Ex-England boss in clip with a funny accent

What is zeesh stupid youtube cleep doing on zem Politics Blug?

At around this time of year some twenty years or so ago, this blog writer was trying to work out what subject he wanted to study for the next three years. I considered subjects as diverse as Maths (don’t ask) and Physiology (no, really) before deciding that what really fascinated me was thinking about society and politics. The sort of “Who gets what, and why?” idea. The 1980s was a decade of enormous political and economic change in the UK and serious questions were being asked about equity, fairness, workers’s rights, economic growth, etc. And I wanted to be able to come to a satisfactory answer as to what I thought politicians should be doing. I was also intrigued by how other countries sought to balance competing demands on resources. Mainly this related to things like how welfare states were constructed, different approaches to law and order, and so forth. But I have also been interested in how decisions might be influenced by societal and cultural factors. The generous saftey nets evident in Nordic countries, for instance, say a great deal about social democratic values, and a strong sense of community in these countries. And I still think there is an inter-connection visible here. Compare things like quality and price of public transport, or how clean the streets are, or drinking ages in other industrialised countries if you happen to be on holiday in one, with the equivalent in the UK. Do you think we can learn anything from this?

So how does Steve McLaren fit in? If you are not up to speed on football related matters, suffice it to say that the bloke used to manage the English national team and moved to a Dutch club side during the summer. And in the run up to a match between his team and Arsenal, England’s third best side last season, he gave an interview where he apparently adopts a ridiculous Dutch accent.

Simon Hattenstone in the Guardian writes on McLaren’s preview of his side’s game with Arsenal:

“I sort of knew when I came eer - ze Liverpool or Arshenal, one of zem we would draw. We have a young team and to expereinsh bigggggg games [he holds out his hands in a manner common to footballers denoting a particularly large pair of breasts] Championsh Leeegue, at home, ze Emirates, will be fantasteeec for ze playez.”

Then McClaren gets into his stride. “I shay I think we are not just - what you call? - Underdogsh, but masheev underdogsh. There is no expectashun.”

Is it a spoof? No one in the media thinks so. But if it is, it doesn’t matter. Why? Because we seem so ready to believe that an English person would act like this. And we laugh because he is seen as a failure for not getting the England team to the last international tournament.

What does it say about politics, or, in particular, the politics of our country? Is it really McLaren’s fault that a team of multi-millionaires failed to play at a level which they are supposedly capable of? Is it his fault that other countries might actually have come up with better ways to prepare and select their teams, or have better youth systems for developing local talent?

Celebrating the failings of another individual is something that this country appears to excel at. What does that say about our individual and selfish culture? And what does it say about the kind of politicians we choose to elect, or the policies we would like to see them implement?

Want lower carbon emissions? Yes. Should taxes go up to improve the NHS? Definitely. Do you as an individual want to share some of the burden and responsibility? No way! Someone else should feel the pain.

Well, did three years of studying Politics bring me any closer to finding the answers to questions that I had? I’ll let you work that one out.

The youtube clip is funny. Why?

As a post script to my own article which mentioned the Nordic social model. One of the Guardian columnists write about it - see here

And the replies in the letters pages are quite interesting

At a time when thoughts turn to what visitors might think of us when the spotlight is on London for 17 days in 2012 I wonder about the litter filled streets, rudeness, generally poor service, outrageous restaurant prices, music blaring from mobile phones on the bus, etc etc. And God help any Olympic guest who decides they might jump on the Central Line to central London on one of their rest days.