Peterborough

Peterborough has been in the news recently for the fact that the locals have been abusing RAF personnel who appear in the town in uniform. It has got to the point where the CO of nearby RAF Wittering has ordered the troops not to appear in uniform.

The fact that it has come to this is a disgrace, no one should be picked out like this for abuse. However I am really not surprised that it has happened in Peterborough. I worked there for quite some time but chose to commute 90 minutes each way rather than endure actually living there. The reason is quite simple, it's an utter hell hole.

You have to actually go there to really get it. First there's the arson problem, it has the highest number of arson incidents per head of population than any other significant centre of population in the UK. Why? I don't know, but the locals seem to quite enjoy it. They even petrol bombed their own 900 year old world herritage site cathedral a few years back.

I personally know the head of child protection at Peterborough council and can tell you that there are twice the number of kids in care as they should have given the population. That's a shocking statstic. And it comes from absolutely rapant drug and alcohol abuse and general poverty. And it effects every ethnic group. Peterborough has large Pakistani and Polish populations as well as Italian, Chineese and Afro Carribean populations, and they all have their problems.

And in a town like that is it really surprsing that violent crime is a problem and that the RAF, who stand out when in uniform, are on the wrong end of it?

I had another run in with Peterborough on Tuesday. For my sins I am a Barnet fan and went to see them lose at home to Peterborough. The Peterborough fans celebrated by pelting us with coins, and even knocked one of our fans unconscious. Now it was not entirely unprovoked, we have a small dick head element who had spent most of the game trying to provoke them, yet it shows the mentality of many of those from that town.

What you do about a problem like that I don't know. I have no answeres. I just think it's a sad reflection on the inequalities in this country.

Yesterday the alleged leader of an alleged group of football thugs who allegedly support West Ham and who allegedly trashed a pub near White Hart Lane in 2003 was found not guilty of various charges. he claims to be completely innocent and his days of being a member of the ICF (The inter city firm, an infamos group of 1980's hooligans) are behind him.

And if you believe that you'll believe anything.

Now it is a shame that this particular specimen of pond life has not ended up behind bars. Such though is life.

What I am hopping mad about is that his barrister is a Barnet fan, my little club that is safe for kids to go and watch on their own. He saw fit to take his client to the club bar for a celebratory drink and brag about it on the club message board. I have never met this Barnet fan but I think that there is enough evidence here to classify him as a total wanker.

Worse though is that his client now wants to sponsor a game at Underhill next season and bring his army of wankers with him.

Let me make it clear, and I believe I speak for the over whelming majority of not just Barnet fans but also all football fans, they are not welcome. End of story. Full stop. This is my club, it is a club where you can have a drink with the players and the chairman after the game. It is a club where kids can come on their own safely. It is part of the community and trying to get more local support for a new stadium.

We do not need pond life like this at our club, regardless of how much money they spend.