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But now the man who has tried so hard to be one of the people has truly joined the ranks of every parent in the land who has had trouble with their children. Who knows, the experience might produce a change in style – a mite less sanctimoniousness, a mite less certainty in the correctness of his judgement, an end to those tiresome displays of moral affront when someone has the temerity to disagree with him. In short, a touch of humility.Meanwhile, young Euan had better watch the chianti intake in Tuscany this summer. Come to think of it, he, Blair senior and the rest of us might reflect for an instant on the drinking culture of his host country. In Italy, it is normal for children to drink wine, perhaps watered down, as an accompaniment to meals from an early age. You will rarely find an Italian passed out for drink in Piazza Navona late at night.

Any body you do light upon will almost certainly be English.. We have nothing against the Germans, believe us. But Fifa’s decision not to award the 2006 World Cup to South Africa is nothing less than a calamity, a triumph for the blinkered, introverted politics of sport over crying international reality

We have nothing against the Germans, believe us. But Fifa’s decision not to award the 2006 World Cup to South Africa is nothing less than a calamity, a triumph for the blinkered, introverted politics of sport over crying international reality.
Whatever arguments are used to explain the decision of Fifa’s executive committee, the outcome is another slap in the face – not just for South Africa, but for an entire continent desperate for something to cheer. Germany will do a decent job to be sure, and the event will be a splendid showcase for a reunited country But Germany does not need the World Cup South Africa did. As the subsequent fall in the Johannesburg financial markets testifies, the country has been deprived of an injection of billions of dollars, the benefits of which would have been felt through the region.Yes, there is a serious crime problem in South Africa; but that did not prevent it holding recent rugby and cricket world cups in exemplary fashion Instead, the rich keep the goodies for themselves.

Po-faced, Europe expresses the hope that South Africa will be awarded the competition in 2010; in other words, for another four years, let the Third World eat cake.Of the failure of England’s bid, little need be said. Like those of our footballers in the recent Euro 2000, its chances of success were always exaggerated. Naivety in the ways of football’s politics off the field was as fatal as our naivety in playing tactics on it. Having reneged on a gentleman’s agreement that in return for Germany’s support for our holding Euro 1996 we would support Germany’s application for the 2006 World Cup, we had no right to expect better. The hooligans in Charleroi merely set the seal on what was always inevitable.Indeed, this time around, Germany’s ease of access for England’s least popular ambassadors was another, albeit smaller, argument for giving the competition to South Africa – a smaller one, of course, because there is no certainty England will even be good enough to qualify in 2006.

If they do, however, a fracas or two in Charleroi will, for the beer-bloated louts, pale beside the prospect of refighting the Second World War on Hitler’s home ground.The case for the World Cup to be rotated among the continents, made in vain this time by Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, is surely unanswerable. If football is truly the world game, then every continent must have a turn The next World Cup belonged to Africa. Instead a continent that for decades has drunk little but failure must now, quite unnecessarily, taste yet more.. For that great majority of the British people who happen to live outside London, it has always been a slight puzzle as to why the blue plaque scheme fostered by the old London County Council has, until now, never been extended beyond the capital. For that great majority of the British people who happen to live outside London, it has always been a slight puzzle as to why the blue plaque scheme fostered by the old London County Council has, until now, never been extended beyond the capital.
So the news that English Heritage has decided to honour some of Liverpool’s finest sons and daughters is doubly welcome. For too long the achievements of such as John Brodie, inventor of the football net, Frank Hornby, inventor of Meccano, and John Lennon, inventor of the love-in, have gone without official blue-enamelled ceramic recognition.We would hope to see English Heritage’s scheme extended much further. Where, for example, is the plaque for Jethro Tull, agricultural revolutionary and inventor of the seed drill? Or George Stephenson, the pioneer of steam locomotion? Or Sir Clive Sinclair, the man who brought us the digital watch, the pocket calculator and the Sinclair C5 powered tricycle? Or Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web?Thanks to the British genius for originality, the list is extensive, and would certainly keep the kilns in business for a long time.