Ben Drake

In post-election discussions we seem to be running with the line that Labour lost by not being left wing enough. I think that’s simplistic.

Partly Labour have lost their social, more than political, link with much of the working class.But also most folk right now see neoliberal capitalism as the only game in town.

Questions asked at the time of the bank bailouts were effectively deflected. The story through the election, from many voters too, was whether “we can afford” reforms. That helped the Tories.

But it's worth noting that a major factor complicating this laudable aim is the government's decision four years ago to privatise the management of DfID's development fund, CDC, into a newly created private equity firm, Actis.

But a minor niggle I can't allow unchallenged: Mark's assertion that 'too often [in] the Roddenberry-Lucas-Spielberg complex, a spaceship is just a spaceship and a robot is just a robot'.

Over the past few years debates in our union meetings have moved so far, so fast, that at times I've found myself having to catch up with the mood. It's the war of course, but not just that. The experience of New Labour in power has dismayed and angered colleagues on a whole range of issues - everything from pensions to library closures to tuition fees. Often the angriest and most bitter cries of betrayal come from Labour Party members themselves.

Alas, it couldn't end there. Ann Rose (Letters, October SR) writes to urge Pat Stack to recant and condemn football, citing the usual charge sheet of racism, violence and commercialism.

So here's my twopenceworth. Yes, football suffers from the evils of commercialisation and commodification. But hang on--which popular activity doesn't? Yes, football is exploited to promote nationalism and racism--but which sport isn't? And yes, football as an industry is institutionally sexist--but which industry isn't? The point I want to make is why pick on football?