The Price of Freedom

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that my flirtation with advertising has come to an end.

When I gave my blog a make-over courtesy of those fine people at Old Wisdon, New Lessons, I took the advice of young Jasper Blunt, who promised me that people were making oodles of cash out of something called 'pay per click' advertising.
"Pa," he said, "it's time you got your nose in the trough."

Well, I checked the figures recently, and in two months I appear to have generated the princely sum of 25 cents. I'm not a man who sells his distinctive voice quite as cheap as that, so I decided this morning that the adverts had to go. And good riddance to them. 12p hardly paid for the red ink for the make-over.

Some may accuse me of pique. That's their business. But, for those who might doubt my credentials, here's a clipping from a 1990's vintage Beyond The Boundary - the Oldham Athletic fanzine I was proud to write for. I wasn't seduced then, and I won't be seduced now.

Nostalgic Yearnings: Not For Me!

I've never much been one for raking over the past. As Bob Dylan once said (quite frequently, in fact) Don't Look Back. It's a philosophy that has served me well in my dealings with life to date.

But when I had a call at Blunt Mansions yesterday, I couldn't help but reflect that sometimes there is a proper place for nostalgia. "Bill," they said, "I've searched the internet in vain for any of your old articles for Beyond the Boundary. Couldn't you throw a few on your blog, for old-times sake?"

It's a couple of decades since I penned those articles. The political landscape has changed almost as much as the girth of Mrs Blunt. And if my time at the knee of Wally Green taught me anything, it is that 'old news doesn't sell'.

So I'm not entirely convinced my blog readers will really want to pore over articles culled from what was, I must admit, the best football fanzine of its generation. But, I suppose there's only one way to find out.

Here's one from what I consider was my finest hour - when the magazine took a stand on the issue of censorship. I was proud to lend my distinctive voice to that campaign.