I watched the BBC over the weekend and the rather strange election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. The only time Johnson’s name ever came up over here was to do with some buffoonery or some half drunk rant. The guy looked like a bit of a joke…your basic sloan ranger chasing upper class twit of the year. Nice hair in a crazy blond Doanld Trump sort of way. And yet there he was sparring with a BBC journalist after a couple of stiff whiskeys. Bernie Wooster is now hosting the next Olympics. Bodes well doesn’t it. 

The reason I find it interesting is that it is remarkable how little England has changed. I just read an article in the Guardian pointing out the two main Tories in the country– Conservative Party leader David Cameron and now Mayor Boris Johnson — are both Eton and Oxford educated toffs. Privileged, networked and wealthy. Hurrah! Get out the top hat and tails. Unlike Tories in Canada, who for the most part come either from business or from ideological organizations, it seems the new British Conservative Party is a throwback to the Edwardian Era. Some stats – of the 52 prime ministers since 1721, only 12 have not gone to a private school — 18 went to Eton, seven went to Harrow and seven to Westminster; when David Lloyd George became Liberal prime minister in 1916, he was the first PM not to have gone to private school and in 2005 there were as almost as many members of the House of Lords who went to the one school of Eton as those who went to state schools (which account for more than 90% of all British schools). 

Blair would talk a lot about the evolution of British society to more of a meritocracy. Well apparently it is going the other way. 59% of Conservative MPs were privately educated. Of the 27 members of David Cameron’s shadow cabinet, 17 went to private schools and 14 were educated at Eton alone. Less than seven percent of British children go to private schools. Its odd and even counter evolutionary when you consider the last two Tory PMs Thatcher and Major were proud of their state school upbringing. 

Even the Labour party and Lib-Dems are chock full of private school and Ox-Bridge educated types. The financial and banking industries have always had their fair share, but now even the media is run by the Hooray Henrys and Bernie Woosters. This is one aspect of Britain I don’t miss. 

What is even more perplexing is that even in 2008 more than 50 percent of entrants to Oxford and Cambridge, the two most prestigious universities in Britain come directly from private schools like Eton and Harrow. Apparently its not a policy but it is hardly fair to keep 50 percent of places for seven percent of students. 

I am not naïve. I understand that there is privilege an unfair opportunity in Canada too. There is a sort of Upper Canada private school, McGill/Osgoode Hall kind of mafia but it is much less prevalent and not nearly as influential. Prime Minister Stephen Harper certainly does come across as the child of privilege. It is sort of ironic that in Canada the conservative leader looks more like an ordinary state school/minor university educated Canadian than the patricians across the aisles. 

Tottenham released their new kit last night and guess who was conspicuous by his absence? Dimitar Berbatov. Can there be a more obvious indication the Bulgarian is off? 

I understand that every team releases a new kit each year but what a freakin’ rip off. It’s a racket and a money making scam and teams should be ashamed. They aren’t. 

But on the plus side we have the proper kit back. No more of the all white kit, which is a relief. What are we Leeds? The new kit brings back the classic white top and blue shorts. It actually looks quite retro. They have also gone back to the rather swanky sky blue second kit and dredged up the ugly brown and gold third kit that Spurs wore during their UEFA Cup run two years ago. It actually grew on me. But is what with the hooped, Pippy Longstocking socks? A homage to the 1921 FA Cup winners? Pretty goofy frankly. Makes us look like Arsenal. 

Hopefully the new kit will bring the team luck. 

So it really does look like Berba is off then. Apparently AC Milan and Madrid are leading the charge, although he might be part of a deal to bring Barcelona’s striker Samuel Eto’o. We tried to land him a few years ago and I am not sure he is the guy we need. He has the potential to have a bit of the Drogba about him. Brilliant but moody. Ramos is apparently looking at Sergio Garcia too who I think is Real Zaragoza’s Spanish striker. He looks a lot like Liverpool’s Fernando Torres, so he might be a better choice. He is also young as opposed to Eto’o who is 27. Is Eto’o going to want to give up Champions League football to play in the UEFA Cup? How is he going to handle playing Stoke City on a wet Wednesday night in February? Do we need another striker who thinks he is bigger than the rest of the team?

Spurs are being linked to everyone under the sun. The most interesting is Seville’s left winger Diego Capel. With Bale likely to play left back we need a solid left winger who can contribute some goals. 

We have also allegedly put in an offer for Hammers defender Anton Ferdinand as another centre back to cover King and or Woodgate. Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra is also apparently a target of Comolli. That may be a bad thing as Comolli’s picks are usually duds. But the guy plays midfield for France and that is a tough midfield to get into. 

We still need to get a goalie and Kameni is apparently the top choice. 

Or put is this way…the team that played against Aston Villa at the 125^th Anniversary game back in November was Robinson, Kaboul, Dawson, Chimbonda, Lee, Jenas, Zokora, Malbranque, Lennon, Berbatov and Keane. Potentially, we could field a first day team of Kameni, Woodgate, Ferdinand, Hutton, Bale, Capel, Lennon, Modric, Diarra, Eto’o and Keane. That’s a lot of change.

