
Gordon Brown. You know him don’t you? Aye. Runs this plot of land we all moan on.
Well, he’s a footy nut. Yep, he’s a big fan of Raith Rovers, which is nice to hear. If he was a ManUrinal fan, I’d probably seethe about him (like everyone else seems to do constantly regardless of football team).
Anyway, as he’s a football fan, he fancied appearing on Match of the Day 2. He probably likes the 2 Good 2 Bad bit at the end. Sadly for Gordo, the BBC has barred our prime minister from the show because it’s too close to an election to be mucking about having politicians on.
If it’s saved us David Cameron talking about his fave ‘soccer team’, or indeed, someone like Nick Clegg blankly staring into space, then it’s probably a good thing.
Downing Street asked if Brown could appear in the MOTD2 studio towards the end of 2009. He wanted to natter about England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup. However, Auntie said no. A BBC spokeswoman said: “We made the judgment it wouldn’t be appropriate in the run-up to the election”.
They also probably thought: ‘And besides, he’s hardly oozing charisma.’
Of course, the Beeb must be seen to be impartial and there’s very strict guidelines about it all, giving equal airtime to representatives of the main political parties (making Carol Vorderman’s appearance as a Tory/Sarah Palin on Question Time all the more confusing seeing as Boris Johnson was also on the panel, but I digress).
Naturally, you assume that an appearance Football Loving Gordy Brown would be an attempt to slop some Vaseline on the lens to make our PM seem a bit softer and nicer. He’s not the first politician to want to appear on TV outside the political circle of shit. Tony Blair was a guest on Football Focus some time ago and of course, there’s a whole host of chat-shows that are willing to pinch the cheek of a passing politician.
It’s probably a good thing that MOTD scuppered a move by any politician really. We don’t want those flippant gits sullying the very serious business of the Premier League table.