Euro 2012: Taking stock

A tense 24 hours without any live football on terrestial TV is almost over as Czech Republic and Portugal get the Euro 2012 quarter finals underway.

But the televisual desert was a good chance on the tournament so far, which in my case meant lumbering Tweetsport.co.uk with my thoughts:

That set the tone: a Dad's Army theme ran through ITV's coverage of England's clash with the Ukraine.

Summariser Andy Townsend threw in a "don't panic" as an ever more hysterical Clive Tyldesley commentary urged England to fall back and "dig the trenches."

Adrian Chiles, his extravagant Warsaw studio as removed from the action as Walmington-on-Sea was from El Alamein, flitted charmlessly from "we're doomed" to the naive optimism of a young Private Pike. Thankfully, or perhaps not, Gareth Southgate manfully resisted temptation and didn't ask to be excused.

We even had a brave, last line of plucky defence moment as John Terry hooked a shot off the line. Or behind the line. As the BBC's Mark Lawrenson, football's busybody ARP warden, exclaimed: "It's a great clearance from Terry but it's in."

Often just moronic, this was the night Terry became oxymoronic.

In the end though it took just a glance from the work-in-progress Rooney bouffant to secure England's passage to the quarter finals.

Read the whole blog at Tweetsport.co.uk - I'll be back there next to week round up the quarter final action and take a look ahead to the semi finals.

(Which will be Portugal v Spain and Germany v Italy. Almost certainly. Probably.)
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Champions League: Manchester United v Barcelona

The Champions League.

The tournament that best sums up all that is wrong about European club football. A grotesquely bloated monument to football's greed, its fiscal deities.

Yet still oddly compelling.

And tonight it reaches its climax. Wembley plays hosts to an unfettered orgy celebrating UEFA's money making fetish.

But also, we hope, a memorable game of football.

We have the favourites, Barcelona, considered by some to be the greatest club team ever to play the game, perhaps even thought of as the natural holders of this trophy.

And we have Manchester United. The worst United side for years we've been told. In Alex Ferguson an emperor whose wardrobe was not so much in transition as empty. How he's revelled in that nakedness.

A nineteenth English league title delivered with a nine point cushion. And a third Champions League final in four years. It's certainly a different way to measure footballing inferiority.

It's clear though that United have lacked fluidity, perhaps missed the je ne sais quoi of the real greats, at times this season.

We've seen that in both results and in Ferguson's continued retreats into the siege mentality tricks that have served him so well through years.

Pretty? Not always. Effective? 19 titles tell their own story.

A word here on Ferguson and the press. Does he treat the BBC well? No. Was he at his petulant, bullying worst when caught suggesting a journalist should be denied access to a future press conference after having temerity to mention Ryan Giggs? Yes.

Does any of this help Ferguson's image? Absolutely not. For a man to have achieved so much and still indulge in such pettiness is a shame, even if much of the hysterical outrage it provokes is engineered by people who just don't like United.

Don't let the press skip lightly off the hook though. They play Ferguson's game because too many football journalists have been reduced to filling the role of the simple inhouse scribe to the game's 24 hour media circus.

Argue, provoke or, in some cases, have the temerity to tell the truth and access will be denied. And access is all.

It's not a healthy relationship and it doesn't lead to great journalism. But Ferguson's behaviour is a symptom of that environment not its cause.

I read somewhere the other day that to deny a journalist access to a press conference would be to deny us, the people, the chance to get close to the game, to cut off a valuable source of information that the fans need.

Really? If these endless press conferences were so important then Ian Holloway's comedy routine, a routine that would play to empty houses in the worst sort of Edinburgh Fringe venue, wouldn't have been siezed upon as a highlight of each English Premier League week this season.

Football has very skillfully set its own agenda by constantly feeding the press what it wants them to hear. In turn the media have become convinced that we demand that their role is simply to play the middleman in a great conversation between "football" and the fans. They are terrified that access will be cut off. And that makes them even less likely to properly question what they are being told.

It's an open goal for football. Ferguson simply chooses to fill his boots.

Anyways, back to the game this evening.

Barcelona are favourites. Many predictions seem to consider a Barcelona win a foregone conclusion.

Understandable really. Here's one of the game's biggest clubs so often reminding us of what joy football can bring.

