Aston Ham? West Villa?

Who cares?!

Obviously, fans of both Aston Villa and West Ham will care.  But does it really matter which team David Cameron supports – if any?

No, of course it doesn't.  But the news of the Prime Minister, who says he supports Aston Villa, mistakenly claiming to be a West Ham fan in a moment he describes as 'brain fade' has gripped the nation.  Labour supporters have seized upon this with glee – Cameron doesn't even know which football team he supports!  Apparently, this makes the Tory leader 'a fraud' or a 'con man'.

What utter rubbish!

The trouble is, when it comes to things like football, politicians in the UK are in a no-win situation.  We (the electorate) supposedly insist that our politicians be 'normal' and 'everyday' enough to be football fans.  Can you imagine the reaction if a Conservative party leader simply came out and said he wasn't a big football fan, and it just wasn't really his thing?  Opponents would jump on this confession as evidence that he doesn't understand ordinary people; that he's out-of-touch; that he's 'posh'; that he can't be possibly be fit to be Prime Minister.

So, politicians who aren't that bothered by football have to pretend to be into it.  And that is then held up as evidence that they are posh, out-of-touch, and don't understand ordinary people.  And it also backfires on politicians who genuinely do like football (or Game Of Thrones, or Nandos, or any other aspect of modern popular culture) because people assume that they're being insincere charlatans who are only saying they like those things to appear 'normal' and win more votes.

Either David Cameron is not a football fan, but feels compelled to say his is because the fetishisation of 'normal' in politics won't let him be himself – or is actually is a football fan, but people still sneer at him for it because they assume he's putting it on to seem like a 'man of the people'.  He can't win.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter which football team the Prime Minister does – or does not – support.  This whole episode simply serves to distract from what the real focus of an election campaign should be: policies.  But it also demonstrates how our obsession with politicians being 'normal' is so much of what is wrong with politics in the UK.

Go on, spoil yourself

Spoiler alert!  That abomination won't actually make your
nasty little Vauxhall Nova go any quicker.

The author Stephen King has got himself in trouble on Twitter a few times for posting 'spoilers' relating to hit television programmes - most recently, the sensationally popular Game Of Thrones.

As an avid Formula 1 fan who can't afford the special Sky F1 channel (and who's often working when races are broadcast anyway), I know all too well the dangers associated with going on the internet when everyone else has already seen something that you're still waiting to watch.  But if there's one thing more irritating than people posting spoilers online, that's people moaning about other people posting spoilers online.

Like it or not, Stephen King (or anyone else) can write whatever he likes on his Twitter account.  If you don't want to read it, don't follow him.  Or, better yet, don't go on Twitter at all until after you've been able to see whatever it is everyone's talking about that you haven't seen yet.

I've been doing this for years.  My general rule is: no social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), emails, TV or radio from ten minutes before the formation lap until after I've been able to watch the race myself.  That may seem like an awful lot of hassle - but when something's important to you, you're willing to put yourself out to make sure you can enjoy it to the full.

Which is exactly the issue I have with people whining about spoilers - it isn't anyone else's responsibility to make sure you're able to enjoy your favourite programmes on television.  If you don't want to find out the score of a football match, or what happens in your favourite drama, or who wins the Grand Prix, it's up to you to avoid finding out in whatever way you see fit - go to whatever lengths you deem appropriate, but don't expect others to restrain themselves on your behalf.

In short, if you know there are going to be things on the internet which you don't want to read, stay off the internet; don't go on the internet anyway, and then complain that other people are talking about things you'd rather they weren't talking about.  If you don't want to see spoilers, it's no one's job but your own to make that dream a reality.