Make the ‘striker’ go down a pit (From The Northern Echo)

Make the ‘striker’ go down a pit

3:32pm Monday 3rd October 2011 in From The Editor's Chair By Peter Barron

ON a relaxing day off last week, after an Indian summer stroll across the sands at Saltburn, I was catching up with the news at home in the evening.

Two stories came in, one after the other, on the news-feed on my mobile phone.

One reported that a miner had died in a roof collapse at a North Yorkshire colliery.

The other told how Carlos Tevez had refused to play for Manchester City in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

The contrast could hardly have been greater. Father-of-two Gerry Gibson, 49, was killed at Kellingley Colliery after scraping a living down the mines for 30 years.

Tevez, sulking because he was on the substitutes’ bench, wouldn’t play the final 30 minutes when his manager ask him to.

Mr Gibson was paid perhaps £30,000 a year for doing his job, in difficult dark conditions.

Tevez is paid £150,000 a week to play football.

When the great Sir Bobby Robson was manager of Newcastle United, he took the players down the pit at Beamish Museum to show them what conditions were like.

If I were Roberto Mancini, Manchester City’s manager, I wouldn’t bother fining Tevez. He has so much money, he wouldn’t notice a financial slap on the wrist.

I’d follow Sir Bobby’s example and show him what some people have to do to earn a tiny fraction of what he’s paid.

FOR nearly 13 years as editor of The Great Daily of the North, I’ve managed to keep a terrible secret. I’ve told no one for fear of recrimination and embarrassment.

But, finally, I’ve been outed in a way reminiscent of MP and newspaper columnist Matthew Parris telling the world on Newsnight in 1998 that Peter Mandelson was gay.

Our own celebrated columnist Mike Amos went on John Foster’s BBC Tees show last week and revealed that I am an Arsenal fan.

As the editor of a newspaper which covers the home and away fortunes of Newcastle United, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Darlington, I’ve always dodged questions about which team I follow.

But now, the truth is out. My explanation is that my mother is a Londoner and I was brain-washed as a child.

As far as the North-East’s clubs go, I sincerely want to see them all do well. It’s good for newspaper sales when our teams win.

Anyway, being an Arsenal fan these days is probably a bigger embarrassment than anything Mr Mandelson had to endure.

THANKS to Ian Cross for pointing out a classic opening paragraph from a story in another North-East newspaper last week.

“Alcoholic Alan Hackett swung an axe at a woman after he got drunk to celebrate the completion of an alcohol treatment programme.”

I’M not one to name-drop but The Queen dropped me a line last week.

I’ve been invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace on November 28 to mark this year’s Diamond Jubilee.

I’ll check my diary when I get a minute.

FINALLY, an anonymous complaint arrived on my desk about the headline used on a story about a dog which plays dominoes at an adult day care centre in Colburn.

The reader felt the headline “Fives and fleas” was “offensive and libellous”.

I am happy to put the record straight.

There are no fleas on JJ, the lurcher, and I apologise for any embarrassment caused.