Talking football Politicians proud to wear Hearts on their sleeve

Yes, they sing the Hearts Song - at least according to George Foulkes, chairman of the club who lead the Scottish Premier League after a quarter of the title campaign. Foulkes, aka Baron Foulkes of Cumnock and formerly a junior minister in the department for international development, reports a cross-party consensus of approval for the Tynecastle team's achievements.

Jambos, as Hearts adherents style themselves, are abundant in Westminster, apparently. "There's Charlie Falconer, the Lord Chancellor,'' according to Foulkes. "Lord McAuley of Bragar is a season-ticket holder and in the Other Place, Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP, is a Jambo.''

The Prime Minister, too? "Well, Tony said to me at conference, 'Your team's doing well'. And he did go to school in Edinburgh, after all,'' Foulkes added. The PM prudently stopped short of comparing George Burley's team of today with previous incarnations. However, the most obvious point of reference is the side of 1985-86, a season etched painfully in the souls of Jambos who can never forget that their team came within 16 minutes of winning the Scottish championship. Yet there are more differences than similarities in these campaigns, divided by 20 years.

Burley's players have 26 points from a possible 30; Alex McDonald's took a mere eight from 27 after the first quarter of their season.

The tide turned, imperceptibly at first, with a 1-1 draw at home to Dundee, the team who were to prove so fatefully intertwined with Hearts' fortunes that season. From the meeting with Dundee on Oct 5 1985 until their final match of the season against the same opponents on May 3 the following year, Hearts ran up an astonishing 27 league games without defeat - 30 without loss including their Scottish Cup fixtures.
They had only to draw at Dens Park on the last day to take the title but their virus-riddled side conceded two goals to Albert Kidd in the last 16 minutes as Celtic edged past on goal difference with a 5-0 victory at St Mirren.

Burley continues to proclaim that Hearts cannot win the SPL title this season. It is Parliament's privilege to disagree.

THOSE of us who possess what is disparagingly (but usually accurately) known as "a good face for radio'' are generally surprised when we are accosted by strangers who somehow recognise us from that medium. One such occurrence happened to me in an Italian restaurant close to Hibs' Easter Road stadium nine years ago.
A neatly dressed man in his 60s approached, apologised for intruding and said that he enjoyed my contributions on the radio. I invited him to sit and we chatted for a few minutes, during which time it became apparent that this polite and dapper individual knew something about football.

I asked if he had been a player. "Yes,'' he replied, "though perhaps not everyone thought so.''
At which point it dawned that - in a classic example of how the natural order may be perverted - the personable and courteous man who had come to me to pay his respects was none other than Johnny Haynes. Curious, then, to read in yesterday's Daily Telegraph obituary that as a player he "could be petulant in his dealings with journalists''.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk