Reflections on a Parade, … and what soccer can tell us about society.

By Richard Toller

Early last Sunday, having slipped away from my slumbering wife, I arrived at Tiverton Parkway expecting to see a handful of red shirts; I was off to join my son, nephew, great nephews and nieces, and friends to celebrate the end of my football club’s long dry spell in the men’s Premier League (and another really impressive year for the women’s team). I expected that there would be a handful of faithful Devon “Gooners” making the same pilgrimage. As I parked my car, I was astonished to see a platform already buzzing with red, yellow, blue, (and many other coloured) AFC regalia.

The train we were catching had started in Exeter, but even at Tiverton I only just managed to find a seat; there were about five rather bemused looking non-Arsenal passengers in the whole nine carriages – and given the friendly atmosphere they may well have been recruited into the fold en route. At Taunton, Castle Cary, Westbury the faithful kept cramming in, jamming the aisles. Paddington was a sea of red, fed by rivers of fans from the west of England, and Wales. Would there have been even bigger crowds if the team had not failed by the smallest of margins to be crowned Champions of Europe the night before, losing on penalties? I don’t know.

On the Elizabeth Line there were fans who had flown in from Korea, the US, the Netherlands, at great expense, just to be there. In Clissold Park, when I eventually got there, there were exuberant fans who might just manage to scrape up to go to a game occasionally, if at all. There were almost as many women as men, very young to very old, disabled and people of every racial origin and every sexual orientation; uniting all was camaraderie. Louis Dunford, who wrote the song The Angel, the chorus of which has become the Arsenal anthem, was on the team bus and recorded the extraordinary scenes while he recounted the story of his song. Some of the loudest support was for Gabriel Magalhaes and Eberechi Eze who had missed the vital penalties the night before, but who had both played such a huge role in the season.

The day was a glorious celebration, not just of one club’s success, but much more than that, of a diverse and generous society. That day, and since, I have pondered how football can be such a force for good but also how it also echoes the problems and inequalities in the wider world.

In our region, rugby has always been the more popular ball code. To some extent there is a rural v/s urban division between rugby and football; I suspect that many of those who go on about soccer players faking injuries and getting paid too much are the same people who will tell you you’re certain to get stabbed in “Sadiq Khan’s London”!

Bournemouth is the only west country team (ever??) in soccer’s Premier League, with Exeter and Plymouth Argyle two divisions below. Of all Oscar Wilde’s bon mots, the one I have always bridled against is: “Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians”; undoubtedly in the past soccer had a dark thuggish and bigoted underside. Nowadays, you are more likely to see a punch-up at Ascot, Aintree or Epsom horse races than at a football match.  Football fans have become completely colour blind as they idolise players of all colours, races, religions and backgrounds uniting into one team.

Of course, there are still dinosaurs out there, like Joey Barton, John Terry and Dennis Wise, (and let’s not forget that Rupert Lowe was the chairman of Southampton!) but among today’s players you have some amazing young men (and women); people like Mane, Ozil, Salah, Rashford, Drogba, Saka, Lineker (many more than I could mention) who have used their earnings and their influence to change society for the better in their home countries, communities and world-wide.

I recently read “The hour between dog and wolf” by John Coates, where he discusses the attributes of successful high-risk traders in financial markets; his conclusion is that only part of their advantage comes from the brain, and a lot from instinctive reactions, the vagus nerve and from hormonal interactions. Modern soccer players tend to be cut from a similar cloth – they may or may not be be highly cerebral, but they have phenomenal “all body intelligence” to calibrate every move and opportunity in milliseconds. These professional sportsmen and sportswomen are nonetheless human beings, subject to self-doubt and depression like anyone else – something fans don’t always understand. Our attitude to elected politicians can be very similar.

Normally the relationship between fans and players is close and symbiotic; the fans will have an individual chant for each of the players – (my all time favourite was for Emmanuel Petit – “He’s blond, He’s quick, His name’s a porno flick, Emmanuel(le), Emmanuel(le)”). The fans lift the players’ spirits and players give back in their interactions with the fans. Arsenal top team members were out outside the stadium at 5 a.m. after they won this year’s title chatting and taking selfies with fans who had been there all night. Sadly, in today’s polarised society, politicians are usually no longer able to mingle with voters in the same way. It would be nice to return to the spirit of the 1964 election in North Devon.

There is a saying associated with Barcelona – “the ball doesn’t go in the net by accident”; at the short end of the time spectrum this relates to how players build up a move from deep in their half within a game to craft a chance on goal; in the longer term it references the club building a sound financial and supporter base, nurturing academy potential and recruiting players, and allowing managers time to build a winning unit. If we seek to promote a progressive political vision of society, we need a similar mix of long, medium and short-term planning to take things forward. Football clubs that lose their focus and don’t understand their mission can soon go tumbling down the leagues; perhaps the Tory party (and Labour?) is headed the way of Leicester City, 2015-16 Premier League winners and now competing in the third tier.

