A YouTube clip from Sky Sports’ Jeff Stelling stating the obvious, reiterating my point about the North East and Teesside in particular. But much much more energetically, vehemently, vigorously, convincingly and funny.
For those of you not acquainted with the mighty, God almighty, Jeff Stelling: he is the last gentleman among football journalists (and among ex-footballers on Sky’s Soccer Saturday), the best sports presenter in England by a million miles and male/female broadsheet, especially The Guardian, readers’ thinking man/woman’s crumpet. He is also from Hartlepool, near Middlesbrough … .
“Look this is not a rant … They have Babyshambles as a ring tone … call their mushy peas ‘guacamole’ … that survey is put together by wheat-free cake-eating … ” and then he stops at (The) Guardian (readers), therewith deliberately undermining his own Fleet Street streetcred. Not many people about in the British media nowadays who are simply superb at their job without taking themselves serious.
To put this into context, his is a reply to a ’survey’ (10 persons? 50? 250? 10,000? 500,000? 56 million???? No one knows) conducted by a programme on Channel 4, a British television channel. A survey in which Middlesbrough topped the list of the worst place to live in England. Maybe even Britain, but who cares? Well, apart from all the people living there, I do. So did Jeff Stelling:
