The Pin Factory Blog

Brooks Newmark MP, marked Obama's first 100 days in office with a speech as guest speaker at this months TNG meeting. In his description of the new President of the United States, he evaluated that a lot of his policies were, “Bush-like”, pointing out that his policy of ‘Big Government’ and the immense fiscal stimulus were not dissimilar to that of his predecessor.

Nevertheless, the main scope of his speech embarked on what Obama has and will achieve in his Foreign Policy. The pull out of Iraq followed by the increased number of troops in Afghanistan is very much heading in the same direction a Bush. Newmark stated that Obama has put significant emphasis on his dealings with Israel, pin pointing that he will continue to promote a two state solution.

As well as this, he highlighted the importance of Iran and how Obama has attempted to improve relations with the country. For now this has wrong-footed Ahmadinejad, though he insisted that the President might be disappointed when his outstretched arm is not taken by Iran. If and when this occurs, it will be in interesting to see how comparable his reaction will be with that of President Bush.

“Andy Burnham, Culture secretary, is calling for an overhaul of English football finances to break the domination of the ‘Big Four’ clubs", The Times has reported. Why would the Government get involved in such a matter? Have they no more important issues to be worrying about? It is no surprise that the Culture Secretary is an Everton fan.

Undoubtedly, the top four teams have been hugely dominant for over a decade. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have been at the forefront of English football and because of this end up becoming richer every season. New and better players have consistently chosen these football havens as a place to learn their trade, ultimately leaving the ‘smaller clubs’.

It is understandable that this has become an issue as a mini league has now been created between these teams and the lesser teams fight for fifth place downwards. However, Burnham is demanding the top four redistribute their earnings from the Champions League. This ridiculous stipulation is both embarrassing and disgraceful. The Champions League is a competition where the best four teams from our country fantastically represent the Premier League and of course acquire extra revenue. Why should the teams who do not even play in this competition gain extra money for doing absolutely nothing? If Everton were part of the ‘Big Four’ would Mr Burnham be making such a fuss?

Once again people who seem to know very little of football and the beauty of the game are involving themselves in how it is run. Burnham also raised the issue of quotas for English players to help make the Premiership English. Nevertheless, there is a simple reason why there are so many foreigners in our League. We want to have the best League in the world; therefore, we attract the best players in the world. And alas, the best players in the world are too rarely English.