Category: England

The VAR Soccer Controversy – It isn’t ‘Cricket’!

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VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is at times making more headlines than the football (soccer) action these days.

The latest controversies, decisions which have swung on measurements of no more than a few millimetres, plus perhaps inconsistent interpretations of the offside rule, have affected the course of games and perhaps even decided the results of some.

For years there was a clamour for the use of such technology, now it seems many can’t wait to get rid of it. I also detect that there is a sense among some that the technology somehow favours the ‘bigger’ clubs, although I don’t think this is true.

However, when you examine the great majority of incidents, even if the decisions are minimal, they are invariably correct. Yet, as in some cases, a player is adjudged to be a few millimetres offside after the referee initially gave the goal, there is no leeway, no place for ‘commonsense’ or the application of the spirit rather than the rule of ‘law’.

My own opinion is that VAR should only be used sparingly, and, if an attacking player is only the merest snip offside through VAR but looks onside by the naked eye, then the referee’s original decision should stand and the benefit should go to that attacker, otherwise I believe the whole nature of the game (and it is a game) is surely in doubt in the long term.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Rudyard Kipling Born Today 1865

www.reddit.com/r/FreeEBOOKS/comments/ehka7k/happy_birthday_rudyard_kipling/

He was a man of his time, born in India to British parents, into a culture which was to inspire his output: ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Kim’ being two of his more famous works.

On This Day 1901 – Marconi’s First Transatlantic Radio Signal

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Today marks the anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s epoch making transmission of the very first transatlantic radio signal.

An event which was to effectively usher in the new telecommunications world of the 20th century, was sent from Britain’s extreme south west peninsula, namely Poldhu in Cornwall, to St. John’s on the island of Newfoundland on North America’s eastern coast, using a wireless transmitting station in Ireland.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

On This Day – The Passing of the Statute of Westminster

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On this day in 1931 the Statute of Westminster was passed in the London parliament.

Over a period of time, it effectively gave total independence to parts of the British Empire, namely Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State, Canada and Newfoundland, the latter not being incorporated into the Dominion of Canada until 1949.

In retrospect it could be argued that the passing of the statute and its aftermath marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire and the tentative establishment of what is now the Commonwealth (formerly British Commonwealth), a loose gathering of self governing, sovereign nations with the Queen as head of state of many.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

 

On This Day 1936 – Edward VIII of Great Britain Abdicates

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He had been king for less than a year and hadn’t had a coronation.

Edward VIII officially gave up his kingship, his rule over an empire which spanned the earth, on which the sun never set. All because, we are famously told, for his love of an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, a situation which could not be tolerated by the highly conservative establishment of the time. But of course it was a bit more complicated than that.

Like quite a few Britons at the time, Edward was an admirer of certain European dictators. After the abdication he became more than a mere acquaintance of one of them, something which didn’t go down too well in certain parts of the British establishment, as Europe and the world was led inexorably towards war.

As Prince of Wales he had been quite popular with his people back home and throughout the Empire and Commonwealth. He was able to relate to them despite the most privileged upbringing one could get. He was, however, quite shy and perhaps felt somewhat unworthy of the role fate had given him, something which led to several bouts of depression.

For these reasons and perhaps others too, he probably never felt he was not cut out for being a monarch of a vast and populous empire.

Falling in love with Mrs Simpson was only one reason among several which made him feel incapable of carrying on as king, a heavy responsibility which in the end he was forced to leave behind.

copyright Francis Barker 2019