P&J Column 28.9.17
Should a footballer player be sacked for taking the knee? When Willie Miller did it he just got a booking.
Cava Kenny Cordiner, the football pundit who’s first and ten. Whatever that means.
On Sunday night I seen the football from Wembley between Jacksonville Jaguars and the Balamory Ravens. I should make myself clear, I was watching what Americans cry “football” and what everybody else cries “American football”. Despite the name, it’s not nothing like our football at all, in fact, isotonically, it’s more like British Bulldogs, but with tinsel.
That not-still-standing, I’ve got quite into my American football of late. It’s got the power and physiotherapy of rugby mixed with the lycra and shoulder pads of Dynasty. But underneath those layers and layers of padding, the American footballers had something to get off their chest.
They say that sport and politics is like oil and water – they should not never not get mixed. But on Sunday that is exactly what they done. The players kneeled down in protest when they played the American National Anthem, the Star Bangled Spanner.
Now there has been a lot writ about what the protest is about, some of which the lovely Melody has read to me out loud, and if I has copied the bit out of the Guardian website properly, it started with one player trying to bring attention to America’s systemic problems of racial inequality. From that it has growed and growed, and now as well as that the players is also not happy about Donald Trump and how much of a bampot he is. And fair play to the lads.
Of course, old Kenny is no stranger to getting involved in a political controverbial. A few seasons ago I was at a Scotland game where they held a minute’s applause to commemorate a recently deceased hero of the national team. Some people got angry with me because I found that, when that suspicious moment come, I could not clap along with everyone else. I wasn’t being disrespectful or nothing, I just never had nowhere to put my Bovril.
Kevin Cash, moneysaving expert & king of the grips
Taxi-hailing app Uber is set to lose its London license efter a ruling that it was “not fit and proper” tae hold it. Five hunner thoosand Londoners hiv daen fit they ayewiz dae, and protested, and wi 40 thoosand drivers and millions o’ customers, ab’y’s a wee bittie anxious. Luckily, the very same day, the company announced it’s plans tae expand intae Aiberdeen “as soon as possible”. And good for them, I say! Just cos they’ve a’ready been banned by Denmark, Australia, Canada and France that’s nae barrier tae success in Scotland. Jist look at Irn Bru.
Uber has already been a great success in baith Glasgow and Edinburgh which are of course affa similar tae Aiberdeen, apart fae the weather, population size, and road systems.
But dinna get ower excited, Uber’s application is noo in the hands of the Cooncil, and we a’ ken the approach thaey tak tae controversial proposals. So expect fower year o’ lip-service public consultation and widespread opposition followed by the licence getting granted onywye. Luckily, files we’re waiting, I can fill ‘at gap in the market wi’ my ain high-tech transport service.
Noo, there are mony wyes tae travel at low cost in this city – hiding in the spacious footwell of a big black cab, drawing extra wrinkles on yer fizzog and using yer grunny’s bus pass, or nicking a moped aff the Deliveroo boy fan he’s waiting for yer neighbour tae answer the door. But my fleet of ice cream vans (formerly ‘Kev’s Kool Kabs’ noo renamed ‘Slider’) remains the best value around. We da need bus lanes, or taxi-ranks, or the right o’ way.
Uber his come under fire for failing driver background and safety checks. Nae such worries wi’ Slider drivers – they’ve nae had ony o’ those checks in the first place. A’ my drivers is recruited fae a specialised pool. It’s a pool of stale beer oot the back of the Grill, fit is een o’ the few places in Aiberdeen far ye can find mannies that are happy tae drive an ice-cream van wi’ nae MOT very fast intae oncoming traffic.
Uber may hiv GPS and its smartphone app, but that’s discriminating against fowk that dinna hae access tae technology, ken? I hiv achieved the same thing wi’oot the need for a’ that faff by keeping the ice-cream jingles connected up, so you ayewiz ken far we are. Plus, and here’s the clincher for canny Aiberdonians, I keep a few oot o’ date choc ices in the freezer for fan a customer gets the munchies.