Word comes out today that Tottenham are about to announce a new stadium to be built in the next three years. The new stadium will seat 50,000, which will put Spurs into the same League as Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool and Man City. Old Trafford will remain the biggest in the country but the proposed stadium will be a significant improvement on the current 36,000 of White Hart Lane. 

The new plans, if this is what they turn out to be, look a lot like Arsenal’s new stadium, which is a little boring. Spurs could do something a little more exciting…given the team’s reputation. The new stadium will be beside the current ground. The team may play at WHL or might have to play at Upton Park or Wembley until the new arena is built. No word on price yet. But the team certainly need the bigger space just to compete. The so called big four are starting to pull away from everyone and the repeated appearances in the Champions League just perpetuates that gap. A new stadium will go some way to help Spurs compete financially, although it has to be said they are doing well financially. I don’t know if the team resolved some of the transportation issues with the local council because getting to the lane is a pain at the best of times and now add in another 15,000 people it might be even more of a pain. Maybe a new tube line is planned. 

The Berbatov situation is up in the air. Some reports he is off to Real Madrid while others have Spurs offering him a boat load of money. The team are basically saying put up or shut up. More money longer contract or hasta la vista. We’ll see how that pans out.  Bent is allegedly off to Newcastle, Chimbonda to Aston Villa, Taraabt to Bolton, Cerny to QPR (QPR, QPR QP hahahaha). So it’s all good then.   

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed just how much trash and garbage seems to be blowing around the city. Just drive along Bishop Grandin and look at the trees and grass on both sides of the streets and it is just full of garbage, bags, rubbish and trash. It seems way worse than any other year. I wonder if it is a weather thing or if the garbage guys are getting sloppy. 

Whatever the cause, it does need to be cleaned up. I can hear the city say oh the expense oh the resources. Well, perhaps we can get some of the hoods holed up in the Youth Centre out and picking up the garbage. Instead of sitting around learning how to steal cars and figuring out ways to shiv some rival gang member we can get these arseholes out in the sunshine and clean up the ditches. It would serve to achieve a number of ends – clean the city, get these criminals to give back to society, and piss off the bleeding hearts. 

It does piss me off to see so many projects just half finished too. This contributes to the general trashy look of the city. Does anyone feel good driving a relative or friend from the airport? Look at Kenaston Common. The brown dust patches and piles of construction material lying around is appalling. If they planted some grass and trees and spent some money on landscaping it might actually look attractive to drive down Route 90. Right now it is pretty embarrassing. Why does this city have to be so lame about this sort of thing? 

There seems to be a little rift happening at Spurs and, as predicted, it is between Ramos and Sporting Director Damien Comolli. The Coach is bringing in the players he wants and the owners seem content to let him do it. His first big signing of the summer is Luka Modric, the very highly rated Croatian midfield playmaker. Here is hoping he is more like Berbatov than Acimovic. The fact that he came to Spurs over a couple of other teams and that Tottenham splashed the cash when it saw an opportunity speaks well for the new season.
What is doesn’t spell well for is Comolli. The two players that seem to be Ramos buys are Modric and Woodgate. Comolli is linked with Chimbonda, Kaboul, Gilberto and Bent. The first three are out the door and the last probably should be and was way over priced. The fact that Comolli was so linked to the fiasco with the Martin Jol firing that I am sure there are more than a few people around White Hart lane that would love to see him go. He certainly has dropped down the apparent pecking order and it is clear that Ramos listens way more to Poyet then Comolli.
So time for the little French troll to be on his way.
Kaboul had a verbal poke at Ramos this week, which ensures he is off. It seems Juventus see something everyone else is missing and are allegedly putting in a five million pound bid. Which is a lot less than Spurs paid. Good business that Damien. Chimbonda has pouted his way into a transfer and will probably find himself at Aston Villa. The best place for a pouty frenchman is probably south Birmingham LOL. Gilberto is probably a squad player at best unless he really steps it up and shows what he can do. I think he found the adjustment from German to English football a bit of steep curve, although his biggest gaff came against a Dutch side in the UEFA Cup.
Others clearly on the way out are Robinson to who knows where, backup keeper Cerny is apparently set to sign with QPR, I would imagine Lee will be on his way back to PSV and last but not least the Berbatov thing wont go away.
I think the team is resigned to losing the Bulgarian. Probably not because the team needs the money or that it can’t offer Champions League football but because the endless speculation is just too tiring and distracting. As I have said before he has to unequivocally pledge himself to the team or piss off. I am resigned to the fact that he is off. So ciao. It was great watching you but it is time you signed up with some overpaid galacticos at AC Milan or Real Madrid. But first ask Thierry Henry how that whole Spanish thing worked out.
Spurs have been linked to everyone under the sun. But the best bets seem to be Cameroon and Espanyol goalie Kameni, West Ham goalie Robert Green, Valencia striker David Villa and the brilliantly named Wolfburg centre half  Alex Madlung.
So will this be the starting eleven next September? Kameni; Hutton, Madlung, Woodgate, Bale; Lennon, Huddlestone, Modric, Jenas; Villa, Keane. Subs: Green, King, Gilberto, Malbranque, O’Hara and Bent.

