How to Show Football on Television – 2
It seems that the farce of showing the Ukraine-England match on television has had an effect.
The FA, who don’t really have a reputation for being media savvy have decided to show the England-Macedonia Under-21 International on Friday on the web.
Here’s their press release.
The FA has announced exciting details of the first England game to ever be screened live and for free exclusively on TheFA.com.
On Friday 9 October, The England v Macedonia 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifier at Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena will be streamed live on TheFA.com (kick-off 7.45pm BST).
The FA took the landmark decision to air the game for free on TheFA.com after UK broadcasters confirmed they were unable to schedule the match during peak-time.
Commenting on the move, Ian Watmore, Chief Executive Officer of The FA said: “This is the best way to ensure as many fans as possible around the country get the chance to see England’s young stars in action for free.”
Fans logging on to watch the game can look forward to seeing some great young players in action. Stuart Pearce has assembled an impressive squad including Theo Walcott – returning to the England Under-21s set-up fresh from scoring in Arsenal’s 6-2 defeat of Manchester City at the weekend.
Watching the game is simple. Just visit TheFA.com at 7.45pm on Friday night, click on the link to the game and enjoy all of the action free of charge.
Note the words “free of charge”.
The FA have certainly got this one right. To be fair they had nothing to do with the other farce.
Beware of Calls from VISA/Mastercard – 2
I have just had another call from these crooks.
I thought that I should phone my credit card company and ask if there is anywhere where the scam can be reported.
They said there wasn’t! They also said that nothing could be done as they are abroad. But if enough people reported the calls to a central number, then at least the country of origin could be traced and shamed in the press.
So we’re all on our own on this one, then!
Inheritance Tax
George Osborne said yesterday that he’d like to get rid of Inheritance Tax, except for millionaires. I think he should go a lot further and I have have not changed these views much since I had a letter published in the Financial Times about it some years ago.
I’ve been against the tax for years, not because I would benefit from its abolition or because I’m getting to that age, when I should start to do something about it. But because as a control engineer by training, I just think it does untold secondary damage.
Consider :-
- How many bright minds are employed on both sides of the Inheritance Tax War in avoiding and collecting the tax? Abolish and they’d have to do a proper wealth creating job.
- It is generally believed that the super-rich even if they are domiciled in the UK, pay little Inheritance Tax. I’d love to see a graph of the size of sums paid. I suspect that there are few in the millions and most are in tens and hundreds of thousands.
- The tax raises about half the amount Air Passenger Duty does! With the rise in this tax though, I suspect that recent figures will show this to be incorrect.
- According to a survey by the BBC, many people would prefer to replace it with say 2p on Income Tax. I’ve got an e-mail from a former Tory Treasury Minister who believes the same.
- How many large houses in a bad state that are inhabited by an elderly couple or a single pensioner are not developed because they’d prefer to leave their children a wreck, so the children could make the profit?
- Perhaps some of those put out of work by the abolishing of the tax, could work out sensible development schemes that would create the houses we need and give the owners a good standard of living.
- If we abolished the tax, how many rich Italians, French, Germans and other citizens of the EU would come to the UK to enjoy the remainder of their lives. I’ve been here over 60 years and it’s a great country, if you ignore the Iraq War, identity cards, stupid planning regulations, Government human rights abuses, certain football clubs and a few other things.
- Hopefully these retirees would create a few jobs. All my rich elderly friends are still at it creating new businesses. Why shouldn’t they do it here?
- How many inventors and entrepreneurs would come, knowing that they could leave everything to their descendents?
So it’s a very wrong tax that is well past its sell-by date.
I’d pay the two pence extra on Income Tax to avoid paying it to money-grabbing accountants. Come to think of it I’d pay three pence!
Is that an offer that the Chancellor can’t refuse?
The Scilly Isles
I like islands and the Scillies, along with the Aeolian Islands are one of my favourite places in the world. When we went to the Scillies, we flew direct from Ipswich in my own plane. What a landing and takeoff, as the runway is short and with a hump like a camel!
But that was a long time ago!
Today, islands like the Scillies are in the forefront of the fight against global warming, as they will be the first to go under the waves. So I was interested to see that they were taking part in an energy saving experiment yesterday called E-day. As there is just a single cable from the mainland, you can easily see how much electricity the Scillonians are using.
So did they save much electricity? Not really, as the weather was against them.
But look into the web site and it is a mine of information.
Just look at the National page and see how many tons of CO2 we emit for a start!
Moon River
Andy Williams was on Jools Holland last night and it made me think about his song, Moon River, which is strongly associated with him.
I hadn’t realised that kit was actually written for Audrey Hepburn to sing in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. But I do remember the Danny Williams version that predates Andy, being a bit hit in the UK.
It’s all here on Wikipedia.
Some Horse!
Sea the Stars achieved immortality on Sunday, by winning the Prix de l’Rac de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday.
According to Paddy Power, he might even win the Irish Sports Personality of the Year! I doubt it though, as Brian O’Driscoll is long odds-on!
Some years ago, we went to Longchamp on Arc day. The reason was that a horse we had bred, was running in one of the supporting races. According to the odds, the horse only had a modest chance. But no-one had told her!
Unfortunately, this memoral day is not recorded on film, as I din’t take a camera! I learned the lesson then and always have one in my pocket now!
The Anonymous Widower 