The club ownership structures within the Premier League reflect wider trends in the economy. You have the “private equity” model where a club is taken over, loaded up with debt, and the latent merchandising and other value extracted in dividends to the owners, while the team goes backwards – many would argue that this is what has happened at Manchester United. Then you have the “sportswashing” model, where questionable businessmen or autocratic states purchase clubs to burnish their reputations. The old-fashioned fanbase-owned model scarcely exists in the higher leagues.

Arsenal is a holding company 100% owned by the Kroenke family’s KSE group. KSE owns a string of sports teams in the US, and I think it’s fair to say that Stan Kroenke’s initial sports investments were somewhat helped by the fact that his wife is a Walmart heiress. Stan Kroenke’s early reception, after he bought out Alisher Usmanov and other shareholders, was mixed; fans felt that he needed to invest more, and he made a very unpopular and very short-lived move to start a closed European super-league. The Kroenkes are Republican billionaires, and may have other businesses that are more controversial, but for the last few years their engagement has been seen as very positive. Stan Kroenke’s son Josh is closely involved and very supportive of manager and players, even when things aren’t going well.

Two other issues which are perpetually discussed are refereeing (including VAR), and Financial Fair Play; suffice to say that football referees look impressive when compared with the BBC’s Bruce, Kuenssberg and Mason, and that Manchester City’s “115 infringements” pale in comparison to Reform’s crypto millions!

Finally, here we are in a World Cup year. Sadly, international football is too often marked by corruption on a global level and racism and domestic violence on a national level. Infantino, Trump, Blatter, ICE, the treatment of a Somali referee and the Iranian team; what more needs to be said? Domestically, we’ll have St George’s flags everywhere, “Ingerlund, Ingerlund” and domestic violence. Give me glorious club football any day!

Richard Toller,
June 2026

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Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies

By Richard Toller

Memory may be rose tinted by time, but I know that the politicians of my youth were held in much higher esteem than those of today. Why is this? Do we now have worse people involved, is it that we know more about them, or is the world just a different place?

I have always believed that most people go into politics with good intentions, whatever their position on the political spectrum, although there are exceptions, (e.g. “king of the world”, etc). What goes wrong?

As soon as you stand for office, the compromises begin; you might have a clear view of the world you want to create, but to achieve anything, you must get elected. To get elected, particularly in the first past the post system, you must get people with different views than yours to vote for you. Once you’re elected, you are part of a parliament (or council) made up of members with different aims; you will probably be a member of a party and be expected to fall into line with the policies of that party. It doesn’t take long to get bent out of shape even at this stage.

Compromise is an inescapable element of politics; people wang on about “sovereignty”, but the reality is that as soon as you vote in a parish election, you are bartering some of your personal sovereignty to form a coalition with your fellow parishioners to achieve more than the sum of the parts. At the national and international level, we accept many things we don’t like to secure at least some of what we do.

The problem is that the electorate knowingly rewards politicians who sell them a “cake and eat it” fantasy but then lambast them later for not delivering. I think it was Jean-Claude Junker who said “we all know what needs to be done; none of us knows how to do it and be re-elected”. We, as a society, stumble from one discredited saviour to the next, without thinking much about our role in the depressing process.

Today, the resurgent right, amplified uncritically by almost all media, is promising the world, while persuading voters that their real enemies are the weakest in society. Most of us know in our bones that they will be a disaster if elected.

It is our job somehow to open people’s eyes and get them to engage their critical faculties before it is too late!

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How do recent political developments affect the case for Proportional Representation?Reflections on two elections
by Richard Toller

The UK and US elections in the second half of this year have probably encouraged and dismayed Compass North Devon members in equal measure. The eventual defenestration of the increasingly terrible Tory government here was followed in November by the sobering return of Donald Trump across the pond; in the light of these two results I believe that the role of Compass ND is now more important than ever.

When Keir Starmer walked in to Downing Street on 5trh of July, many were talking about him having a clear ten year mandate to repair and transform a "broken" country; less than six months later things are not looking so cut and dried. The fact that he got a stonking majority of 174 seats on 33.7% of the vote (and 20.139% of registered voters) under our current electoral system, should have sounded a cautionary note. Since the election, some avoidable missteps, combined with a very hostile press, have made the electoral horizon much less clear.

Trump's return to the White House next January, without any real constraints on him from Senate, House, or Supreme Court, is understandably very worrying for many in the USA; it may well be a symptom of the decline of the US as a superpower (much as I believe Brexit was a symptom as much as a cause of the UK's decline). My concern, however, is how the return of Trump affects us as a country, and what we can do about it.

