'Come on You Reds'

Politics is a funny old game, a lot like football. It generates a passion and blind allegiance that wouldn't be out of place in the football stands. The political parties are able to talk about safe seats because they know a certain amount of people will turn up to support them just as Wolverhampton Wanderers know that a certain amount of people will turn up to watch them play. The faithful can be relied upon to follow them through the waxes and wanes of the parties (or teams) fortunes without question regardless of how many times they mess up. The die-hard Labour supporters would no more vote Conservative than a Manchester City fan would don a Manchester United shirt no matter how poorly their own team were doing. Even the House of Commons is similar to a football match with all sides shouting at each other whilst the respective cabinets take centre stage. Mind you, there is a lot less swearing and the ref doesn't get any abuse in the Commons. 

It could be said that the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats make up the Premier League although the Lib-dems are perilously close to relegation. UKIP the Greens and BNP are snapping at their heels in the championship league while the likes of the Christian Peoples Alliance and the Monster Raving Loony Party slug it out in the Conference League keeping the tradition of British eccentricity alive and well. Nobody takes them seriously, except themselves. You could even draw a parallel between Wimbledon FC's rise to the premiership by pure bloody mindedness and butchery of the enemy with UKIP's journey from political wilderness to a serious contender. 

The football teams have their equivalents in the cabinets and shadow cabinets of the respective parties. They have their brash heavy hitters (strikers) and those dull grey men considered unremarkable but a safe pair of hands (Defenders) with the incumbent leader as the manager. They have a sprinkling of old hands and young shining stars and just as in football, if their caught misbehaving they get sent off. Peter Mandleson got sent off twice from the labour party.

In true football fashion the political parties have their own colours and slogans so they can be easily identified and the thicker voters can tell them apart. You can probably even get a mug with David Cameron's face on, should you be so inclined. The other comparison with football is that most people are just not interested and don't understand it. Like the people who think football is some dark tribal rite, people who don't 'do' politics think politicians are all the same so there is no point in voting, and they have a point.

John Bercow displaying his new outfit. 

 If you were to take a poll you would find there are a significant number of people who can't name the prime minister never mind the rest of the cabinet. If they are serious about generating interest in politics they need to go a step further and wear their names just like in football so the general public can identify them, make up rhymes and hurl astute political comment and wittiness at them. Some would say politics is just an excuse for public school hooliganism anyway.