The Lothian Question

Jerome Thomas last year

Hibernian 3 Charlton 2

It is a few days since this game, but what with marking exams in the run-in to the end of the summer course yesterday, I have been a bit pushed for time, although that isn't the only reason. There are times when the general idea is there, but it is hard to find a decent title. And this week, I was a bit stuck for anything much to say, and although I had thought of making some kind of reference to the Edinburgh Festival, which is almost topical, I couldn't really work it in with what happened, and then The Inspector went and used the idea, anyway.

Abandoning the Festival idea, my next thought was to call the piece 'Randolph Crescent'. This is a thoroughfare in the centre of Edinburgh which houses (or did) the YWCA, which has a theatre in which many years ago I appeared along with other members of my University drama group in a fringe show; and one of Charlton's goalkeepers is Darren Randolph, you see, but then, the link was pretty tenuous and in the end Darren didn't play in the match, anyway.

And then I remembered Janis at work a while back asking if anyone knew what the Lothian Question was, as it was something that had come up in her Political Philosophy Ph.D., which she was doing in her spare time when her teaching, her husband and her son allowed her to, and this gave me my title, and a hook to hang the piece on, as well.

The Lothian Question is the one about whether, now that Scotland has its own parliament passing laws about what can and cannot (mostly cannot) happen in Scotland, Westminster MPs representing Scottish constituencies ought to be allowed to vote on matters purely concerning England.

I don't think they ought to, but they don't see anything wrong with it, so that's the way things are and will probably stay. That need not concern us here, though, but it does remind me of a topic which crops up regularly about twice a year: that Rangers and Celtic be allowed to secede from their league and join the Premiership, where they would enjoy stiffer competition, and do better in Europe and so forth.

When this is mentioned, as it is in the press every year, many people declare themselves to be in favour of the idea, stating, as someone did last year, that the Prem would be a lot more 'fun' if Rangers and Celtic were allowed in, and boring clubs like Fulham and Charlton were chucked out to make room for them. This writer asked us to imagine a Rangers v Newcastle Premiership fixture and seemed to think that in so doing he had proved his point beyond argument.

Actually I can't think of anything more boring than Rangers playing Newcastle, but then unlike the English media I do not find Newcastle United interesting, nor have for the last 50-odd years during which they have won practically nothing. (I know Charlton haven't, either, but we don't go banging on about how Great Big we are all the time).

Others point out that it is one thing to run away with a league like the SPL, and quite another to be in the Premiership, and suggest that Rangers and Celtic might not survive there. Others still, say, and these are the ones I agree with, that if Rangers and Celtic want to play in the English leagues, then they should apply for membership of the Conference and work their way up.

For if truth be known, it is not known whether the standards of Scottish football are the same as English. Celtic and one or two other teams do get a run out in Europe, and do progress a bit, but it is not easy to know how they would manage in the English league. Of course people point to the huge numbers of supporters the Glasgow clubs can command, but so what? The matches still have to be won. You can't expect to be handed league titles, as I have said before in connection with Leeds and Newcastle, just because you have a lot of supporters; if that were the case all this needless football could be done away with and points awarded according to how many fans the clubs could sign up.

So, finally getting to the point, it was interesting that Charlton should continue their pre-season games with a visit to Edinburgh to play Hibs. Would it be a real contest, or would Hibs prove to be superior, or would Charlton run away with it?

The final score was a bit of a reverse, as Charlton had been 0-2 up at one point and then the the half time score was 1-2. News of the game was hard to come by, though I did manage to listen to two laddies from the Hibs fans' website commentating on the game; I found this near the end, when the score was by now 3-2. They thought Hibs had looked good, and in fairness as it was the Hibs fans' website, that was all they were bothered about, especially with their season about to start. But the scoreline doesn't tell Charlton fans anything. Hibs used their usual side, but made a good few changes, OK. But Dowie replaced everyone at half time, except James Walker, and brought on a lot of untried youngsters who were thought to have done well, considering. So I submit that nothing has been proved about football's Lothian Question, not by this game at any rate.

Bad news was that Jerome Thomas broke a bone in his foot, and thus did not travel out here to Spain, where earlier on this evening Charlton kicked off in the late Saturday heat for an away fixture against Valencia.

Finding news of this is not easy either as the usual score update pages don't do friendlies, and Spanish TV isn't carrying the game, either.

But I finally located the end of the commentary on BBC London, and can thus report:

Late Score: Valencia 3 Charlton 1 (Sorondo)