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December 23rd 2020
The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) recently conducted a survey of their members’ views on the subject of taking the knee before all professional football games in the UK.
Over 400 players responded to the survey and around 80% expressed their support for taking the knee. This was reported by the MSM as professional players giving their strong support to taking the knee as “a peaceful act of unity” that is “not an endorsement of any political position”.
This all sounds wonderful and has been applauded throughout the media, until one has a closer look at the survey. The PFA has over 4,000 members, so they had a response rate of 10%. This could be acceptable until one actually examines the survey questions: –
Do you want to take the knee as a squad?
Do you want to take the knee individually?
If the knee is shown resistance by fans do you think it should be reconsidered?
Would you welcome an alternative to taking the knee?
If so, please give details.
First of all, it only allows the answer “no” to questions 1 and 2. There should be a question asking if the expression of political beliefs is appropriate for people in the entertainment industry in front of a captive audience. The phrasing of the questions is slanted towards the answers that they wanted to present. Nowhere in the MSM has the credibility of the survey been questioned. I would not have been allowed to present a survey like that in any of my post-grad work.
A good question would have been would be “do you support the destruction of the capitalist system which would result in your salaries being substantially reduced and tightly controlled?”
Another would be “do you believe in the abolition of the police and if so, who would provide protection and crowd control at your games?”
And try this “do you support BLM’s efforts to close Heathrow and London City airports in 2016? If so, what impact do you think this would have on your ability to travel internationally and earn your salaries on the world stage with a commensurate increase in your earning prospects due to the increased international exposure?”
The value of a survey comes down to the questions asked and how it is reported. Whoever controls the questions controls the survey.
On a lighter note, the UK is getting more and more like Alice in Wonderland every day. The only thing missing is croquet played with flamingos and as Alice says “the chief difficulty was in managing her flamingo”, and “soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed”. Which is a useful analogy for the state of governing the UK at the moment.
In the north, Nicola Sturgeon has been taking advantage of the covid problems to blame everything on Westminster, using it to cover the fact that Scotland’s NHS is in decline, the education system is going down the tubes and Glasgow is rapidly becoming the meth capital of Europe. All the arguments she has been using to squeeze a new independence referendum from Westminster are now being used against her domestically. The Shetlands are in revolt and have stated that they identify more with their Nordic connections than the central belt Scots and are pushing for an independence referendum to separate from Scotland. The rumour is that on achieving separation from Scotland they would then initiate a free trade agreement with the rest of the UK. Isn’t irony wonderful at times?
Meantime Sturgeon’s credibility took a hit and the halo started to slip as she was exposed for not wearing a face mask as she attended a wake, despite her constantly exhorting her citizens to observe the stringent regulations regarding the wearing of masks. Isn’t hypocrisy wonderful?
Back south, Boris Johnson’s leadership hinges on getting a Brexit deal that he can sell to the population. Everything that they the country has done with regard to covid has turned to dust in front of his eyes. It now looks that most of the country will be transferred to the maximum tier 4 after Boxing Day. (After another series of u-turns). The vaccination programme has started to stall with signs of poor organisation hampering its progress. The public are openly ignoring the latest lockdown regulations and how the government manages to impose its will on the people will be interesting.
Down here in the far west we are still bumbling along happily in tier one with relative normality out in the towns – I even went to a Christmas fair on Saturday. The major concern that the population has is an increasing feeling of trepidation and anxiety that this apparent normality could all be shattered by the arrival of hordes of emmets coming over the border from the rest of England.
It is already evident that this influx has started as the shops are reporting increased sales of houmous, guacamole, olives and Prosecco.
Oh well, perhaps next year will be better and I will be back in NZ and I can resume my overseas work. I was looking forward to sending you letters from Uganda, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
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