Greetings from the Deep South

This is my first effort, and certainly a huge leap for a sheepfarmer located in the south-western districts of South Africa, some 80km from the southernmost tip of Africa.

In my own totally bi-partisan, ideologically neutral way I shall keep readers informed about both politics and farming from our neck of the woods, will tackle with loads of zeal and little insight the various conundrums of our new reality, whilst never losing sight of the sweeter things in life like cars, wine, buildings and G-string design!

Rugby (A hooligan's game played by gentlemen):
Which, inexplicably brings me immediately to Saturday's 2nd Rugby Test between SA and England. Nothing to cheer about if you're from SA: don't let the score (55-22) fool you. England fielded their 3rd Team and managed to upset our scrums, stole our line-out ball, and make our backs look stupid for most of the game. Take away the individual brilliance of Habana and Spies(2 tries apiece), and you're looking at a scoreline of 27-22!! Hardly a confidence builder going into the Tri-Nations, not to speak of a World Cup later this year. The Jake&John Show(JJS) aka the Springboks are hopefully not enjoying a false sense of security especially given their propensity for premature euforia. Can we win the RWC later this year in France? Yes, BUT... More about that later.

Cricket (A gentlemen's game played by hooligans):
So, now he was NOT murdered! Poor Bob Woolmer, of course. What a monumental cock-up of a police investigation if ever there was...Even the slicko seconded by Scotland Yard to keep a watchfull eye in Jamaica got it all wrong...right? The universally credible scenario that Woolmer got Bookied, so to speak, has now been flung into the seductive waters of the Caribbean based on the belated discovery that the victim had not been a healthy chap all along! Well folks, the latest installment of the Woolmer Investigation coupled with a few curious results during the CWC will do nothing, I'm afraid, to erase wide-spread & legitimate misgivings about the integrity of the game at the highest level.

National Strike:
South Africa has had the dubious benefit of a Public Sector Strike since last Friday. Were it not for State-controlled TV News nobody would have noticed a damn thing! Anyway, the Unions will do their National Strike-thing every few years just, it seems, to let everyone know they're still around, but mainly to give the Union Bosses an inflated sense of their own importance. They so love to be legends in their own lunch-times, to paraphrase Churchill re Attlee. It was of course another Brit, one with real balls of steel, a certain Margaret from Grantham, who dealt most effectively with the Unions, and bear in mind that at the time the British Unions were a collective led by some of the nastiest Stalinists of the 20th century. Which brings me to the real point I want to make: In politics any and every crisis can be dealt with effectively provided the underlying political will exists to do so in the first place. ( Be forewarned, this matter of political will, or the lack thereof, will be a recurring theme on this blog.)