Rooney of the Cabinet
Tony Blair's taking this to extraordinary lengths, taking calls on last night's 606 phone-in on Radio Five Live (go here to listen).
Politicos will have noted that he dubbed the "Wayne Rooney of the Cabinet". I've no doubt he meant it as a massive compliment. Was it Rooney's looks, his intelligence, or his potential as a manager he had in mind?
Comments
Or perhaps he meant as an injury prone hinderance to the whole team
would obviously be that he should be watched with interest, as a young strong player.
The question is who does Blair think he is? The captain of the team, some people say he's past his best but few people think the team can do well without him. The biggest name attracting the most press attention, his wife much derided by the tabloids. Yes - it's PM Beckham!
Come off it - Miliband, the Rooney of the Cabinet?? Nick, you've pointed us to the man who truly deserves that title in your next piece.
Step forward pugnatious, troubleshooting, pick-a-fight-with-anyone Home Secretary, John Reid...
I'm sure we can all find fault in the Prime Minister. But I did think he did rather well on 606 when he appeared on Monday. It was good that he backed Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves 100% which was more than some of the press have been doing.
This story on about Brown and Cameron does nothing to enhance politicans reputations to be honest in my view:
'Cameron and Brown have cup spat'
Desperate situations require desperate solutions. A desperate ploy to garner populist opinion by attempting to portray himself as "one of the lads", when everybody knows "he ain't"! What on earth he thinks he has in common with the rest of us I shudder to think. Never have so many sleazy situations been shrugged off, ignored, stepped around, shunted elsewhere. And there's NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT !!!
Young Wayne is not the most technically gifted player but he does find his own space, is cool in front of goal and has an eye for the spectacular. This aligned with his great physical strength, tenacity and willingness to chase every ball no matter how lost the cause scares the hell out of the opposition. When he's on the pitch his team mates grow in stature and he is the one setting the agenda.
He's also extremely modest and loved by all. Even the opposition openly admires him.
I know of no political leader who can claim such gifts.
Surely Blair and Sven are THE managers of England. Selecting a team of good players, they hype them into superstars then prove tactically unable to use them effectively.