(Almost) down and out in Moscow

Today possibly saw the England football team missing out on the qualification for Euro2008. We lost to 2-1 to Russia in Moscow leaving us needing to win our final game against Croatia and relying on Russia losing some points in their next two games against Andorra (unlikely) and Israel (possible, but I wouldn't bank on it). There was a great goal in the first half putting England ahead (Owen flicked a nifty header on to Rooney who scored a great volley). But, agony in the second half when we had a bad penalty decision given against us (to be fair Rooney was rather reckless in pulling a Russian player back near the penalty area, although the foul was actually outside the area), and then conceded a further goal. There were a couple of chances that England should have taken to level it, but to no avail. We can only rue those dropped points against Macedonia at home (what the fuck were we doing there!) and Israel away, and keep our fingers crossed that other results will go our way.

Scotland also lost today 2-0 to Georgia. It obviously wasn't the result they wanted after their fantastic recent run that left them top of their qualifying group. I couldn't actually watch the game as I was still reeling from the England defeat. I do however envy the Scot's position over England as qualifying is still in their hands if they can beat Italy at home in their final game. They don't have to rely on other results going their way. With England looking very unlikely to be their it would be nice to have at least one home nation in the finals next year - that said I'm sure they'd rub my English face in it if Scotland got through and England didn't. I'll just have to hope the rugby result goes England's way at the weekend!

No mercy for Ming

Well it's been coming for the last couple of weeks, but Sir Menzies Campbell has given in to all the recent talk and quit as Liberal Democrat leader. Was it just an age thing, or was there pressure from inside the party? Well I think Ming just realised that he wouldn't be able to sustain another couple of years as leader of the Lib Dems before the next election, especially if his age kept coming up as a media issue. There's obviously been a lot of pressure on the party since the high profile that the main two political parties have come out with from their party conferences and the fight back that the Conservatives have made in the polls. Labour have a newish leader and Cameron has got a bit of a new lease of life. The probably was a lot of talk amongst the higher ranking Lib Dem MPs that Ming should go, but I don't think anyone out and out pushed him - although that said there was one quote on Newsnight last night, from a Lib Dem MP, saying that they thought the people talking against Ming were a "shower of shites"! I think getting a new leader will actually help the party in that a leadership election will keep them on the news agenda. I don't really have a clue who'll become the next leader, in fact there are several people who's names I don't recognise at all that have been speculated about, but it might provide a bit of excitement. Maybe they'll get Charlie back :)

Appeal

After last months fairly regular postings you've had to deal with a rather sparse period devoid of my opinion. I expect you were wanting to hear what I though of various new US TV shows like Bionic Woman and Life, or maybe just the scientific impact of the recent Nobel Prize Laureates, but have only been disappointed! Well you might hear about these things in due course, but I've just not been in the mood to talk about them. One distressing thing that I will mention though is the fact that the band I'm in has come to a crux. After just getting over the fact that our guitarist (and founder member) Chris was leaving us, we've been dropped with the bombshell that our new bassist is quitting the group! This leaves a two piece, and we're really not ready to start a White Stripes style thing going on (well we have done a White Stripes cover before, but that don't mean a thing.) Also this has occurred just after I've started to become a lyrical maestro by, so far, writing two masterpieces (they're not ready to air just yet!) To allow us to fulfill our promise as an ace rock band I now appeal to the good bassists/guitarists of Glasgow to join us. Only you can help us reach our destiny.