If the British people do not want the euro, they will say "no" Nor will this vote take place in a void. In contrast to the referendum on staying in the European Economic Community in 1975, there will be plenty of chance for opponents of the euro to make themselves heard. If Mr Hague is confident that the people will oppose the euro, he should welcome the referendum because of the humiliation that it will bring to the Government.One of the most obvious differences between Labour and Conservatives remains the chasm separating them on Europe. We hope that the battle has at last been joined, instead of the shadow-boxing that we have seen up until now Europe is Britain's future A move away from Europe would be catastrophic for all. One day, even the Conservative Party will have to understand that simple point..
The phrase has changed from "not cricket", the colloquial complaint about foul play in all walks of life to "not cricket", the doleful sigh at the realisation that the sport has been corrupted, like so many others. The phrase has changed from "not cricket", the colloquial complaint about foul play in all walks of life to "not cricket", the doleful sigh at the realisation that the sport has been corrupted, like so many others. All around England yesterday, as three Benson & Hedges Cup quarter-finals were played out under a blazing blue sky, thousands of cricket buffs will have been shaking their heads and feeling an ache in their hearts. Church bells may have tolled in villages in mournful recognition of an angelic fall from WG Grace.Unfortunately, the wailers have been living in cloud cuckoo land for a long time, if they believed that their beloved game was somehow above the rough swirl and dodgy dealings that afflicted other sports. And I'm bound to ask, how could they possibly have been so na?? For far from being noble and gentlemanly, cricket has always seemed to me to exist on the brink of venality, with deception and trickery enshrined in the very tactics of the game.Old WG William Gilbert, whose very name adorns the main entrance gates at Lord's may have been a great batsman, but he was also a cunning old rascal, who used to know exactly what his performances were worth and made sure he got his rewards, either in cash or gifts. He didn't have too much respect for the game's law enforcers either, sometimes staying at the crease after looking to be "out", facing down an umpire through his bushy beard, safe in the assumption that the crowds had come to see him.And what have cricket's pious followers got to say about the infamous "Bodyline Tour" to Australia in 1932-3? The MCC captain, Douglas Jardine, may have been educated at Winchester and Oxford, but that didn't stop him hatching a ruthless plan to neutralise Don Bradman. This involved ordering fast-bowler Harold Larwood to deliver the ball consistently adjacent to the top of the left side of Bradman's rib-cage.
With the majority of the English fielders set on the "leg-side", Bradman had to risk dismissal or injury.These underhand tactics led to vitriolic exchanges at high diplomatic levels, and should have knocked all the guff about the game's integrity into the long grass.The fact that they didn't was probably part of the imperial mind-set that infused the game, always dividing "gentlemen" from "players", always trading on a supposed public-school ethic of fair play at all costs. The comics that I grew up with as a kid in the 1950s usually featured dashing types in cricket whites and caps, and there was even "Chung", the trusty accomplice to secret agent "The Wolf of Kabul", who would knock the nasty Afghans out with his trusted "clicky ba".Most delusions about the game of cricket and its vulnerability to the extra-curricular gift should have been swept away by the setting up of Kerry Packer's "pyjama games" of one-day cricket, or the later "rebel" tours to South Africa, when money, not principle, was the over-riding factor. Even before these, the "official" tours of South Africa had continued, ignoring the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and apartheid, until Basil D'Oliveira's selection for the 1969 tour brought the MCC face-to-face with the politics of the real world.Cricket's present crisis has, of course, outside influences to blame as well, notably the hysteria over spread-betting that has developed in the sub-continent. Staking money on a "performance index" becomes a lot easier if an individual or a team can be persuaded to offset any moral qualms about a "bung" with the irrelevance of yet another one-day game in a far-off country.Until a couple of seasons ago, many fans would have guessed that England's players had been not only bunged, but also chemically sedated. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.stanhey aol . Of course, the Labour government inherited a run-down health service. It suffered from years of under-investment, and it was inadequate to meet patient needs at the end of the 20th century, let alone the 21st.
