Mick Cooper wrote:

30 years ago we lived in a world when a little Ruud Gullit felt he
couldn't say he wanted to be Johan Cruyff because he didn't look like
him.

Today white fathers by football shirts for their white children with
the number 18 and the name Defoe on the back.

Today Frank Bruno is as much a hero and is as dear to the nation as
Henry Cooper was.

Today Linford Christie and black elay squads do the business for
Britain and adorn themselves in the Union Jack and nobody finds that
objectionable or strange.

White and black kids play together on the same teams and are coached by
white and black adults - nobody thinks twice of it.

In a parallel universe to the developments on the sporting front
non-white people can apply for a job with a realistic expectation that
their application will be processed on its merits and not based on
their race. People no longer look upon mixed raced relationships with
disgust or regard them to be outlandish.

The fact is your average Brit is far more comfortable in a multiracial
setting than he was 30 years ago. People have noticed that second
generation immigrants speak Geordie, Scouse or Scots rather than the
accent of their immigrant parents. People are beginning to realise
that underneath the skin color we are not all that different.

IMNSHO sport has alot to do with the creditable state of multicultural
Britain. If we can idolise black sporting heros ... if they in turn
show the same strengths and failures that the George Bests of
yesteryear showed people begin to see that we really are not so
different. If a white athlete like Catherine Merry can be enthralled by
being coached by Linford Christie, then so to a white family can and do
conclude that there's nothing wrong with little Johnny to the team run
by the black coach. Similarly in the workplace the notion of reporting
to a black manager is less objectionable than it was 30 years ago. I
don't think it is unrelated to the progress we have made on the
sporting front.

Talking about Ron Atkinson has brought us back to a place where some
people seem to be getting nostalgic for the good ol days when wog
nignog paki coloured half caste etc were deemed to be acceptable ways
of expressing ourselves. All this so that we can bring back a washed up
clown to spout inane drivel about football. Anybody who can look at
what has been achieved in Britain today and hanker for such a
retrograde step is a first class idiot.

Ron Atkinson has had far more of my time than he deserves. I'm done
with this thread.

"wooks" <wookiz@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156161818.742974.34970@p79g2000cwp.googlegro ups.com...

Fucking annoying when you get a patronising response isn't it Wooks?

maybe you should read through some of your stuff before hitting send.

Then google your name

and see how many times you trot this stuff out on newsgroups across usenet -
whether the thread deserves it or not.

If you want to become the Darcus Howe of the Usenet - you are going the
right way about it. Darcus Howe also fucking annoys people with his constant
search of offence in every far flung corner of this country - and as a
consequence - turns more pink people against the needs of the
black/Negro/Afro-European/Non White (delete as you see fit) community in
this country.

Which is a shame because you're obviously not stupid, so why can't you see
where you are going so horribly wrong?

But then as you said - I'm too pea brained to see that.

"Mad Dog" <maddog@hotcar.com> wrote in message
news:rOdGg.9577$5g6.8131@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...

anyone who drinks his own piss has to be respected.

not a good snooker player though - so I've heard............

"Henry Norris" <Nechesh@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:1156147854.189121.302820@m73g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...

no - just that deifying Ron was a bit OTT.

thanks for taking the comment with the humour that it was intended to be
taken in.

some folk get a little sensitive on issues like this

In article <KtidnVtS-Ns8THTZRVnytA@bt.com>, keepth@spam.com says...

WELL NO I BLOODY DON'T, OK? ALRIGHT? JEEESUS...

"BrianE" <brian@nojunkplease.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1f53e531f6573dbc989716@news.individual.ne t...

there you go

picking on us Bhuddists

Mick Cooper wrote:
|| "BrianE" <brian@nojunkplease.co.uk> wrote in message
|| news:MPG.1f53e531f6573dbc989716@news.individual.ne t...
||| In article <KtidnVtS-Ns8THTZRVnytA@bt.com>, keepth@spam.com says...
||||
|||| "Henry Norris" <Nechesh@googlemail.com> wrote in message
|||| news:1156147854.189121.302820@m73g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
|||
|||| some folk get a little sensitive on issues like this
|||
||| WELL NO I BLOODY DON'T, OK? ALRIGHT? JEEESUS...
||
|| there you go
||
|| picking on us Bhuddists

In your opinion would the Dalai Lama have forgiven Ron Atkinson?I know Jesus
has, who wouldn't except pub emptier Wooks.

--
"A horse a horse my kingdom for a horse, I haven't had a winner in six
months".

MD

Mad Dog wrote:

Yep. You'll notice, however, that when the police or a security firm or
whatever hire someone for the 'poacher turned gamekeeper' act, they're a
'consultant' not actually someone on the books. But of course this gets
away from the original point, as do all analogies if you strain at them
too hard.


Well to take the second one, kerb crawling is illegal I believe - at least
once you reach a certain point in your transaction.

As for GG, I was really upset over what happened there. I felt let down by
him for being corrupt and also let down by the FA when they stopped at one
scape-goat instead of looking for the other corruption we all knew was
probably there all over the place. Just ask Mike Newell!

But yes. With all due respect to GG, I respect his achievements greatly. I
respect him as a player. But I think that some positions revolve around
trust and integrity and as such cannot and should not be something you can
just climb back into once you've failed on those counts. And to my way of
thinking that's what happened when Big Ron made his unfortunate comments.
I feel exactly the same way about Big Ron as I do about GG.

Henry Norris wrote:


Ah a lot of bluster. Just as I thought.


You're entitled to your opinion. Just remember that you're condeming me
for one usenet post, because in that one post I condemn Ron for one remark
that went out on air. If you want to consider me a hypocrite, feel free.
Just remember that you've pretty much just proclaimed that you are too.

In either case, I consider this bit of the debate closed. I've got my
opinion. You've got yours. We're both entitled to those and it's getting
away even further from the original topic of the thread.

Robert Moir wrote:


Fair point Robert. I cede that one.


Ok. Agreed.