Paper Vendettas, Golliwoggs and Newcastle Jobcentre

The much-maligned Wigan Evening (we love rugby, so when you ‘football hooligans’ go back to ‘where you belong’ and all the fans go back to supporting ‘proper’ teams, we won’t write about you) Post have gone on the rampage in their latest attempt at giving football in general a bad name in Wigan.

The front page of today’s edition (April 2nd) gave top billing to the fact that some internet retailer is selling ‘Golliwogg’ pin badges of football teams, including Latics. Now after being evicted from their jam jars, the Edwardian favourites have gone from being a few harmless books to a rallying point for anti-racists who wet themselves if you mention ‘black’ in any sentence.

Now I can’t see what the problem is. Okay, in the past these Gollies were a light-hearted joshing of black people. We are now in the 21st century, so things have changed, like the fact we have a larger population of non-whites. Surely the best way to combat the racial attitudes of those in the past is to laugh at it and how daft they were back then?

The Gollies actually originated as a book, it wasn’t a right-wing symbol or the mascot of some ethnic cleansing manifesto. Sweeping it under the carpet, won’t make it better, in fact by pointing out what these things stood for and how they shouldn’t be on sale, only encourages more people to have an attitude about ethnic minorities. People see this country becoming less free, as you can’t buy a toy or a badge without being branded a racist. And those people who label other people, without doing proper research, are as ignorant as their racist counterparts.

So In summary - it's a bloody badge! Concentrate your thoughts on something which is actually worthwhile!

Intrestingly, the paper also has a two page speard/publicity stunt of members of the Leigh Police Force, taking on young lads at a game of football. The match finished 5-5.

Anyway, I’m off to EBay!

In other news, Alan Shearer has taken charge of his beloved Newcastle United until the end of the season. Good luck to him, I don’t care either way if they stay up but St. James’ Park is one ground I would love to visit, despite the fact that the away seats are situated closer to the moon than the pitch!

He’s never managed a club before but with his legendary status at Newcastle and football in general, he’ll have no problem with the fans or getting 100% effort out of the players. With Ian ‘Sloth from The Goonies’ Dowie at his side, it should be an interesting 8 games.

But this will go either two ways - Newcastle will stay up and Shearer will be proclaimed as the ‘new messiah’ and the fans will get delusions about getting into the top 6 next season. Or they’ll go down and struggle. It’ll be a shame but it shows football has no hiding place for the biggest of clubs. But unlike Leeds before them, Newcastle have money, in the rather round shape of Mike Ashley and to be fair, they’ve been threatening to have a relegation battle for a few years now!

But what I want to know is – do people in Newcastle have jobs? The tens of thousands of people outside the ground at lunchtime was unbelievable!