Cobblers Comments

"After reading the so called "Man in the Street" article from Colin James I feel that you owe Tony Clarke MP an immediate full and prominently displayed apology.

I have never read such an inaccurate biased article and, quite frankly, your publishing of such an item downgrades your "newspaper" even further than it is already. A personal attack on Tony Clarke's appearance whilst Colin James is purporting to speak for "the man in the street" is completely and utterly unacceptable and you should know better than to print such an article.

Irrespective of my own personal feelings in this matter, you are perfectly aware that Tony is the supporter's representative on the board of Northampton Town Football Club and, if a majority of supporters wish for action to be taken then he would be failing in his duty if he did not say so and so act. May I suggest that checking the facts would do a lot more good than personal attacks. I am aware that Tony has received many, many faxes, letters and emails on the subject of Ian Atkins and perhaps if you took the time and trouble to speak to him you would know the feelings of the supporters rather than the haphazard "guessing" method you appear to use in the majority of your reporting.

You will also be aware that the description of "publicity crazed politician" is also completely unfounded. When your previous item stating that Tony Clarke was to ask the board to sack Ian Atkins was published yesterday, you must have been aware that the posting to the Internet was made over two weeks ago. I also have to inform you that publishing out of date facts is not news, contrary to what you appear to believe. For your additional information this is where the "news" in "newspaper" derives its name. The dictionary definition of "news" is "report of a recent event" which clearly is not the case in this instance.

I also note the attack on the "sad internetters" - by no means an uncommon line encountered on your pages. Would you care to explain and also point out to your readers, that the posting in question must have been read by a "sad internetter" on your staff. The person who copied this information and blew it up into a full scale article is obviously unsuitable for employment as he or she will "spew out a steady steam of abuse against all and sundry."

The Internet is often the only source of information about Northampton Town for many supporters who do not live locally. This does not make them sad, nerds, abusive or any of the other descriptions often leveled against people who use such a media. It just makes them fans who have as much right to their opinions as any other supporter."

"Just when the cobblers' ship has weathered the early season storm and is steering a progressive course, along comes Tony Clarke, man of the people, to do his level best to run it into the rocks. You'd think the member of parliament for Northampton South would have better things to do with his time than networking with the handful of internet nerds that spew out a steady steam of abuse against all and sundry. Not our Tone. With all the skill of a modern day publicity-crazed politician, he has to be seen acting to be acting on behalf of the people. So he puts the boot in on Ian Atkins. Of course tubby Tony knows a lot about football. We've all seen pictures of his overweight frame being shoe-horned into a football kit (extra, extra large, no doubt) for yet another "charity" match. Obviously, that qualifies him to decide as and when the Cobblers need a new manager. He says he is acting on behalf of supporters. Which ones, Tony? The thousands upon thousands of caring, decent Cobblers fans or the handful of fellow sad interneters who rarely have a decent word to say about anybody? Of course, Cobblers fans were frustrated by those first two defeats of the season. But two games was never enough to decide a manager's future, and since then the Cobblers have gone from strength to strength - yesterday's victory at York made it three wins out of three and it's up to seventh in the third division table. Already a playy-off spot, and every indication that there's more to come. Wrapping yourself in the "supporter's flag" is easy, a perfect excuse to shout your mouth off and grab a few headlines. Politicians crave them, especially when their majority is as wafe thin as that of the MP for Northampton South. His determination to represent the common man is admirable. But before he bangs on about democracy and the peoples' choice, consider this : If there was a referendum tomorrow there would be over-whelming votes in favour of the following : Britain staying out of the European single currency; all handouts to illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers being stopped immediately with the whole dammed lot of them sent back to where they came from; and hanging to be brought back for, at the least, child and police killers. His party, the party of government, know this. But will Clarke and his buddies act according to the peoples' wishes? Will they heck. Politicians are only interested in public opinion when it matches theirs or when it's close to election time. I expect the Cobblers board to back Atkins and tell him to carry on the good work now underway. They'll have to ignore as best they can the distraction served up by this interfering MP, but they'll be well aware if the dangers of letting the inmates run the asylum. As for Clarke, should the Cobblers get to Wembley next May, I'm sure he won't be cluthcing at Atkins' coat-tails in the hoe of a little goodwill and glory rubbing off on an MP just a year or two away from a general election."

Phew, no scanner......just typed the whole article in full for those people not in a chron catchment area, what do you think then?

Ralph at 23:50:48 Saturday August 21 99
IAN - Ask a R&D fan, if you can find one!