Not only that – he stayed

Not only that – he stayed.PERHAPS it wasn’t a hard decision to take. At the end of eight seasons in Italy the multiple choice on offer was France/Japan/Turkey/Chelsea. More than any other world-class player from abroad, the English see him as a validation of its footballing culture: he did it all, won everything, beat all-comers – including, as the captain of a brilliant Dutch side, the England team led by Robson in the 1988 European Championships Then in 1995, he came here. Chelsea’s imports, however, were attracted by another import. Ruud Gullit will today become the first foreign manager, the first black manager, the first manager with dreadlocks and his own eponymous fashion range, to lead an English club side out on to the pitch at Wembley stadium in an FA Cup final.In just two seasons Ruud Gullit has become a vital symbol for English football.

They like to know that they’ll be in safe hands when they get here, taking orders from a coach who understands their style. Thus it is that Middlesbrough’s foreigners were drawn to the magnetic name of Bryan Robson, a repository of Anglo-Saxon grit who captained England in the 1980s. Look no further than next Saturday’s FA Cup final between Middlesbrough and Chelsea, in which the most famous domestic fixture on the planet will be a babel of voices from Brazil, Romania, Norway, Slovakia, France, Denmark and Italy.
But footballers are not just lured by the unprecedented wads of money that our clubs are forklifting into their arms (pounds 30,000 a week for the best). Pioneers had jetted in (and out) for several years, but after last summer, when England hosted the European Championships, practically every plane that landed at Heathrow brought a footballer intending to take home his share of the television money that has turned football into a gravy train. The football season of 1996-97 will go down in England as the one in which the world’s best players agreed that it was safe to come here, and earn a crust. “My own view,” he wrote, “has always been that the Bank of England must either be properly subordinate to the Treasury, as the Banque de France has traditionally been to the French Finance Ministry, or independent but accountable, like the Bundesbank or the US Federal Reserve.” This is the other sign that Mr Blair and Mr Brown intend to enter the single currency And in New Labour Montagu Norman lives again!. It is Mr Brown’s handing over to the Bank of England of the Treasury’s power to fix the rate of interest.

It has split the Conservatives, with Mr Kenneth Clarke and Mr Michael Howard opposing the change, and Mr Norman Lamont supporting it In his memoirs Lord Lawson took Mr Lamont’s side. It is more serious because, if it is not introduced in 1997-98 (a session lasting till November 1998), it is doubtful whether it ever will be.But there can be no question about the Government’s most important action. It is less surprising because it would have involved greater political trouble. He has now resigned after three days because he says (there is no reason to doubt his word) that Mr Blair promised him a Cabinet position which he did not receive in return for giving up his post as Chief Whip to Mr Donald Dewar, now the Scottish Secretary.The omission of the promised measure drastically to reform the House of Lords is less surprising but more serious. He was quoted as saying last week that a Bill of this nature could not simply be taken off the shelf. But on the contrary: we had been informed a few months ago that this was precisely where such a measure safely reposed The frontbencher who told us this was Mr Derek Foster. Or, rather, it is easy: Mr Peter Mandelson, the adminstration’s Pooh-Bah (who, it will be remembered, had got a little list), has taken alarm Sir Douglas Corridor has been getting at him The civil servants might be annoyed.

Like Mr Cook, he is a Scotsman; unlike him, he is a former railway clerk, engineering apprentice and union organiser. He is the second most important appointment in the Government. The first is Mr Frank Field, who has already said he wants to supplement the state pension through compulsory private provision through insurance companies.It is hard to see why the Cabinet is so reluctant to introduce a Freedom of Information Bill. But it appears that Mr Cook kicked up a fuss about not being consulted beforehand. Whether he would have accepted the proposed arrangement if he had been consulted is doubtful.At all events, Mr Doug Henderson was appointed instead.

Inasmuch as there was a division between left and right, the Government has come down on the side of the right.Then there is the appointment of Sir David Simon, formerly of BP, as minister for trade with Europe. This is one of several signs that Mr Blair and Mr Gordon Brown intend us to enter the single currency. To begin with there were stories that Mr Blair wanted to appoint Sir David minister for Europe (a post I predicted some weeks ago, one of my infrequent correct forecasts). In fact Mr Neil Kinnock, no doubt overwhelmed by the force or the charms – who can tell? – of Mr Smith’s former Greek equivalent, the late Melina Mercouri, promised they should be returned to Athens. However, most people who are knowledgeable about history, the arts or both think they ought to stay here.At the same time I cannot help noticing that those who place themselves on the left politically take the opposite view. This is one of those many subjects on which I hold no strong opinion either way. The Elgin Marbles can stay, or they can go: I can, so to speak, take them or leave them.