Saturday Musing

The long wait is over
Today is traditionally an important one in my calendar, a day I cherish and long for, especially in odd-numbered years. Today is the start of the new football season, filling the void left in May having had a summer without an international tournament. Okay, so Sky, Hull and Blackpool were responsible for the anti-climax that was a premature start to the Football League season last night, but today is when the real business happens. Pubs that have been unusually bereft of punters over the last few months will again be swelling with excited football fans, train stations around the country will be experiencing hordes of travellers indulging in lager-fuelled song and millions of men will be found slumped asleep in their armchairs early tomorrow morning, not having made the end of the football league show.

The dawn of the new season has filled column inches with talk of Brighton's, ahem, bright future at their stunning new ground, Wimbledon's return to the football league after the incredibly successful AFC project, Crawley Town's future after buying their way out of non-league and of course the mouth-watering race for promotion to the Premier League. For some, this will be a season to remember, for others, one they will hope to swiftly forget, but it all starts here - football is back.

Two wrongs don't make a right
Earlier this week I was shocked and disappointed to discover that a campaign to bring back the death penalty for serious crimes has gathered enough momentum and support for MPs to have to consider, and discuss it. Whilst I appreciate the romantic justice of 'an-eye-for-an-eye' punishment for those who commit murder, a return for Capital Punishment would see me lose complete faith in us as a society.
Not only do I struggle with the concept of the state taking the life of one of it's own citizens, but how can anybody desire such barbaric punishment that offers no scope for mistakes in the justice system. Imagine executing someone for a brutal murder, only for evidence to surface further down the line proving the dead victim innocent. Like it or not, mistakes happen and it makes me wonder whether the people proposing this have ever seen The Shawshank Redemption. I suggest they find a chisel and dig a way through their dense skulls until they see the light and have a moral compass that points north.
As a strong antagonist of this idea, I signed the opposing e-petition and welcome others to do the same: Stop these morons in their path