The majesty of this season's 5-0 defeat of Real Madrid will live long. So sustained is their excellence that there is a risk we will begin to take it for granted. We shouldn't. Teams like this don't come along very often. We should savour every moment.

In Lionel Messi Barcelona have a devastating weapon. His semi final goal at the Bernabeu proved that he can rise above his surrounds. That night he lit up a game so unpleasant to watch it had me longing for the delights of Alex Miller's Hibs team of the 1986/87 season.

That game also highlighted one of the problems Manchester United face. Barcelona are not such purists that they can resist being sucked into a war of attrition.

But even if you try to drag them down they have brilliance enough at their disposal to find the fleeting moment of devastating quality that will pull them free.

What Ferguson chooses to do with a problem like Messi is one of the big questions ahead of the game. Man mark him? Who wants that job?

I heard an intriguing theory based on the 1966 World Cup final when Alf Ramsay sacrificed Bobby Charlton's attacking threat and got him to shadow Franz Beckenbaeur. Step forward Wayne Rooney to do the same this evening?

It would be something to watch. But surely there is not parity enough between these two sides for Ferguson to give up on the hope that this is the final where Rooney can make his own indelible mark.

Darren Fletcher might be another contender. However well he would be suited to tracking Messi for 90 minutes or 120 minutes, this might not be Fletcher's time. The virus he has struggled to shake off has left him short of match time and, judging by his appearance last weekend, worryingly thin.

Ferguson would love Fletcher to play but it looks like such a decision would be based on sentiment and hope rather than any real confidence that he could perform to his best so soon after returning.

So the Messi problem offers an interesting chance to play the often fruitless game of trying to second guess Alex Ferguson. The manager has said, in a tone which I like to imagine hinted at Marlon Brando in The Godfather, that there is always a way to stop even the very best from performing.

But Messi has the talent to overcome even the sternest obstacle. And silencing his genius is unlikely to be enough to muffle the threat of teammates who are hardly cowed into walking in the Argentinian's shadow.

If Messi ever wonders which players are close to him at the top of the game he can just have a glance round at training. Andres Iniesta and Xavi joined him in the top three at the Ballon d'Or awards.

Everywhere you look United are faced with mountains to climb to reach the promised land.

It's impossible though to deny the stubborn resilience they've shown this season. And they are not without threats of their own. Guile in midfield, the electric Javier Hernandez, the talent of Rooney. And that work ethic.

Pep Guardiola has shown himself to be too canny to consider this one a done deal.

But it is Guardiola who has to be the favourite to repeat his trick of 2009 and get the better of Alex Ferguson.

Still a cautionary note must remain. Ferguson's career is full of moments when his teams shouldn't have pulled off this, were unable to win that.

He's got a terrible habit of delivering his greatest coups when they look most unlikely.

Rooney, Rangers and Governing Football

When football authorities talk, the world listens.

Some applaud, others get their underwear of choice twisted, many gloat. Most dissect, discuss, debate.

Two very different examples this week raised similar questions.

The English FA banned Wayne Rooney for two matches for his less than eloquent response to scoring a hat trick against West Ham.

And UEFA have threatened to come down hard on Rangers for the hellish karaoke of their travelling supporters.

Both bodies have the authority to act.

And act is something they like to do every so often to prove that they still exist and they still have that authority.

The fact that Wayne Rooney's traditional articulacy makes him unlikely to start beguiling us with snippets of Kipling as he meets with his own triumph and disaster is widely accepted.

That Rangers fans on trips abroad are unlikely to enhance the breathtaking architecture of mainland Europe with moving performances of Handel's Messiah is nothing new.

That doesn't mean the authorities should not act.

"You've let us away with it before" is no defence at all.

Moreover we know, and our experience of this in Scotland might be particularly bitter, that footballing authorities are hardly set up to be rapid response units.

They look, they hear, they ignore, they bury their head in the sands, they deflect.

And then, finally, they act.

All of this is nothing new.

What interests me about this week's response is what comes next?

Are the English FA really now going to be cracking down on every instance of bad language? Or only the incidents that are caught on camera? Or only the incidents that come shortly after the FA have launched a good behaviour initiative?

Is Rangers fine from UEFA and the banning of away fans a punishment based on previous bad behaviour? Is it now a standard fine for certain behaviour by fans? Or will it only apply when fans indulge in behaviour that has politicians and journalists in a flap in their home countries? Will it only apply to teams who have been in games that have recently been criticised by UEFA's top man?

