England 1-4 Germany

So, England lost to Germany. Were we surprised? I was, as I had them down to win 2-1. Yet it wasn't the worst performance I've ever seen from England, and I don't quite know why the pundits were saying that it was.

Clearly the first goal was an awful piece of defending. To concede like that at such a high level is unbelievable. Terry, who was watching the German midfield rather than the flight of the ball, ran right under the goal kick and then - given that pace isn't his best attribute - was never going to catch up once he'd actually looked up and seen the ball fly over his head.

The defence was weak again for the second goal, but to be frank they were pulled apart by some wonderful movement from the German forwards. Sometimes a team just beats you, and that was the case with this goal.

Upson's goal was good, and for a 15-minute period we were the better team. The mistake by the officials was obviously unfortunate, but sometimes these things happen. Great teams rise above things like that. Poor sides can't. England didn't. I suspect Germany would have, if it had happened to them in that game.

The rest of it was an attempt by a team totally lacking drive and determination to break down a confident young side with a good defence. It wasn't a great surprise that Germany were able to counter-attack so well.

I'm not really sure that we knew what we were doing, at any point in the game. Germany played much better, changing the way they played to suit the phases of the game beautifully. In the end they more than deserved it.

Baby Ron

Poor little Cristiano Ronaldo! He was so upset following his country's 1-0 defeat to a much better Spanish side that he decided to spit at the cameraman.

On the pitch his split-second reactions are partly what makes him such a talented player, but it seems that off the pitch he should probably take a minute or count to ten before acting.

Rule Britannia!

Did anyone else find it more than a little inappropriate that fans were singing Rule Britannia during the England v Slovenia match?

I'm all for showing your support, but singing a song about imperial slavery while in Africa is surely a bit thoughtless!

Terry and the press

I think it's pretty hard to like John Terry given his previous actions. His indiscretions have disqualified him from leading the national side and the media love to jump up and down on his reputation. Why on earth did he decide to come out and hold that stupid press conference?

A player with a rap sheet like Terry's cannot command sufficient respect to lead criticism of the coach like that. He was clearly unhappy with the USA and Algeria results, as were the press (and the fans), but Capello still has a great deal of authority. The strength of England's qualifying campaign and the fact we can still get out of Group C means that Capello was always going to be given the leeway by the press to make his own decisions. They were never going to back Terry and call for the manager to heed his advice.

Terry has made a series of bad judgements in his life and this was another. No one even cares if he has valid points - and playing Joe Cole instead of Lennon or Wright-Phillips is a very good point - because he has lost the respect needed to make them. He simply has to learn to avoid the press. That they would turn on him and see him as a troublemaker was absolutely predictable.

Budget! Here's my two cents...

The 20% VAT rate is obviously going to get lots of coverage, and rightly so. Every media outlet is using the words 'regressive' and 'unfair' to describe it. It isn't fair because it does hit the poorest* disproportionately. People in the middle will lose out as well, missing out on benefits and also facing higher taxes.

But on the whole, I thought that the budget was pretty reasonable.

There were genuine attempts by the coalition to avoid putting all of the pain on those with the lowest incomes. Efforts to freeze public sector pay will only affect those earning higher salaries, those with wages that mean they will really struggle to pay all their bills and get enough food will have some protection. The raising of the allowance limit by £1000 as part of the drive to get it to £10,000 is very promising.

The call for government departments to cut their spending by 25% by the end of the parliament is surprisingly high. I suspect that there is a lot of waste in the public sector and that these cuts could be made. What worries me, and probably everyone else, is that useful and important things will be easy targets.

Harman's best line was that the Lib Dem's have sacrificed thousands of people's jobs in return for a few ministerial positions. Will read brilliantly in the Mirror. The rest of it was naturally - given that she didn't know exactly what was coming - vague and probably wouldn't have changed whatever Osbourne had said. Her cries that the cuts were ideologically driven were amusing, given how driven the Labour party is by its ideology. The Tories feel more comfortable with a smaller state, and they are looking to redefine the role of the state in our lives. They are right it is too large. They are right that the current benefits system is flawed, and they are right in trying to encourage private sector development. Labour are wrong to believe that simply creating government jobs in poorer areas solves the problem. Government is there to help people, not simply employ them all if they can't find jobs.


*It goes without saying that the convenient social definitions - the poor, the middle class, the rich - are useless. They are simple generalisations loaded with political implications. While there is just one budget, it will affect each individual in a different way. And the current media obsession with asking locals in Nottingham or Gateshead or wherever what they think of the budget and it's effects on them is irrelevant to everyone except themselves. Well, maybe that's a bit strong. But you get the point: the definitions are flawed.