Why fans shouldn't be worried about Manchester United future income...

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...except that it's not really about Manchester:

Manchester United has signed a partnership with the first mobile phone firm to operate in Azerbaijan.

The three-year deal with Bakcell will give the telecommunications company the right to screen the club's MUTV in the eastern European country.

Bakcell will also offer United-themed phone packages, which will give subscribers access to club news, video highlights, ringtones and other features.

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Why are we surprised that private sector workers don't back Labour?

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In one respect this is just another opinion poll:

"Members of the far-left Unite union behind the British Airways strike want their bosses to stop giving money to the Labour Party. In a stunning affront to the hard-liners running the union, a poll has revealed that grass-roots members would also prefer David Cameron to Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. "

In another respect it is a reminder to the Conservative Party about where they should be targeting campaigning efforts. The current strategy appears - with historical justification - to have been directed towards AB voters. However, this poll confirms that the new bedrock of support for the Conservatives will be the ordinary workers employed in the private sector and the self-employed.

And - as I said here - there's other polling evidence to support this assertion. Evidence that this Unite poll confirms. And this is what I said about those voters:

"These are the people who were most damaging by the smoking ban, who are irritated by the endless nannying lectures on drinking, eating and, seemingly, everything else they enjoy. These are the people who are roundly cynical about global warming, who want to use cheap flights to warm places once or twice a year. These are the people who’ve seen labour rob their pensions, let them down on education and want to tax them to the hilt for the horrible crime of using their cars.

And let me close by saying this: if Anthony Wells analysis is right then David Cameron has his strategy wrong. Sucking up to middle-class Lib Dem voting public sector professionals and labour-voting social workers by coming across all green simply isn’t delivering – in fact, if we carry on like this, we’ll just alienate those hard-working people who hate labour more than they love the Tories"

Dear Football - be careful what you wish for it, might come to pass

I must be getting old and grey – forgetful even – but isn’t the Conservative Party supposed to be against “government intervention” in private businesses? If so perhaps someone should explain the concept to Hugh Robertson MP, who is (I’m told) the Party’s Sports Spokesman:

“I encourage in the strongest possible terms footballing bodies to come together and work out a proper solution as a matter of urgency. My final point is that if they do so, we will back them, but if they do not, Government intervention remains an option.”

It seems to me that there is a growing pressure for government intervention in the affairs of football clubs. Indeed, Manchester United fans protesting about their clubs owners (presumably for the terrible crime of making money from said ownership while the club wins cups, leagues and championships) are reported to be:

“Calling on their considerable contacts in Westminster and Whitehall, Manchester United supporters are to make the future of their club, and particularly the controversial, debt-driven regime of the Glazers, one of the issues of the forthcoming General Election.”

Reading Henry Winter’s uncritical piece (from which the quote above is taken) it strikes me that the Manchester United Supporters Trust is seeking to use political pressure merely to promote a takeover bid for the club. It really is as simple as that – the Trust wants to own the club and if it can't do it the honorable way through raising money and writing a cheque out for the current owners’ interest, it will enlist political campaigns to force the change through.

Football supporters are making a big mistake by letting government regulation in through the door. As I have said before – be careful what you wish for as it may come to pass. I have absolutely no doubt at all that government regulation would be bad for football, bad for supporters and bad for the clubs.

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