Feyenoord will appoint Super Mario

I am pleased to read today that my hunch a couple of weeks ago was right and Feyenoord are going to appoint Mario Been to the post of head coach. Not surprisingly as these always tend to happen, Been’s present club Nijmegen host Feyenoord this Sunday. Should add a little spice to the game.


nick

Why Auschwitz must be preserved

We are going to Krakow this spring and have as our first priority, a visit to Auschwitz. So this debate, ‘Should Auschwitz be left to decay’, has given me cause for thought as to why we’re going. I know it isn’t curiosity, Julie and I have previously been to another camp, Dachau in Bavaria, back in 1985 whilst driving back from our honeymoon in the Austrian Alps. Not a very romantic destination and I must admit the wisdom of stopping to visit as we found ourselves so close by, seemed to evaporate as the poor girl spent the time with tears in her eyes.

No, our visit is for the same reason that last December I went with Ted George to the Menin Gate in Ypres. I didn’t know anyone who was there during the conflict, but I still read as many of the names as I could in the time we spent there. That’s the point of it. So they are never forgotten because they have no grave. I see no difference between the Menin Gate and Auschwitz in this respect. Whilst there are no names written down for the 1.1 million people who died at Auschwitz and I don’t know any of the prisoners, by going there I feel that they are remembered by me in my own way. That is why I feel it should be preserved. So next year and the year after and in 2045 on the centenary of its liberation, those without the dignity of a grave will still be remembered by people who never even knew them.



nick

When £1m really isn't enough

I seem to know increasing numbers of people fighting off various forms of cancer these days including three who I’d rely on as friends. So while I applaud this news , I somehow find it incredibly sad that we read about it in a week when football talk has been of £100m transfers and £300,000 per week salaries. Just as obscene is the return to broadcasting this week of Jonathan Ross, still on his reportedly over inflated £18m contract from licence fee coffers.

Perversely, while cancer exists as a threat to us all, Cancer Research Wales relies on sponsored walks, runs, treks, skydives, bucket collections and events to attain vital funds desperately needed to research its causes. I can’t help getting the feeling it’s all arse about face.



nick

Another nerve shattering evening

Why does it always have to be like that when you love this football club?


nick

Not your everyday occurrence

You don’t get emails from movie stars every day of the week, so I am on Cloud 9 to have received one today from the western legend Harry Carey Jnr.
My poor wife will now have to suffer ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” “3 Godfathers” “Wagon Master” ”Rio Grande” ”Big Jake” and the greatest western of all time “The Searchers” to the insufferable chorus of ‘he wrote to me’!


nick

Surprising leniency for rapists

Without sounding like a Daily Mail scaremongerer, I’d wholeheartedly echo Voice UK in their condemnation of the lenient sentence passed down to these three viscous rapists , and I couldn’t help feeling just as dismayed by a similar sentence passed yesterday on a local Wrexham man who committed an equally appalling attack on a young woman.

Isn’t it the right of every woman in this country to feel safe and secure, fully protected by our law? Do either of these cases and their sentences reassure those women? Of course they don’t, in fact they do the exact opposite. What is the point of sentencing these offenders if they aren't seen as a deterrent to others?


nick

Vote for your favourite Bushism

It’s taken a long long time, but my ‘George Bush Days in Office’ clock has finally reached zero and to celebrate his final minutes, why not treat yourself to a trawl through the library of Bushisms?

You can vote for your favourite too.


nick

Mr Bumble was right, it is an ass!

Sometimes the law can confuse even the most rational person and leave them questioning the logic of it all. The killer of young Rhys Jones is quite rightly sentenced to serve a minimum of 22 years for his callous and brutal deed. Now I don’t see much difference in the case as that of the murder of young David Idowu in Catford. Little Rhys was 11 and David 14. Both boys were innocently getting on with their own business when they were viciously killed for no reason whatsoever by a 16 year old.

