Sunday, May 20, 2012

Vince Cable, York City and Arthur Bottom

Today York City beat Luton Town in the Blue Square Bet Premier play-off final to return to the Football League. And, according to several people on Twitter, Vince Cable was there to see them do it.

Vince is an alumnus of the city's Poppleton Road Primary School and Nunthorpe Grammar School. And, according to an article he wrote for the Daily Mail in 2009, he is a lifelong York City fan:
Like many little boys of my generation I learned sports skills in the street and the local park. I was introduced early to the excitements of heaving crowds on the terraces, the crescendos of noise and fierce loyalty to the local football club – York City, then a good side which I followed to a cup semi-final against Jackie Milburn’s Newcastle. 
Now they are, rather sadly, low down in the Conference league. And I learned hero-worship of stars (mine was a rather plump part-time milkman called Arthur Bottom who scored numerous improbable goals).
Arthur Bottom died last month and you can read more about him in this article from The Press.

That was not all Vince had to say in his Mail article. He continued:
But today there is a sickness of greed and inflated values, like that which preceded the financial crash. 
It cannot make sense to have a national game dependent, at the top level, on the whims of overwhelmingly foreign billionai...
A Chelsea fan hurriedly interjects: That's quite enough of that.

1 comment:

Frank Little said...

Wasn't York one of those Football League clubs asset-stripped by opportunists thanks to a rather lax interpretation of "fit and proper person" by the FL?