So music of BLACK origin then? You keep digging that hole.
I don’t know why Childs has brought his personal life to attention, shortly before the season starts, but mark my words, he’ll end up getting abuse for it as soon as he makes a mistake now. If that’s his intention then fine but he can’t complain about it in that case. I had no idea, nor did I care but if you’re going to give people ammunition to shoot you down, you should make sure you’re at the top of your game. IMO he’s just put himself under a load of pressure for no reason. Add to that, Sky will be mentioning it every 5 minutes to keep it fresh in everyone’s mind.
The thread was started because of James Child. Is he a good ref? No, he's bang average. Not awful, not great, just average. But how many full-time refs do we have in the game? Are they really judged the same way someone working in a normal job would be? If there's only 7-8 people out there willing or qualified to do your job, you have alot more leeway to do your job to an average level. Yes, it's a tough job, and yes they don't get paid loads to do it, but that's irrelevant. He chose to do that job because he thought he'd be good at it, and he's been promoted to the top of his field because others have judged him to be at an elite level. That is a failure of standards, not by him, because he's not going to turn the job down, but rather by those who set the standards for what elite referees should be. We've always had high-profile refs who people have judged harshly, that's part and parcel of the job, but in today's game with all the help they get from technology they should be better than average. The PL is suffering from this as well, where there is real lack of top quality referees which has been magnified now that they are still making howlers even though they have video assistance.
On a political level, the fact that he's gay should be an irrelevance. Being gay is not a big deal in 2021, but if your political agenda is to highlight differences in society then you will try your best to highlight everyone's differences even if the vast majority couldn't care less. I know a fair few gay people from working all over the place, and the same thing is said to me all the time. Gay people fought for the right for their sexuality to be an irrelevance. It is one of those liberties that becomes almost invisible. They're gay, it's no big deal, most people don't care and the ones who do care are the ones who are questioned for their views, not the other way around. The BBC website is a noticeboard for this 'look at this persons sexuality, gender, race' agenda these days. It is counter-productive. The coverage they give to RL on that site is appalling, but if they can use a figure from the game to highlight a political agenda they'll blast it all over the site for all to see. It's quite deliberate and it's very un-subtle. Highlighting that someone is gay in 2021 is not progressive, it's regressive, because the war was won for gay people, and highlighting that they're gay does the opposite of what they wanted to happen, namely that their sexuality becomes irrelevant.
Absolutely spot on Gray. Some folk will be offended and make an issue out of anything, the BBC narrative, when they are supposed to give a balanced view "enshrined" in their charter, is truly appalling. Most couldn't care what Childs is as long as he does his job competently.
Totally agree. I'm all for the Thomas Sowell attitude to differences whereas at the moment there's an agenda in many media outlets to promote them. I could elaborate why but I can't be arsed to. If you read someone like Naomi Klein its basically as form of history doomed to repeat itself because it failed in the early 90's and there's no reason to expect it to succeed now, lest of all when times have changed for the better. Statistically there will always be prejudice in whatever form; I'm sure I've suffered it because I have a Northern accent but its no reason to treat the whole of society as if they need a daily sermon nor am I going to play the victim for the rest of my living days.
Exactly - here's a scenario. If one of us chanted or shouted a homophobic remark at Child at a Saints game in this day and age what do you think would happen...? Its likely those around us would take a dim view at the least and a ban would follow. Times have (thankfully) changed.
Most folks have enough in their life without being lectured as often as they are by those seeking to defend their right to be offended or by moral supremecists. I and many others don't doubt bigotry still exists but I don't need some sort of moral jihad to convert me to some trendy cause as if we're in the 1970's.
You couldn’t make this up. I’ve just had a gay doctor stick his needle in me - twice!!!
Bloody smarts a bit those Hep B jabs.
It works both ways really. If someone chooses to highlight someone's sexuality in a negative way, that's not on, but Hardaker did that and copped a ban, rightfully. There was no brushing it under the carpet or writing it off as banter, it was frowned upon because a person's sexuality should now be irrelevant unless someone picks them out for it. But on the other hand, picking them out for some 'progressive' agenda such as the BBC has done is also not on, because the more you think it's right to highlight someone being gay the more you're saying that their sexuality is massively important when it should be an irrelevance. That's what gay people fought for, for their sexuality to be ignored as an irrelevance. The BBC and others choose to ignore this, and are determined to divide us into groups. That isn't progress.
The interesting thing about the interview in relation to this thread is that Child himself is happy for people to criticise him as a ref. That is after all the nature of sport and people's natural bias towards their own team.
This kind of makes most of this thread irrelevant. By all means have an opinion and criticise his reffing ability but not his sexuality. That's all he's asking.
Simple really.
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Dave this is the sentence I'd use to sum up the brand, external affairs and/or marketing departments at a lot of big Plc's in these lands.
Many are cut from the same cloth. Idealistic, self important, educated idiots who've graduated with a fine arts degree who seem divorced from the university of life and the school of hard knocks. I'm sorry to the genuine folk out there in this field and I admit its a generalisation but I've seen first hand too many of these 'hipsters' who become too moralistic, too narrow in thought and on some sort of crusade that feels out of touch and misplaced: we've even had a ing Tea company telling the Chancellor not to drink their tea FFS.
The net result is the magnitude of social problems being exaggerated and exacerbated and / or America's social ills being projected onto the UK as some sort of canvas.
Well this as spiralled!
I think Childs is a poor ref, all refs gets decisions wrong - what I think most don't like is he comes across as being arrogant, and outright dismisses players opinions when they ask him a question, and they seemingly means he often 'loses a game' - he's not the only one
On the other point, we live in a country where everyone knows how to do everyone else's job "why's that roofer got his ladders that way", "why's the plumber put the pipes there" just because you don't do that job, doesn't mean you can't comment, look at government, can we not criticise them because we've never been the prime minister?
To be fair, he's a lucky , it's like a straight bloke refereeing a modelling contest every week and getting paid for it.
Oh come on, that was clearly tongue in cheek, it's called humour. This is the main problem of today, a complete lack of humour in society brought about by people scared to crack a joke because someone will get all offended by it. People need to stop looking for the offensive in everything and take what is obviously a joke at face value.
Quite interesting this today. Occasional posters screaming "that's why I don't come on here any more" throwing their agenda down peoples throats. If I am honest the BLM stuff I find to be a political driver that personally turns me off. That does not mean I dislike black people I have never met a bad one. My personal attitude towards gay people is each to their own, its a bit like Church and Mosque attenders fine, just don't throw it down my throat like NW tonight have done all week. James Childs is not the best referee I have ever seen and he is not the worst. Personally I tend not to slag Refs off too much. I did used to sing the Maurice Lindsay song with a gusto though.
These last threads remind me of the first minute of this
https://youtu.be/7kl9DiBZ5VE
Years ahead if its time