I’m very curious as to who they are. Judging by our World cup performances I’d guess that one of them might be Shrek, and the other one is the one with a squeaky voice and scouse accent who is handy in a punch up when a DJ plays the wrong record.

Any ideas though ? The truth about why we played so badly in South Africa will come out at some point

• the smallest crowd ever for a Wembley international
• the smallest tv audience ever for an England international
• the players who let their country and the fans down in the World Cup booed
• the new players who were not involved cheered
• Capello given a reasonable ovation (I really don’t think he’s the problem)

But really, after the fiasco this summer, who in their right minds would pay money for a ticket ? Don’t the public realise when they are being conned ?

I find myself swayed, however, by the unstinting logic of both Simon Hughes and the commenters on the Guardian link above. I’ve therefore come up with a couple of other suggestions that follow the same pattern that I think we should introduce as quickly as possible.

(1) People should be assessed for income tax purposes once and once only, at the beginning of their working career, thus giving everyone a clear and unchanging understanding of their tax liability. This assessment should be backdated in order to be fair to existing taxpayers.

In my case, I started full-time work in the summer of 1983 but as I was due to go to University later that tax year, I didn’t earn enough to actually pay anything other than NI. So, I should really be paying no tax now, and indeed I should be entitled to a refund of all tax paid since I started work.

(2) If someone has to go to hospital, they should retain the right to stay in the ward indefinitely, even when they’ve got better. This is only fair, because there’s little doubt that they will have got used to the nice comfortable bed, having their meals prepared for them and constant attention from doctors and nurses (irony alert – this is the NHS, after all).

Please feel free to make further suggestions. I will collate the best ones and post them to Mr Hughes, so that when he breaks up the coalition and is subsequently voted into power he will have a few ideas to start with.

Story so far is here

Ben Goldacre’s feed

Poo Lady’s feed (Oh yes it is! Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!)

Poo Lady’s web site with commented out Twitter link. (View Source and scroll down to the Social Networks bit).

Dara O’Briain’s feed

I found this essay by William Deresiewicz on Solitude and Leadership whilst following a thread on the Mini Microsoft blog about the demise of the KIN and how the Danger team seem to have been actively demotivated by incompetent management and marketing wonks at Microsoft in the time immediately after the buyout.

In particular, this caught my eye :-

Excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until it’s time to stab him in the back. Jumping through hoops. Getting along by going along. Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that, like the manager of the Central Station, you have nothing inside you at all. Not taking stupid risks like trying to change how things are done or question why they’re done. Just keeping the routine going.

Finally, maybe, we’re starting to wake up to what is fundamentally wrong with Western business ethos.

Incidentally, if you read the Mini Microsoft blog and wonder if it’s just a bunch of whiny techies … no, I think not. My recent experience in this business area suggests that this sort of thing is all too common. Most of the people doing the actual work know what customers want – after all, a lot of them are customers themselves. Those calling the shots, on the other hand, give the impression that they’ve never even seen the internet, let alone a smartphone.

I fear this is all too common across all aspects of our business lives.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this lot before. I’ve been listening to “Idiot Jones Will Have His Day” for several years, dating back to the days when they still had a “pay what you want” scheme still going on their website (which, of course, I promptly used). Since then they’ve recorded five more EPs.

Definitely worth a listen if you like anything vaguely seventies, art-rock flavoured, although they label themselves “progressive pop”, whatever that means. The vocalist reminds me of Marc Bolan quite a lot and the shorter songs have a classic T Rex flavour to them in places. There’s elements of Roxy Music, Pink Floyd and all sorts of quirky goodness in the mix as well.

And did I mention that it’s all free?

2. Appoint a director of football with real power who is a football man with authority over the development of the game in England.

3. A minimum of 7 English players in every premier league starting 11

4. Reduce size of premier league to 18 teams

5. Instigate a winter break

6. Break up current national team. The “golden generation” is flawed. Only Cole, Gerard, Milner and Rooney should remain.

7. Build a new team for the long term, with the expectation of improving in the next world cup and peaking for the 2018 world cup. Should be made up of only players with the necessary technical skills, the ability to take the ball under pressure, control it, pass and move, some tactical and positional sense, and the ability to be part of a team.

8. Look for this team in the academies, Under 21s, Under 20s and under 18s. Build it and allow it to grow. No pressure to achieve results for the first 2 years.

9. Keep Capello. He is an excellent manager. It’s football in this country which is rotten.

10. Recognise that the media are part of the problem in the way they set the agenda, hype the team up and then knock them down. They are creating a climate where the players are playing with fear. It’s time to educate the public, improve the standard of punditry and set realistic expectations. 

We were promised a root and branch review of the English game in 2007, but the FA appointed Capello and swept the problem under the carpet, and no review took place. If it doesn’t take place this time, nobody should go to any England games, nobody should buy replica shirts, nobody should watch internationals on TV, and the England supporters trust should be organising sack the board demos outside Soho Square.

Then lets see if there is a change in the way football is run in this country.

Well that’s how I saw it. How about you ?

We’ve got some of the best and most valuable players in the world.

Yet the performances in the two group games so far have been dreadful, and it looks like we may struggle to qualify in a group we should be managing to top quite easily.

What has gone wrong ?

Speculate and discuss ?