Cod Almighty | Diary

Oh for a teleporter to get me to Blundell Park for Grimsby v Hartlepool reserves

15 November 2016

Middle-Aged Diary will post this early as, if you are at a loose end, are in Grimsby or Cleethorpes and have three pounds in your pocket, I can think of nothing better for you than to get to Blundell Park by two o'clock for the reserves match against Hartlepool. With Marcus Bignot keen to get the measure of his squad and the squad no doubt keen to ensure it's a full measure that he gets, it could be a very interesting occasion.

We are genuinely grateful to Ian Jackson for an email he has sent us, copied here in full.

I love reading the daily diary. I suppose that is what is is there for. With regards the entry for 4th November, I'll make the following comments, and probably to be pilloried for it ...

'Ship is rudderless, but lets not talk about Brexit now' - thats a bit low, making a cheap gag in the opening gambit by including an unrelated political situation with a managerless club

'Funnily enough, people down here among the dreaming spires seem not at all bothered by some northern football team without a manager, but much more so about the bombing of Aleppo, global ecological collapse, and the fact that our country’s leadership drifts further and further towards overt racism' - Err, what? Are you suggesting the people of Oxford are the only educated people in Britain, daily wear a hair shirt and wipe their bums with the Guradian in an eco freindly way? And that anyone north, specifically local GTFC fans are not? Mmmmm...sounds like a sneaky dig to those back home where a Brexit vote went 69.9% leave?

'So being away from home puts the whole thing in perspective a bit. But it is the continued freedom to enjoy life’s trivial pleasures free from fear, famine and fascism which is the very point of fighting to keep the planet a functioning, tolerant place' - Ahem, seriously, that's what you think of the place (GY)?. It doesn't bear any resemblance to any fascist state I have ever seen on newsreel or TV documentaries. I don't see daily lynchings.

The football writing is good, the attention to specific detail and accuracy of comments and commentary on all things BP are spot on. But, very much like a HIGNFY or Mock The Week panel show, the comedy (sic) and the political context to add texture to the piece is an aquired taste and for me, borders on that right-wing hobby horse of 'sneering elitism'.

Having said all of that, I'm sat here tapping away 'having a go back', because modern tech allows that. In days of old I'd have had to post you a letter spending, what? 20p? That might have just tipped the balance of me not bothering, which I'm guessing you wish I hadn't.

UTM and hold off sending my invite to the next local televised edition of Question Time :-)

Retro Diary, like Ian, was writing during the national fervour of the court ruling that parliament should vote on triggering Article 50 to start negotiations to leave the European Union. That may have coloured the way Ian read the piece. But it was also written in the local fervour caused by the resignation of Paul Hurst.

On any halfway careful reading, I do not see how Retro's comments can be taken as saying that Grimsby, specifically, is fascist, or that Oxford is the only place in the country where people care about world political and environmental issues. What he was clearly contrasting was not political attitudes in Grimsby and Oxford but the relative levels of interest in the two places as to who might be appointed as the Mariners' next manager.

To me, that is a point well made. The day it was announced that Paul Hurst would be leaving, having immersed myself in Town's social media outlets, I had a genuine moment of puzzlement when I turned on Radio 5 Live and they didn't so much as mention Grimsby or Paul Hurst. In the virtual hothouse environment of a local football club at the centre of controversy, it is easy to forget just how little anyone else cares. If Oxford United had been embroiled in a change of manager, a U's fan in Grimsby might have experienced the same kind of dissonance as Retro underwent in Oxford.

Ian is very kind – and his comments are gratefully received – about our football writing but contrasts that with the political views our writers sometimes express, which he regards as so much "texture". There I can't agree. The underlying truth in the oft-quoted remark by the ex-Grimsby manager and socialist Bill Shankly that "Football is not a matter of life and death. It's more important than that" is that football matters because it is something we choose to do. It is a place where fans can express themselves fully precisely because their living does not depend on it.

At one level, football is a chance to get away from your concerns for the wider world. But at another, it is, genuinely, a small corner where you can give expression to your values about the way things should be done. High-falutin? Maybe, but ask yourself, how much did you donate to Operation Promotion? The donation only makes sense if you see the football club as your football club, not a part of the leisure industry but an expression of your pride in your community.

Tomorrow night, it is the AGM of the Mariners Trust. If your circumstances allow, you should go. At the risk of writing the most off-putting plug ever, it will be a political act. You won't be expressing a view about Brexit, but you will be expressing a view about fans' participation and democracy in football.