A fun story in The Scotsman today:IT WAS the do-or-die World Cup qualifier that had millions of Scots glued to the television with crossed fingers and baited breath.
But as the nation was gripped by the fate of the national team on Wednesday, one of its most prominent MPs was left wondering what was all the fuss was about.
East Dunbartonshire Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson was trying to get to a meeting in Glasgow and bemused by the crowds of people wearing dark blue and bright orange shirts.
The various 'tweets' that are mentioned are highly amusing and yes there is a little bit of schadenfreude in seeing an MP from another party get an uncomfortable ribbing for asking "What's the football festivity?" in the midst of Scotland's most important football game for a long time but I don't think it goes down as a genuine glorious failure for Ms Swinson.
Frank McAveety (a "keen footballer" apparently) can't help himself though and takes the story a little bit too seriously after being asked for a quote: "This shows how out of touch the Liberals are," he said. "You don't need to be an avid football fan to know that this was a big national event.
I'm sure Frank could have pulled a wittier line than that out of the bag.
But should an MP or MSP follow the sporting exploits of the nation? I guess one could argue that sport is so important for so many constituents that our representatives are duty-bound to at least stay abreast of what's going on, at least the key games. That of course can lead to superficial cringeworthy shows of support that just ring hollow (Gordon Brown's favourite footballing moment being Gazza's goal that knocked Scotland out of Euro '96, for example).
Overall, the Swinson debacle is just a funny, fluffy story though one that does highlight the perils of Twitter.
Perhaps the Mark Twain quote is appropriate: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
11 comments:
I think it's probably fair to say that most women don't follow football avidly. I certainly wouldn't have known about the game if it wasn't for Twitter and even once I did know, I didn't feel moved to watch it. Clearly I wanted Scotland to do well and was disappointed when they didn't qualify, but that's as far as it goes for me.
I might organise my life round Formula 1, but I don't expect anyone else to do the same and would never slate them for not knowing a race was on.
I don't want MPs to pretend they're interested in things that they're not and I think that most people will think that this is a complete non story. I'm looking forward to Jo's tweets during Strictly which she is a big fan of.
Well, I guess one could argue that most women don't follow unemployment statistics and economy predictions but an MP should because it's important to the public, as is the fortunes of its football team (albeit for markedly different reasons) But I'm playing Devil's advocate really as I agree with you. Well, up to the unbearable Strictly Come Dancing but I can't be too critical (particularly given this post) or I'll clearly be a hypocrite. What's silly boys kicking around a pig's bladder for some is for others just silly celebs prancing around in dresses trying to resuscitate flatlining careers. But do more people watch football or reality tv? And if it's the latter, maybe Jo has backed the right horse!
I don't think Jo was asking the question what is all the fuss about out of ignorance. She probably knew full well what was going on from colleagues etc.
I think the far bigger issue is MPs or politicians following a club merely to get in with the constituents rather than truly following them. I think the fact that my attentance at Livingston game directly goes down at election times rather than up shows that even though I love my football there are other votes to be won elsewhere.
I had the same opinion - I've not met the lovely Ms Swinson but of course I know plenty of people, like Caron, who have - but she doesn't come out of the story looking anything more than mildly hare-brained. McAveety, on the other hand, just made himself look petty and stupid.
I have to say, incidentally, that Gordon Brown is done a slight - slight - disservice by people who claim that he mentioned Gazza's goal as one of his "favourite moments in football".
What he actually said was that he had been to a number of England games, including "the Euro 96 game against Scotland, with Gazza's great goal". To the average English fan, the game is memorable largely for that goal, just as we remember it for a certain missed penalty.
An attempt to curry favour with English voters, certainly, but I think your guys got right to work spinning it to make him look even worse.
Stephen, I'm loving the idea of a graph showing various MPs' attendance at footy games. I suspect 'theyworkforyou.com' doesn't stretch to attendance at Almondvale sadly ;).
I do struggle with your logic that Jo knew Scotland were playing that night but was still asking why everyone was decked out in football shirts etc.
Fair point Mr E. In my defence, I die look for an exact quote (not that it stopped me ploughing on regardless when I couldn't find one).
I believe the whole Arctic Monkeys debacle was a similar situation.
Glad we agree Frank looks a bit daft though.
Football is the circus element of bread and circuses. Formula 1 is (in my view) a better class of circus, I agree with Caron there, but it's still a circus.
There should be no requirement for politicians to participate in the circus. If a politician has a genuine interest in sport then fair do's, but all this I am a man of the people and watch the footy nonsense is cringingly embarrassing.
Just wondering when Gordo last watched Raith...if he ever really did.
Gordon Brown has been known to attend Raith games, though I have heard that he once had to ask which division they were in...
Yeah, but then no matter what Gordo does, it goes tits up...
He's just that kind of loser.
It's a strange question to twitter unless it was in some way rhetorical, you would think that simply asking one of the blue-clad horde would have given her the answer.
What got me was the second last paragraph in the article stating that her opponent was updating facebook whilst *at the game*?? Do these people have no lives?
All a bit of a non-story though.
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