13 April 2005: Cynicism

Rio Ferdinand just happened to bump into Chelsea Chief Executive Peter Kenyon at a London restaurant last weekend. Purely by chance, no secretly-planned meetings and definitely no talk of Rio maybe signing for Chelski.

As if we're going to believe anything Chelsea tell us about such matters, they've never been known to tap up any players before, have they? Or managers, come to that? And what about Rio himself, for that matter - hardly the cleanest record in the game. Football is so corrupt, there's no reason at all to believe this was a chance meeting, even if it was a chance meeting. It's like Tony trying to convince us we need to go to war with, say, Iran or Syria: no matter what he says about imminent threats and weapons of mass destruction, who's going to believe him?

I thought I was slowly learning to throw off my cynical shell, but it seems that in some areas there's little difference between cynicism and reality. Did Charles Kennedy decide with his wife that a baby might be useful given a probable election in May 2005? Did Michael Howard just discover his distaste for abortion by chance during the election campaign? (Although the Catholic Church now, of course, have another election on their mind.) And suddenly Tony loves Gordon? When did that happen? And let's not forget the forged-photo fiasco of Ed Matts and Ann Widdecombe, and Michael Howard's decision not to sack him, thus proving it's ok to lie, but it's sackable to tell the truth.

And all that without mentioning how Tony Blair, knowingly or otherwise (ha ha!), misled parliament and the country on the reasons and legality of invading Iraq. At least Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kristol and Wolfowitz (the PNAC people who also happen to be VP, Defence Sec, speech writer and former VP Chief of Staff, and new World Bank President respectively) are honest about their stance on global domination: PNAC states as part of its aims: "that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; that such leadership requires military strength". Let's not forget, they were calling for a second invasion of Iraq as far back as 1998, well before the 'war on terror' began, and they're right at the heart of the Bush administration.

At least they're out front about it. So come on Tony, Michael and Charles - tell us what you'd really do if you got elected. And as for Rio, I think most of us are beyond caring.