With Sarah Palin screeching (literally) her backing for the Donald this week, TEA Party support for Trump's Presidential bid is now assured.
The doom-mongers ('Danny' Blanchflower and Paul Mason) who discuss economics on the BBC and Channel 4 are confidently forecasting that the slump in China will lead to economic meltdown here.
It's all therefore coming together for the first USA/UK summit post the 2020 General Election. President Trump will be greeting Prime Minster Corbyn in the Oval Office, while Vice President Palin takes Deputy Prime Minister (Diane) Abbott moose hunting in Alaska.
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A Doctorate on Balding Referees
Mr Horwood of Bedford had a rather good game officiating yesterday's match at the Amex between Brighton and Huddersfield. He got the key decisions right, and there were not any complaints from the Huddersfield camp about the sending off of their defender Tommy Smith (didn't he play for Liverpool in the'70's?) for a second yellow card after fouling the Albion's Kazenga Lualua.
From my view up in the gods in the West Stand it was also obvious that once again Mr Horwood was another bald referee. Concerned that there may be some kind of personal channelling going on I conducted some research last night.
37.6% of the male population aged between 30 and 47 years have male pattern baldness. However 72.1% of the referees registered with FIFA are bald or balding. This includes the best referee in the Premiership, Mark Clattenburg, who would be balding were it not for the rather effective rethatching work he has had done.
Having confirmed this tendency for football referees to be disproportionately bald, there is now an urgent need for research to be undertaken as to why this is the case? There surely must be a modern
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Could Bookies Have Prevented the Crash?
The weather has stopped much of the racing since Christmas, so this has given me the chance to watch some of the recently released feature films. Philistine that I am I eschew the delights of organic flap jack and free trade coffee at the Duke of York's at Preston Circus, preferring the deserted screens at the Odeon on quiet midweek afternoons (plus you can pick up a free copy of the Sun in the foyer*.)
Best film of the three I viewed was The Big Short. It got a bit overly moralistic towards the end, but it described in an understandable way how a few borderline autistic maths geniuses made a fortune out of the financial crash. They had worked out the obvious (I am writing with hindsight here otherwise I would have done it as well). Putting together a bunch of risky mortgages into 'securities' does not make them safer - rather amalgamating 2 duff loans makes 1 really terribly duff loan. Any half decent bookmaker understands this principle, which is why the High Street bookies are so keen to promote accumulators to naive punters. Indeed it makes me wonder if BigMac, Paddy Power, the Romford Foghorn and Victor Chandler had been charged with regulating the banks - rather than the feeble Financial Services Authority, the 'independent' Bank of England, Gordon 'end of boom and bust' Brown and the useless ratings agencies - then perhaps the whole sorry business could have been prevented.
Room is an undoubtedly well acted film. The performances of Brie Larson and the young lad Jacob Tremblay are outstanding, albeit in a slightly creepy way. The subject matter is so harrowing that it makes it all uncomfortable viewing. And whilst it is claimed to not be based on a real case, there are obvious parallels with those crimes which occur from time to time (in particular in Austria for some reason) where a young woman is kidnapped and kept in a basement for years. I guess it was located in North America (where mass shootings rather than dungeon imprisonment tend to be the crime of choice) in order to avoid comparisons with these real life German events.
After watching Room I needed cheering up so I took in Joy. This is a film about a woman who invents a mop and sells it on the Shopping Channel (yes really). It's funny, entertaining, not too serious and good fun. In fact it was so good that I popped into Robert Dyas straight afterwards to see if I could buy a Magic Mop of my own.
I give (out of 10) The Big Short 7.5, Room 6 and Joy 7. All are worth watching. Next it's The Hateful Eight which has been described to me by the best amateur film critic I know as 'a cross between Reservoir Dogs and an Agatha Christie whodunit'.
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More research needed on whether Guinness really does taste better in Ireland
Whilst studying baldness amongst referees (see above) is a job for a professional, I am off to Tipperary later this week to continue my personal research into proving whether a pint of Guinness really does taste better in Ireland. After ten trips to the Republic I am inclined to think it does, but many more pints of the black stuff do need to be drunk to get a definitive result.
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And finally ....... boy was I gutted on Saturday. I have purchased my Fontwell season ticket (excellent value as it gives you access to all the other Arc racecourses for free) and was ready to go racing today (Sunday) only to receive an email to say 'racing's off, the course is waterlogged.' To think I turned down my invite to Davos for the first day's steeplechasing at Fontwell Park this year.
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*Honestly only for the racing and oh Deidre's Photo Casebook
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