The first issue is trade. Trump will almost certainly raise tarriffs; these will be primarily aimed at China, but also the E.U. It seems likely that the UK will be faced with the choice of chumming up with Trump's USA or seeking a closer relationship with our former friends in Europe. Some suggest that we can play one off against the other, but actually this is more likely to result in disaster and humiliation. Overall, the age of "globalisation" may be coming to an end, and that may not be such a bad thing

The second issue is Trump's likely involvement in UK politics. With the Tory party possibly now in terminal decline, and with the shine having (for the moment???) come off Keir Starmer, there is a real danger that in five years we could have a Reform government on 33% of the popular vote, much as we have had majority governments for Johnson and Starmer. The fact that Nigel Farage is being talked about as a "bridge to Trump" by Peter Mandelson, his connections with Elon Musk, the likely support of Tufton Street and people like the Heritage Foundation in the USA all give reasons to be nervous. I am a democrat, and much as I dislike what Reform stand for, if they gained power with more than 50% of the vote, or they could cobble together a coalition with the Tories, DUP, or whatever, I would accept it. What I would hate to see is a far-right government elected by a minority of voters, that might fillet our democracy much as Trump looks like doing in the USA.

So I believe we have to start pushing very hard for PR well before the next election. Starmer and the Labour Party leadership nixed this before the last election, but my guess is that they may be much more receptive now.

Undoubtedly we will need to properly re-engage with Europe; however, I think this really has to become clearly the "will of the people" rather than driven by "Remainers". PR is a much more immediate and vital objective. My guess is that the Trump administration will be chaotic, and this will both undermine Reform and put us closer to Europe. Let’s hope so!

Richard Toller,
November 2024

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Letter to the Press:
More ‘quids’ than ‘pro quo’ I fear
By Richard Toller

Why is it impossible to get an NHS dentist’s appointment in North Devon, and why is it so expensive to go privately? Why has taking your pet to the vet’s surgery become financially terrifying? Are the people we all know and like in these businesses making a fortune? Well, no. There’s an - innocuous sounding - factor at work here called “Private Equity”; so how does it work? (Please bear with me; followers of Manchester United may recognise a pattern).

Imagine an independent business that is worth £10 and makes £1.50 profit per annum. Along comes a Private Equity “Investor” and buys the business for £11. They then go to a bank and borrow £10 at 10% a year, secured against the assets of the business, (re-pocketing the £10); loan interest will cost the business £1 per year. The “owners” are now making net 50p a year on their net investment of £1 – a 50% return. For every 1 percent the profits of the core business goes up, their return goes up by 10 percent. Private Equity Investors love (and are massively invested in) business sectors like vets, dentists, undertakers, and care homes – all where the customer has little bargaining power, so prices can be ramped up easily; staffing costs (wages) may even be reduced; any uneconomic local social responsibility is eliminated (no NHS appointments). If the business fails, the bank, the state or employee pensions will be there to pick up the pieces, as no profits or initial value will have been retained within the core business. This is what “efficiency” looks like in the modern, deregulated world.

It is this kind of “financial engineering” that has caused so many of the problems in the water industry, whether owned through private or public equity.

We get all misty eyed about the free market, imagining scenes from the Mayor of Casterbridge and Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” directing the widget maker for the general good. The old, generally benevolent form of free market has mutated into an often-malevolent offspring, mainly interested in extracting profits – the euphemism is “maximising shareholder value”. The invisible hand is now throttling our society and, literally, our planet, while the ideologues who make up much of today’s Conservative Party cheer it on.

It may not come as a great surprise that Private Equity “Investors” are among the largest financial backers of the Conservative Party, along with hedge funders, dead people (look it up!)  and an opaque Conservative Party membership open to people from anywhere in the world; this week an order has been quietly slipped through by the government, allowing political parties to increase election spending by 45%, favouring the Conservatives; (all this when there’s supposedly not enough money for vital services). This country used to pride itself on one person one vote; the main backers of the Conservative Party today want one dollar one vote, but they also want their “quid pro quo” – indeed, usually lots of “quids” in all our pockets!”

I have recently been feeling deep despair about the atrophy of our society, about the climate, and much else; this is quite the wrong approach. We must all start acting together from today to repair our social and economic fabric, and to ensure the world is liveable for those coming after us.

Firstly, the local Conservative MPs must go; there will be money behind them, and social media campaigns, and AI, but they must go; they put on a show of concern but are at heart enablers of our decline.

Then we need to fight for a society that is fair; we need fair government and a fair, properly regulated economy.  This will need deep constitutional reform, but there are plenty of ideas and proposals out there. I strongly recommend listening to Ben Ansell’s first 2023 Reith Lecture on “Our Democratic Future” on BBC Sounds.

Richard Toller,
Queens Nympton

Published in the North Devon Gazette, December 2023