None of this is in any way a defence of Wayne Rooney. And this blog has been consistently critical of what some Rangers fans to consider to be acceptable behaviour at a football game.

What I don't like are kneejerk reactions that aren't then followed up by more action.

The FA might have appeased those whose moral outrage was given another airing when Rooney snarled into the camera.

But how many examples of bad language will go unpunished this weekend? At how many grounds in England will language that is both foul and abusive be ignored both on and off the pitch this weekend?

And what of UEFA and Rangers? Will it be publicly stated that this is the first in a sliding scale of punishments? Or is this just a one off?

Because as it stands I don't see a £100,000 fine and a three game ban doing much to dissuade some cretins of their right to sing whatever they want. I suspect that a three game ban on away fans will be seen as a challenge, another way to earn a badge of honour.

Will UEFA be calling on the SFA to explain their role in allowing Scottish football to reach 2011 with issues of sectarianism still hanging over us like a polluted smog?

Will every club in Europe that has had reported problems with fans behaviour, with racism, sectarianism, homphobia, be given notice that this is a new, tougher UEFA?

I suppose we'll have to wait and see. For now, I'll remain pessimistic.

These are different crimes. And I offer no defence for Wayne Rooney or for Rangers.

But I think it illustrates the way in which football's governing bodies fail the game.

Will a two match ban from the English FA do anything to dissuade footballers, and in this case Rooney is a figurehead not a one-off, that they're not an over protected group of giant man-children, essentially untouchable by even the game's highest authority?

Will fining Rangers £100,000 and banning their fans from away games really be interpreted by those fans as UEFA saying that their songs and chants will never again be tolerated? Will fans of other clubs see what's happening to Rangers and decide en masse that they should leave their own brand of ignorance at the turnstiles the next time they go to a game?

I suspect not.

And partly that's because the FA and UEFA have fallen into the trap of the publicity stunt punishment rather than the positive attempt to rid the game of problems.

Like the worst sort of politician, those who run football now see the impact of a headline in the short term being more important than real change in the long term.

That is a dereliction of their duty.

But, happy that they've done something and - far more importantly - been seen to do something, the FA and UEFA can again get their heads down and say nothing more.

They can adopt their more comfortable positions of cosying up to big name players and kneeling before the demands of big clubs.

Meanwhile, matches sat out and fines paid, footballers can continue to live as cossetted, snarling bullies and the unreconstructed fan can continue to use his support of a football club as a rallying point for a war against decent behaviour.

And, counting the cash in their ivory towers, UEFA, the FA, the SFA et al might not even notcie as the silent majority of supporters simply drift away from a game that is being stolen from them.

Wayne Rooney v Manchester City, 12/02/2011

> The copyright bods are going a little crazy over this goal I'm afraid. Any links appreciated.

A single goal means nothing in a career.

And I say that as someone who saw Alan Ormen score "that" goal for Hibs against Rangers at Ibrox.

But this was some strike from Wayne Rooney for Manchester United against Manchester City today.

Out of form, miserable, maligned. He's all that and more. Is one strike enough to get him back to where he was? There have been signs in recent weeks. Maybe this was confirmation.

In any event, it was some strike.

When Green Jerseys Are Worn

On international Wednesday a look at the often controversial question of international eligibility.

A guest blog from Zoe Broome exploring the reasons and emotions that might be involved in making a decision about which country to play for.

A tricky one this, with the eligibility rules never quite fully satisfying. Let us know your thoughts:

With Gary Hooper recently rumoured to be eligible for the Scotland squad, the discussion of whether players who are eligible to play for a country they were not born in should do so or not has again dominated conversations. This article will look at the discussion, especially in terms of the Irish Diaspora.

As Ireland has often been a country which a lot of people emigrated from, there have over the years been a lot of eligible players born elsewhere. And a lot of these players have opted to play for Ireland. This was especially the case under Charlton but even today there continue to be players such as McCarthy and McGeady who are foreign born and play for Ireland. Whilst Aiden McGeady has opted to play for Ireland, England international Wayne Rooney has not.

McGeady qualifies through both paternal grandparents to play for Ireland and he chose to do so after a brief spell in his youth career as a Scotland player. Whilst this has made him unpopular with some off the pitch: a mild example of this being that some Scots regard him as a “traitor”, on the pitch McGeady plays as well for Ireland as he once did for Celtic. This could be seen as an argument that, in spite of McGeady being born in Scotland, he feels patriotic about Ireland and he is willing to try hard to be a success for his grandparents’ country.

