The Great Gordino Newsletter – Oct 14th 2014

Hi,
I hope all is well with you.

The political landscape in Britain took another shift last week. There were two by-elections, in one of them UKIP got their first MP elected, and in the other they came second, only 600 votes behind Labour in what should have been a ‘safe’ Labour seat.

You might think that having just 1 MP is not much of a game changer, but it really could be. Having stood in the last 2 elections myself, I heard over and over again that voting was a waste of time, that it made no difference. Well, many of those people might now be thinking that voting for UKIP might not be a waste of time.

An opinion poll held after those by-elections put UKIP at 25% of the vote, which could see them with over 100 Mps, and that’s staggering. The reason behind this surge?

Immigration.

It used to be that is you mentioned a view that immigration was causing problems, you were labelled a racist, but now it’s fair game to discuss the issue. David Cameron is trying to bring it as far to the front of the agenda as he dare, but it’s not fast enough for UKIP or many voters.

UKIP say they would take Britain out of the EU, and while Cameron has promised a referendum in 2017 if the Conservatives win a majority, that kind of political promise holds no weight at all with the kind of waverer thinking about voting UKIP.

Labour’s view? Well, unfortunate as it was, Ed Miliband forgot that part of his major conference speech, which hardly makes him look as if he has it anywhere near the top of his priorities.

I find the whole thing fascinating, and having decided that I would not stand a third time, the Scottish referendum and this latest twist in England does make me wonder if voters might be more accepting of my own platform this time around…

Malala Yousafzai has won the Nobel Peace Price. The youngest ever winner at 17, she was shot in the head 2 years ago by the Taliban for campaigning for girls education. The story of her shooting and recovery raised her profile to global status, and the way she has spoken since, to world leaders and the UN, has been inspirational.

She was awarded the prize jointly with another campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi. He is Indian, Malala is Pakistani, and that’s no coincidence from the Nobel committee. The division of India and Pakistan was done by a British civil servant in London with a map and a pencil, and it’s created tension ever since.

Satyarthi is a Hindu, Yousafzai is a Muslim, so there is another show of unity between different backgrounds. In a speech she made on the day of her award, Malala spoke of these differences between the two of them , but also spoke of the things they were both campaigning for at the same time. She asked, as did Satyarthi, that when they were presented with their awards, the leaders of both Pakistan and India would both be present, to show a united front for their push for peace and understanding. She also thanked her father for ‘not clipping her wings.’

Inspirational.

Let’s finish with a bit of sport, which you were probably expecting!

Last week I spoke about a rugby punch which went unpunished because the player that was hit was deemed to not be hurt enough! That was in rugby union, but in rugby league this week there was a punch which certainly *will* be punished…

Lance Hohaia started the Grand Final by smashing his forearm into the face of Ben Flower. That had brought him a one match ban, and brought a retaliatory punch from Flower. That kind of thing happens a lot in rugby, and a bit of fisticuffs is normally at a level that is generally called ‘handbags at 5 paces’

This time, however, Flower’s punch saw Hohaia go down like a sack of spuds. Instead of leaving it there, Flower then held down his opponent and punched him in the head.

He was sent off, no surprise there, and will get a lengthy ban from the game. Had that happened in a pub car park, he may be looking at jail time, and it brings up the old debate about whether the police should be involved after incidents like this.

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Flower has apologised, and Hohaia says he accepts the apology, and that it should be left at that. We’ll see – it’s punches like that which are the reason I enjoy watching sports like rugby, but enjoy playing a much politer sport – curling!

No punches in curling, and I had the first game of the season last week. I wore my new trousers, but they didn’t help my game as we went down to a loss. It was a fun back and forth game though, and hopefully I’ll get a win on the board this week.

Ok, that’s it for this week – don’t forget to leave your feedback! Also, on the right of the page you’ll find links to my NFL Moment of The Week, and latest ELO Cover Of The Day.

‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. I regularly mention that sport is a massive market you can tap into for profits, and another one is the wedding market – I got married on this day 25 years ago, so why not grab my free report about turning passions into profit! FB Passion Profits – The Basics