Spring is a time in which the newborn of animal kingdom make their first appearance. It is a time when nature's plant kingdom signals its rebirth with vivid colours of new flowering plants, more green leaves on the trees and lush green turf reappearing. It is a time in which humanity responds with a more optimistic demeanour; a return to a happier way of looking at life after the dark short days of Winter.
Being England, this Spring Bank Holiday weekend is marked in the all-too-usual way: rain on Saturday, and grey miserable skies overhead since. But the spirit of the British remains undimmed in spite of the less than favourable weather, both in the natural atmosphere as well as the economic atmosphere. The British have resumed their passionate affair with renewing their homes and gardens, with spending continuing (apparently) apace on DIY projects, new plants and other gardening projects. I believe that no nation comes close to the British when it comes to the magnificence and variety of personal and family gardens. Other nations have outstanding public gardens and places, but the temperate climate of Britain and the temperate nature of the British makes for a formidable array of "outdoor rooms" in the United Kingdom.
It is partly for this reason that over a month ago I felt that Britain was not as doomed to the oppressions of recession as much of the media would have us believe. While the phrase "Dunkirk spirit" is oftentimes overused, it is an admirable description with the way in which the British deal with times of adversity: they remain optimistic and make their best efforts to combat the negative forces, both individually and collectively. There is a traditional British sentiment which allows the collective forces of the people to be much more important than the powers of government. (As an aside, I hope and pray that these collective forces will be brought to bear in bringing to an end the madness of the proposed ID scheme, which can only be seen against the background a continued fight for personal freedom during a thousand years of British history as the travesty it truly is!).
The British four-day weekend of Easter provides not only a time to take stock of our housing and gardens, but a brief respite from the rigours of the hectic unrelenting work-week which dominates out lives in modern Britain. It is a time for families to renew their ties, and for communities to do so too. Although religion is less important to many people now than in previous decades, Easter provides a time for even the less religious to attend church and reconnect with their co-religionists. For the Jewish people, Passover is a time of remembrance of the Exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt. The Passover seder meal (which Christians recall as Jesus' "last supper") brings families and friends together to continue the familiar rituals and symbolism of three thousand plus years. This oasis in the desert of work gives us all a chance to sip from the waters of freedom and put our work burdens down, if only for a few days. Nonetheless, we will return to work tomorrow (Tuesday) in most cases refreshed and with renewed vigour, and in some cases glad to be back at the old routine.
For football fans the Easter weekend signals the turn into the final straits of the season. The end of the season is now clearly in sight, and with each match the final League tables move into ever clearer focus. The remaining Cup competitions become increasingly interesting as some teams are knocked out while others continue to fight for their place in the history books. For supporters of teams which are unlikely to win any trophies but are safe from the despairs of possible relegation to a lower division, Spring signals a time for longer-term thinking: to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the current squad, and to engage in endless speculation about the Summer transfers which keep football alive during its otherwise dormant period. It is hard to recall a season in which the competition to win the Premiership as been so keen; equally the competition to avoid relegation out of the Premiership remains equally uncertain, with so many teams still within a few points of each other.
At the foot of the Premiership it is entirely possible that all three teams from England's north-east—Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough—could be relegated this season. Long regarded as a hotbed of football passion, this would be a disaster for the north-east in both football terms and the associated economic costs that would likely result. For football fans in the south of England the loss of all three teams would mean less travel expense in both money and time! It is interesting to speculate why there has been this sudden cluster of geographic football disaster in the north-east. Surely if it were truly the hotbed of passion that it is so often proclaimed the supporters would be able to contribute more fully, both monetarily and in their vocal support for their teams, to prevent such problems from occurring. Perhaps football no longer commands the passions of England's north-east as it once did. More likely in my view is the importance of the choice of managers: too often English teams select a manager who was once a great player. But this is to ignore the lessons of history: almost none of the players who won the World Cup for England in 1966 went on to have anything more than mediocre (and often disastrous) managerial careers. This has been seen most recently with the appointment at Newcastle of Alan Shearer as manager. While a favourite son of the north-east as a player, he has no credentials nor background as a manager. It is "last roll of the dice" by the Newcastle United board to prevent relegation. If it does succeed it will be more likely due to the charisma of Shearer being able to turn round the psychology of a team in almost free fall downward momentum, rather than via tactics and team selection. With Shearer's appointment coinciding with the first appearance of the green shoots of Spring in nature, it may well prove to be effective by default rather than by design!
