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A sad day for football- Sir Bobby Robson, the hugely respected former England manager, has died at the age of 76 after a long battle with cancer.

Robson's death, coming as it does just two weeks before the start of the new Premier League season, should make us pause for thought as to how the magic and romance our sport once possessed has been destroyed by money power.

In the 1960s and 70s, it was perfectly possible for a talented ambitious manager, like Bobby Robson or Brian Clough, to take a relatively small, provincial club such as Ipswich Town or Nottingham Forest, up into the top flight of English football and win the game's top trophies, in England and in Europe too.

Today, due to the influence of money power, such a feat is impossible.

And we are all the poorer for it.

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Over at Total Politics. The rules are at their website- all you have to do is to list your Top Ten UK Blogs, (your favourite blog at Number 1) and then email them to the address at their site.

Any support for this blog and for the Campaign 4 Public Ownership blog would be greatly appreciated. As for the other eight blogs, well, the organisers request that bloggers don't publish lists of other blogs to vote for- but if you want some ideas, then there are links to some excellent blogs in the links section on the right.

Voting closes at midnight on 31st July, UK time.

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Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela is 55 today. Over the last decade or so, Chavez has not only radically transformed his country, adopting economic policies which benefit the majority- not the minority, but he has also played an important role in international affairs, unequivocally denouncing neo-con aggression and imperialism.
He opposed the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Israeli assaults on Lebanon and Gaza, the Georgian aggression against the people of South Ossetia and the current menacing of Iran.

Chavez also provides a fool-proof litmus test- by which we can differentiate genuine socialists and true progressives from faux-left Mike Blogger types. The latter can't stand Chavez because he pursues proper socialist economic policies (nationalisation not privatisation) and opposes the neo-con war agenda. They routinely describe Chavez as a 'populist' or a 'demagogue'.

But for the former, Chavez is a hero, one of the few world leaders who genuinely deserves the epithet 'great'.

Where do you stand on the Hugo Chavez test?

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Writer, philosopher, social critic, and all round genius, Aldous Huxley was born 115 years ago today, on 26th July 1894.

Above you can see a wonderful interview with the great man on the Mike Wallace show in which he stresses his core belief that intelligence and kindness are inextricably linked. Huxley also believed that modern marketing techniques, advertising and other forms of brainwashing used by the ruling elite to maintain their control would pose a far greater threat to human freedom- and humanity in general than the ‘old-style’ dictatorships that relied on terror. His Brave New World was a far more accurate portrayal of the future than George Orwell’s 1984.

We haven’t produced too many world class intellectuals in Britain, but Huxley was undoubtedly one. And how do we commemorate him?
In 2002, a list of the '100 Greatest Britons' was compiled. While David Beckham got to number 33, Boy George got to number 46, Tony Blair to Number 67 and Richard Branson to 86, the author of Brave New World, Point Counterpoint, Eyeless in Gaza, Island and many other great works didn’t even make the top 100.

If he’d have been French, Huxley would have had an underground station named after him, and statues in various towns and cities.

In Britain he gets nothing.

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Even after the disastrous by-election result at Norwich North, Labour could still win the next General Election. IF they make a clean break with neoliberalism and adopt unashamedly populist, anti-globalist left-wing policies.

Here's 10 things they'd have to do:

1. Renationalise the railways, public transport and public utilities.
2. Double old-age pensions and introduce free care for the elderly.
3. Reintroduce a staunchly progressive taxation system with a new top rate of 80%- not 50%- on people earning over £200,000.
4. Pursue a full employment economic policy.
5. Announce a referendum on Britain's continued membership of the EU and NATO.
6. Listen to genuine public concern over large-scale immigration.
7. Use British troops purely for the 'Defence of the Realm' and jettison the catastrophic policy of 'liberal interventionism'.
8. Reverse the disastrous ban on smoking in public places which has destroyed social life and seen thousands of pubs, bingo halls and social clubs close.
9. Announce the end to the creeping privatisation of the NHS, and bring back dentistry into the NHS fold.
10. Appoint a brilliant anti-war left-wing blogger to be the new leader of the party. (No, I'm not being big-headed, I'm referring to the likes of Anna, Charlie, Ken , Olching and the others in the links section on the right). They'd surely do a better job in getting support for Labour than Gordon Brown.

Of course, there's not a cat in hell's chance of any of the above policies being adopted by Labour, a party which, despite its name, is in hock to Kapital. Which means that the only thing the party can look forward to is its total destruction.

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Always beware of people who say that they are 'all in favour of free speech' BUT...
And people who say that they are 'all for demonstrations', BUT.......

Here's Dave on his plans to remove the anti-war camp in front of Parliament if he gets into power.

"I am all in favour of free speech and the right to demonstrate and the right to protest. But I think there are moments when our Parliament Square does look like a pretty poor place, with shanty town tents and the rest of it.
I am all for demonstrations, but my argument is 'enough is enough'.

What a load of Castor and Pollux. Dave is not against the anti-war camp because it makes Parliament Square look like a 'pretty poor place', but because he's in hock to the neo-cons.

Neocons love demonstrations and protests. So long as they are in Iran. Or Belarus.
Or in Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia.

Back home, they're not so keen.

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Feeling gutted after the gallant Tom Watson failed so narrowly to win the British Open at the age of 59?

Me too.

But don’t worry- I’ve got some very good news.

The Exile is back.

The brilliant anti-war blogger has been in hospital for a large part of this year, but he’s now back in front of his keyboard and ready to expose the lies of the neocon warmongers and the ’liberal’ interventionist ‘warkblogs’- (or at least I think that’s the expression he uses). And of course, have a few laughs along the way.

If you’re a blog that links to The Exile, then please note that his blog’s url has changed to:
http://exile-blog.blogspot.com/

Welcome back Ken, the blogosphere has been a much duller place without you.

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