So why is David’s killer told he will only serve a minimum of 12 years? A minimum sentence almost half that of Rhys’s killer. Shouldn’t there be some uniformity here? Shouldn’t all our citizens, especially our younger ones, expect to be protected by the law from the murderous cowardly attacks of these psychotic bullies?


nick

Feyenoord make two huge decisions this week

Two excellent pieces of news emerged from the De Kuip this week. Firstly there’s a link up between Feyenoord and War Child. The club will play a part in a project that is focused through sport, on inspiring young people in Uganda to play a positive and active role in their community and learning that the main thing is not winning, but enjoying each other’s company and working together.

The second piece of news is that yesterday after six desperate months, the club have parted company with head coach Gertjan Verbeek, technical director Peter Bosz and assistant coach Wim Jansen, assistant coach Leon Vlemmings takes over on a temporary basis. He couldn’t do any worse than the helpless Verbeek who has overseen the club’s rapid decline to 12th in the Eredivisie and an embarrassing UEFA cup campaign that saw a return of nil points from 4 games. My outside bet for the next appointment to the job would be NEC Nijmegen head coach Mario Been. Been’s a former Feyenoord player and assistant coach and has the club at heart, something Verbeek simply never had. Such a move would hopefully put a stop to Feyenoord’s present guise of being a ‘selling club’ and return it to the highest level of European football, starting with the return of Dirk Kuyt!


nick

The late Pat Hingle reflects on his magnificent career

On the Waterfront, Splendour in the Grass, Hang 'em High, Batman, Truman.....a giant list of movies that he gave rock solid performances in. His TV career was even more more impressive, Kojak, MASH, Bilko, Hawaii Five 0, Rawhide, Streets of San Francisco, Dr Kildare, The Twilight Zone, High Chaparral, Bonanza....an unbelievable success in his profession for over 55 years and one of my all time favourite actors.


nick

'Til death or the surgeons knife do us part

When Chrissie Hynde sang ‘There’s a thin line between love and hate’, she summed this story to a tee and I guess a custody battle over who gets the body parts is a new take on the acrimonious split. The whole ridiculous lawsuit must make everyone connected with the US legal system cringe with embarrassment. Presumably it will get laughed out of court, but I wouldn’t put money on it or indeed, the 'no win no fee' brigade latching onto it here! Like that fella who was given the wrong ladder when he went to install an alarm system, we could have victorious court surfers proudly announcing they've received £15,000 for sperm donations to their ex-partners. Not sure if the cash alternative would be much of a desired option though!



nick

Time is ripe for a dramatic rethink of business rates

I went with Julie into Wrexham town centre this afternoon and I can honestly say I was shocked by the rapid decline in the state of the place. Obviously we all know about Woolworths and despite M&S, Next and others moving to Eagles Meadow, there are so many empty units now, I despair for the future of the town. In addition to those mentioned, the empty units include Max Spielman, Top Shop, Burger King, Mark One and there's more than one looking decidedly shabby and having a whiff of gloom about it. I wouldn't mention the names of the small businesses that are desperate to compete with the larger names.

In Wales the small business rate relief scheme provides relief of 50% for business with a rateable value of £2,000 or less. Businesses with a rateable value between £2,001 and £5,000 receive 25% rates relief. It is clearly time that we stopped grinding down small businesses with the burden of business rates. Personally, I'd rather see them employ a small number of people and keep them off the dole queue, than pay this outmoded and constrictive tax. While it exists in its current form and compounded with the economic nosedive we're all in, what entrepreneur would risk taking on any of the empty premises in the town centre?


nick

A sad time for a nice guy

My pal in California once visited the home of John Travolta in response to an emergency call following his young son suffering a seizure. Dave said JT arrived home a short while later and had asked for those officers to return to his home in order for him to thank them for their efforts. Dave told me he was touched by his gratitude and despite all the fame and fortune, by how much of a ‘regular’ guy he was.
Sadly this weekend his son has finally succumbed to the illness that has blighted his short life. I guess the health of our family really does put everything else into perspective.


nick

New Year's Laugh is painfully true

Starting the New year off with a laugh, I reproduce this that a pal sent over to me. I note that it's from The Beast . Well worth a read.


nick