Finally. City councillors, or a committee thereof, have decided that the pile of rotting cardboard and crumbling brick that is dubbed an “architecturally significant building that maintains the ambience of Albert Street” is in fact a pile of crap and worthy of immediate demolition.
After the farrago with the Fort Garry decision it seems the city council need to toss developers a bone. Not much of a bone but at least it will allow for the redevelopment of the St Charles. The old building that lies between the Albert and St Charles hotels really is a piece of crap and why it took council more than a year to decide what everyone who has ever looked at the building would conclude in a second is beyond me. But thank heaven for small mercies. Still, it has to be approved by the full council. Cue gangs of anti developers chaining themselves to Kenny Hong’s. “It’s old, its our heritage, our history, it maintains the area’s look and feel. Think of the children!!!”
There is also a debate about whether to renno or demolish and rebuild the nearby main police station –  the Orwellianly named Public Safety Building. Designed by someone who spent too long in some provincial Soviet city in Kugishustan and really absorbed the style of architecture it is now falling down and may be cheaper to rebuild. The architecture buffs are up in arms of course. One was actually of the opinion that the city should encourage modernist architecture tourism. Well that should swell the city’s hotels by two or three visitors a year. Pretty ugly building and not your soft liberal image the city cops cultivate so much. I’m not into classical revival or anything but the cop shop and adjacent city hall are ugly ugly ugly. The Concert Hall and the Museum across Main Street are not too bad and pretty good examples of modern architecture but we could plough the cop shop over, rebuild the old original market building (in the original style which is not unlike the Byward Market in Ottawa) and do something for the city hall. Not holding my breath though.

Allegedly, Italian giants Juventus are interested in signing out of favour “defender” Younes Kaboul. Really? What as? Groundskeeper?
I actually wrote right after Tottenham signed the French Under 21 that he might be the best buy of the off season. I can now stand and say proudly – I am a dumbass. Kaboul turned out to be a dud of the grandest proportions and he cost $8.2 million quid remember. Or more than Jonathan Woodgate. A calamity or should say  un calamitie he turned out to be. When he had the ball you had know idea which direction it was going to go. A right old waste of money and certainly indicative of the good old Jol days.
Ramos is not interested in blunderers like Kaboul. So off to Turin with you then. Or Newcastle. I hear they need to replace Titus Bramble.

Dimitar Berbatov’s agent is at it again. Every couple of months he pops up his little head to announce that Berbatov needs to play Champions League football and that dozens of teams are lining up to sign the Bulgarian. As usual the English press are all over it. This week AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea are the top of the charts to sign him. 

Is it just me or is he still under contract? I know you don’t want to have the Sol Campbell situation happen again. But he still has two years remaining. He if wants to bugger off to Italy in a year or so then fine, Spurs should sell him to the highest bidder. But how do you build a team if you franchise player decides he just wasn’t want to play anymore? To be fair Berbatov hasn’t said anything, it was his agent. But then if he didn’t want his agent making comments like last week’s then he would have fired him the last time he did it. 

Ramos is clearly irritated by all the talk. Frankly, despite the fact he has been a great player for Spurs, if can’t speak up and commit himself to the team for another year or wont sign an extension then he should have the class to say he wants a move rather than use his agent. And if that is the case then Spurs should auction him off to a non English team. Why help anyone else in the Premier League? 

There was some speculation that Ledley King was done as a Spurs player too because of recurring injuries and because Ramos had speculated about making someone else captain. But to his credit Ramos came out right away and ended that speculation and made the correct statement that a captain needs to play most of the games and King just isn’t capable of that. 

Yesterday’s draw against relegation battlers Wigan was pretty dreary. Tottenham came out of the gates fired up and Berbatov netted an early lead. But the team flagged and by the second half was pretty dire. The defense was makeshift and it is pretty obvious that Zokora is no defender, nor Jamie O’Hara (left). If players are playing for their futures then you have to conclude that a few guys are happy to leave. I hear Newcastle is looking for new blood. 

It’s not often that the Brits give a lot of credit to Canada or compare themselves for that matter. But this week The Daily Mail made a lot of the difference in the way that Canada and Britain treat their war dead.  Both countries have young men and women coming home in caskets from Afghanistan, but as the article points out graphically, the journey home in Canada sees Canadians turning out to salute the fallen soldiers, there is an honour guard and outriders for the hearses. In Britain, those convoys end up stuck in traffic and no one would know that it was a soldier in the coffin. It shows a distinct lack of respect. 

The English half of me does feel uncomfortable about the overt showing of patriotism but I have to say that the Canadians do get it right here. If we ask our young men and women go overseas to do our dirty work protecting the world from the whackjobs of the Taleban and die doing it, the least we can do is make the effort to show some respect and show that they are not ignored.  If you look at the United States, their homecomings are secret and it now requires the death of ten or more US soldiers in one event for those deaths to show up on the nightly news. 

In this case Canada does the right thing. Canadians should be proud.