
I arrived just before 11am at the ITN HQ at Grays Inn Road, nervous, but looking forward to experiencing the highs and lows of broadcast journalism.
The first thing I did today was watch the 12pm programme go out live from the gallery. Before going on air I had a good chat with the vision mixer, a friendly Australian chap. He was a Portsmouth fan and being a Southampton fan myself we discussed, among other things, football rivalries. I explained to him how important football is to people in this country and some take it more seriously than others. I was happy to give him some advice about how to avoid running into trouble over footballing matters, as he hadn’t been living in England for long. Rule number one was never wear your Portsmouth shirt in Southampton.
After the 12pm news I was taken to meet the more4 news team, who I would be working with for the duration of the week. A few members of the team are Arsenal fans so enjoyed the banter with Alex Thomson (Channel 4 news presenter and Newcastle fan) about the Gunner’s 3-0 win against Newcastle over the weekend. This would be the start of the misery for Newcastle supporters as manager and fan’s favourite Kevin Keegan resigned later in the week.
The big story of the day was the Hurricane in America, which looked set to cause havoc in New Orleans for the second time in three years. I was allowed to sit in on the team meeting, which editors, producers and presenters talked about how Hurricane Gustav would be reported. It was set to strike between 7 and 9pm GMT, when Channel 4 news would be on air.
Later in the afternoon I went to an East London surgery to get footage for a story about circumcision with more4 reporter Nina. We had to wait for about four hours in the surgery waiting room before we could film anything and it was here I learnt how many hours journalists have to put in just for a news feature of a couple of minutes. I was back at my Nan’s in Mill Hill by 11pm, absolutely shattered, but with a lot of new knowledge about the journalism trade stored in my head.

Tuesday 2nd September, ‘Trevor Francis cut-out’:
Today was my second day of work experience at Channel 4 and would be working on a football story concerning Man City breaking the British transfer record by signing Robinho for £32.5 million. It’s amazing to think that in 1979 Trevor Francis was the first million pound player whereas today a million pounds in football will only buy clubs a championship standard player at best; this was many times above the inflation rate (£1 million in 1979 is about equivalent to just under £4 million today) and we wanted to illustrate this with a light-hearted segment on tonight’s show, using every day items such as eggs, cigarettes and a pint of beer. I researched the statistics in the morning and then was later sent out to get the props for tonight’s show. I had no problem getting the eggs and cigarettes, but then had to go to a nearby pub, order a drought pint and a bit of beer and carry both glasses back to the newsroom. I received many strange looks walking down the road with a full pint in one hand and 100ml of a pint in a full glass in the other hand and then had to convince security at 200 Grays Inn Road they were for television purposes only!
But the award for the most bizarre prop of the day goes to the blown up almost life size image of Trevor Francis, whose leg would be torn off by presenter Kyle Morris on tonight’s show. We had fun sticking this huge picture onto cardboard and then I went back to Mill Hill to watch tonight’s show with my Nan. It may sound a bit silly, but I felt a surge of excitement watching the props I helped organise earlier being used live on television.

Wednesday 3rd September, ‘By Golly We Miss Olly’:
Today marks the 350th anniversary of the death of Oliver Cromwell, perhaps the most controversial character in British history. I would be working on the story about the Cromwell commemoration service outside Westminster this afternoon and we were looking to get a guest to talk about Cromwell live tonight. I spent the morning reading up about Cromwell’s legacy whilst on the phone trying to arrange an interviewee for tonight’s show.
In the afternoon I went with Harriet to the Cromwell statue outside Westminster, where the ceremony would be taking place. We were unable to film the service due to strict Westminster recording rules, but got some good shots of the statue and some characters dressed as Roundheads posed for us after the ceremony. It was here we managed to get Tony from The Roundhead Army Civil War Re-enactment Society to come into the studio tonight to talk about Cromwell. I was given the task of picking up our Roundhead-dressed guest from the reception, keeping him company in the green room and then escorting him to the studio. I was interested listening to Tony telling me about the civil war re-enactments he participates in all over the country. Tony was extremely laid back considering he was about to be interviewed live on national television for the first time. I thought he was the perfect interviewee, his knowledge of Oliver Cromwell was impeccable and it looked good having a Roundhead live in the studio.
The big talking point in the newsroom today centred on Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in the presidential elections. American politics is so different to ours and today was when I realised this. Abortion is perhaps the biggest issue and the issue surrounded Palin’s 17 year old daughter, impregnated by an “f’ing redneck”. British politics may be brutal at times, but at least there isn’t much pressure on the politician’s families, who spend as much time in the public eye as the politicians themselves. Could anyone imagine Sarah Brown giving a speech at the upcoming Labour party conference?
The general consensus in the newsroom was that it would be a political disaster if Sarah Palin ever became the first female president (which is very likely if the Republicans get elected, considering Senator McCain’s age) and a certain Mrs. Clinton would be quaking in her boots!
On the subject of teenage pregnancy, today I read an informative article on the BBC magazine website about the stigmatism attached to it. This is a very contentious issue and I feel if the teenage mum has the right support from the family and takes responsibility of the child they shouldn’t be looked down on.
I left Grays Inn Road at 8:30pm feeling I had settled in the newsroom and looking forward to my last day of work experience.



Thursday 4th September, ‘Two teas, one coffee, one sugar’:
This was my last day of work experience at Channel 4 news and I felt honoured to be in tonight’s programme. We did a feature about the death of the office and planned a light-hearted sketch involving me as the work experience lad, fetching teas for two colleagues ‘working’ in the park. It was great fun filming these humorous scenes on location in the office, the park and at Rag’s flat. I didn’t want to get my hopes up by thinking I would be appearing in tonight’s programme, but when it became clear they would be using this material I struggled to hide my excitement. I appeared on TV four times, answering the phone in the kitchen and taking the orders for teas and coffee, crossing the road with the teas/coffee, getting out of a taxi then finally delivering the teas/coffee to Simon and Rags on a park bench at the end of the feature. I’m extremely grateful to Simon and Rags for allowing me to make my (albeit brief) television debut and hope it’s the first TV appearance of many!
It was an awesome experience working with the more4 news team; they taught me a huge amount about the broadcast journalism business and gave me the opportunity to get involved with the making of the show.