Clubs should handle politicians with care

You can't keep sport out of politics, but clubs would be well advised to keep out of partisan politics.  Fans necessarily hold a range of political views and appearing to favour one position can undermine unity as recent events at Ipswich Town and Sunderland have shown: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2026/03/many-sunderland-fans-opposed-to-farage.html

There are two exceptions: politicians who have a long track record of support should be tolerated and the local MP should always be welcome as his or her help may be needed.

That applies to MPs in an area where there are many fans although the miserable Edward Heath was a Gooner and would never discuss Charlton.   Although he may not have danced in the streets of Raith, Gordon Brown was a long term supporter of the Kirkcaldy club.    Dave Cameron claimed to support West Ham Villa.

I think there was a time when Charlton seemed to become closely associated with New Labour, although to be fair to those in charge at the time they could claim simply to be working with the government of the day (and one that was long lasting by current standards).

Nevertheless, I was very interested in what Peter Varney had to say on this topic in his latest discussions with Richard Cawley.

Tony Blair asked for help with the sports side of turning Thamesmead School into an academy.  Varney recalls: 'I spent about 20-25 minutes with Tony Blair when he officially opened the academy. I found him very good on the details, which you often are left wondering about with a lot of politicians, but he was also very PR obsessed. He said it was a government initiative - that he dreamed of having these academies - more than talking about the Charlton side of initiative.'

'Not long afterwards, Gordon Brown came to the training ground. I found, out of the two of them, that Gordon was more focused on what we were doing, rather than wanting the PR.'

I never met Tony Blair, but I thought he was slippery.   A friend who was no longer with us was an education adviser at No.10 and drew up a plan to boost FE colleges which in my view are an important but under estimated part of the education system.  Blair's immediate reaction was 'Great!  Let's screw them.'

I did have a long conversation with Gordon Brown and it was like having an intellectual hoover attached to you.  I then got invited to No.11 during the Blair/Brown transition and got a second invite.  I didn't go back.  Not the easiest person to work for.

If Brown was intense, Dave Cameron was laid back and charming even in the face of rudeness from Boris at an event I attended at No.10, but even things he cared about about got delegated to incompetents.