Rooney instead chose to play for England. Whilst he has been a successful player for England and has perhaps achieved more than he would not have done for Ireland, there was a feeling at the 2010 world cup among some England fans and commentators that he did not play as well for England as he does for Manchester United. Most of these critics cited wages as being the problem, and certainly the EPL does play its players very high wages. But another problem may be a lack of passion. Often Rooney does not, for example, sing the English national anthem.

If Rooney was raised in a community which had more in common with those in Ireland than with the average non-Diaspora community in England, and one which prided itself on being Evertonian with Irish roots rather than on its Englishness, English patriotism might not come naturally from his upbringing. And, there are certain ways in which a sense of Englishness would clash with a sense of Irishness: for example, pride in the British Empire. This would make it difficult for him to feel any sense of English patriotism which could help him to try hard for England.

What Hooper should do depends, then, on how he was raised. If he was raised in a family which regarded itself primarily as English: as is likely considering his grandfather was from the Scottish Borders but born in Berwick and the only possibly non-English member of the family, then he will probably try hardest and play best for England. However, if he was raised with any sense of Scottishness (especially Scottish nationalism) then the England squad and certain elements of England’s support may feel jingoistic to him, and put him off. If this is the case, it is best he opts for Scotland where he can take pride in his efforts for the country and try his hard to be a success.

> Thanks to Zoe who can be found on Twitter @zbwriter

Rangers v Manchester United

A break from the surreal squabbling over referee’s strikes and pointing the finger(s) of blame.

Tonight Scottish football is touched by the glamour of the Champion’s League and the might of Manchester United.

Glasgow could do with a bit of glamour actually. Lovely place, nice people. But even in a recession I’d have thought they could do better than hiring The Krankies to flick the switch on their Christmas lights.

The verdict of an English colleague who was there with a Spanish friend: Ian and Jeannette Tough have a unique brand of humour that loses much of the, well, humour in the translation. Seems it gains a lot of creepiness though.

Anyway the lights are turned on and the council budget is hardly touched. Which means Sir Alex Ferguson can expect red carpet treatment as he returns to Govan.

The last time he was about these parts Ferguson’s 2003 United side enjoyed a 1-0 victory in a fairly tight match that was swung by a fifth minute goal from Phil Neville.

Lot of water under the bridge since then and the gap between the two sides has grown ever more pronounced. Even Manchester United’s debt makes Rangers’ fiscal shenanigans look amateurish.

But shocks do happen. It was said that Rangers lacked ambition during this season’s 0-0 draw at Old Trafford. Except the ambition was to snaffle a point. That job was done. Walter Smith is happy to let others worry about his tactics.

United will qualify for the last 16 with another draw tonight but they’re unlikely to arrive at Ibrox happy to settle for a point.

Everyone in football seems to agree that they aren’t anywhere near their best at the moment. But they’re joint top of the English Premier League, top of their Champion’s League group and yet to concede a goal in Europe. It’s a successful enough kind of shoddiness.

Robbed of Bougherra, Webster and Edu through injury and with Sasa Papac doubtful Rangers are going to be forced to tinker. The emphasis will still be on defence but the available personnel will mean there will have to be some shift to attack.

Will that expose them to an onslaught? Wayne Rooney is likely to return to United’s starting line-up. But which Wayne Rooney? The highly rewarded passenger that he’s been of late or the player who would eat Kirk Broadfoot for breakfast in his pomp?

We’ll have to wait for the answer to that one. The ideal scenario for Rangers is that Rooney not only remains off form but also creates a sense of unease among his teammates. Such an outcome would send Ferguson apoplectic.

He’d never admit it about his old mate but the more annoyed Ferguson gets the happier Walter Smith is likely to be.

A tough ask for Rangers. They need another night of unlikely heroics, for United to show the hesitancy that’s marked their play this season. But United’s campaign has been dominated by a stubborness that suggests that, even if they are far from being Ferguson’s best vintage, they might be the squad most closely built in his image.

Off-form but determined, I’d expect United to get the win.

We’ll also get the first chance of the week to see a foreign referee strutting his stuff on a Scottish pitch. Massimo Busacca apparently once gave fans a “two finger salute.”

Unfortunately I think Mr Busacca might be a touch expensive for the SFA to parachute in for a weekend SPL game.

Still, if we’re going to be doing this on a budget it seems that The Krankies are both cheap and available.

The love of the Irish

People do strange things during a World Cup. I got sent this last night:

Ireland, although not in the World Cup have a World Cup song! - Corrigan Brothers, the band who had the International hit "There’s no one as IRISH as Barack Obama" have teamed up with Shay Healy writer of Johnny Logan’s Eurovision winner "What's another Year" to Bring you “WAYNE ROONEY IS OUR HERO”- the song urges Wayne Rooney to Kick Thierry Henry "up the derriere."

2010 World Cup: England v Algeria

Craning my neck over the garden fence again.

Seems them next door had a spot of bother last week with some of their former tenants turning up and doing their best to spoil the party.

The problem with high expectations is that the pain is so much greater when things don't quite go to plan. A 1-1 draw with the United States was not a disaster for England. It was hardly a 3-1 defeat to Peru.

But anything short of a five or six goal win was never going to be enough for the media. Given their World Cup record it amazes me that the press still think England should be winning every tournament. I keep thinking that one day they will realise that the weight of evidence suggests 1966 was a golden one off rather than a magnificent confirmation of England's status in this competition.

But no, they never do.

England were mediocre - and certain individual performances were unlikely to make anyone Green with envy - but they remain where they were before a ball was kicked: in amongst that group of nations that might be considered in the second tier of favourites for the title.

They are better than America but they weren't the only team to be sucked into a dull opening game where deficiencies were more evident than skill. And they avoided defeat, they remain alive and kicking in a weak group.

The Robert Green situation is interesting but I'm convinced Capello will have decided to keep him in the team. One mistake doesn't make him a bad goalkeeper. And what are the options if he's dropped?

Play David James. Fine, but he's shown before that he can throw in the odd gaffe of his own. If he did that tonight then where would Capello go next?

Throw in the rookie Joe Hart for a potentially decisive final game against Slovenia? That's not a gamble he's likely to take.

And, oddly enough, the press hysteria at the mistake is likely to have done more damage to Green's confidence than the mistake itself. With friends like these... (See update at the bottom of the post.)

Gareth Barry's return will give England a better shape and more of a platform to bring Wayne Rooney into the game, an imperative of any English game plan but one that seemed beyond them on Saturday. It says much about England's midfield superstars that it's the relatively unsung Barry who has become the key figure in coaxing performances of sustained cohesion.

Is Capello bracketing Jermain Defoe with the new World Cup ball as a diversionary tactic to focus the press away from his real thoughts?

Possibly. But maybe he also has a concern over Rooney. The Manchester United striker spoke earlier in the week of being a bit knackered after a long season. For a man who tends to revel in perpetual motion that would have been worrying for the coaching staff.

If Capello has the slightest concern about Rooney's ability to perform tirelessly for 90 minutes then Defoe might be an attractive option. Emile Heskey is many things but he's hardly a goalscorer. Defoe could be better placed to share that burden with Rooney while also providing a bit more finesse for the Algerian defence to deal with.

I don't know. The only thing I'm convinced of is that Fabio Capello won't be panicking. And, I suspect, that will probably be enough for England to get past Algeria tonight.

So, what do I know? Absolutely nothing. The Guardian reports at 09:44 that:

David James is set to be handed a shock recall to England's starting line-up for this evening's critical Group C fixture against Algeria after Fabio Capello decided against selecting Robert Green following his costly error against the United States.

The veteran Portsmouth goalkeeper is to replace Green at the Green Point stadium after the England manager opted for experience in a fixture that the national team can ill afford not to win. Capello had been impressed by the manner in which Green recovered his poise following his handling mistake against the US, which presented Clint Dempsey with an equalising goal, but he remained concerned that his defenders' faith in the goalkeeper had been significantly eroded.

Furthermore, Green appeared nervous in front of the media at open training at the ground yesterday, fumbling two shots from Ray Clemence in one of the early drills.

I think that's a mistake. And it kind of shafts my theory that Capello won't be panicking. England will still win though.

Having a Benny

There's a lot of things that come to mind when you hear the news that Wayne Rooney is to earn £500,000 for one night's work.

That's his fee for battling it our with Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard, David Villa and Didier Drogba in a live spectacular at the O2 Arena to discover the world's most skillful footballer.

Clearly the World Cup final, to be held just six days before, is no longer showbiz enough.

The organisers are describing it as a "Gladiators-style contest" although I'm not sure if that means its going to be hosted by John Fashanu or if some of the competitors are going to die. And I'd only watch one of those two scenarios.

Anyway this got me thinking.

Mainly it got me thinking that this is a mad and really quite horrible world that we live in.

But also it got me thinking that we should have a seperate quest, a contest to find Scotland's least skillful footballer.

Obviously this can't include players that only played for five minutes because they'd somehow persuaded the manager that they were Pele's son.

Players who didn't depend on the more refined footballing skills but did an effective job should also be disqualified. A rugged centre half's lack of finesse might be amusing but is hardly detrimental to his game.

No, I'm talking the crappest of the crap.

The players who seemed to hang around for years and years without ever convincing. The names that when you see them on the teamsheet you think "oh, for fu..."

I'll start with a Hibs contender. Joe Tortolano ran through my mind but I'll defend him by arguing that he wasn't a bad footballer. He was actually a so-so winger who was basically destroyed by Alex Miller's insistence on playing him out of position. So Joseph escapes.

That leaves the way clear for Ally "Benny" Brazil.

There's been worse at Hibs in the more recent past but none with the staying power, the sheer dedication to achieving such consistent mediocrity.

Benny enjoyed a 10 year career at Easter Road and people still scratch their heads and wonder how that was possible.

He also played with George Best at Hibs and some claim Best's "he can control it further than I can kick it" line made its debut as he watched Benny in training.

George Best is now remembered as an all time great. Benny is now a bus driver in Edinburgh.

Truly, it's a funny old game.

So who's your most memorable crap player? The least skillful carthorse to grace your club? And who takes the title for Scotland?

George Hargreaves: You're the devil in disguise

Scottish Football and the Scottish Elections Part One: Christian Crazies

This was going to be a short article telling footballers to stay out of the Scottish election. But that post will come later.

For now let’s tell politicians to stay out of football. Read this statement from George Hargreaves of the Scottish Christian Party concerning Manchester United's 'satanic' themed crest:

“We will urge Wayne Rooney not to honour the devil by wearing this shirt nor kiss this badge. We will urge Christians to put their money elsewhere than Manchester United and its sponsors of Satanic worship. Repent and put The Cross of Jesus Christ or at least Star of David on your shirts. Manchester can never be United under Satan. Manchester can only be United under the Christian-Jewish God. We advise Christians in Manchester to support Manchester City, Bolton, Stockport or Burnley until the board of Manchester United change the official club symbol of Satan on all shirts, merchandise and their website."

Ah, the brave new dawn of Scottish democracy. It was ever thus – extend democracy and every nut case with an ego will try to get elected.

So please step forward Reverend Hargreaves: policies include a referendum on capital punishment, teaching school children that the bible is the ultimate authority on ALL matters and teaching school children that homosexuality is an abomination.

A couple of things George: you can do nothing about Manchester United as you are trying to be elected in Scotland. You might want to cast the good book aside and read Scotland's devolution settlement before talking absolute tosh.

More importantly you say that your policies are about freedom but what freedom do Jewish, Muslim, atheist or children of any other belief system have when you force your beliefs on them. But, then, it doesn’t matter because George would allow corporal punishment to beat the heathenism out of any child dissenters.

And how would George tackle sectarianism in football? I don't know because he steers clear of any mention of it in his manifesto (think Mein Kampf without the humour). That is almost certainly because lovable old Georgie thinks there is absolutely nowt wrong with a bit of sectarianism (provided it's directed at the right people of course).

George you are as dangerous as the BNP. And you are as far removed from showing true Christian values as anyone in our society. Hardline nonsense like yours will contribute to this country becoming Godless much more effectively than the efforts of a million atheists.

And of all the things Wayne Rooney has done in his life kissing the badge of his club is probably more Christian than paying to sleep with a grandmother.

Sorry to get political but if you don’t believe that George is dangerous look at his namesake Bush in America. The Christian right can influence people and can influence presidents.

And anyone that forces us to give up the moral high ground and stop us laughing, with a casual superiority, at America does not deserve our support.

Vote Rooney, Vote for the (Red) Devil, Vote for Choice Not for the Cross!