An interesting article in the weekend FT Magazine traced the story of Demon Eyes, an amateur football team that provided an unintentional networking device for many young men who rose within New Labour. It led one female Blairite to complain of a 'new lad culture' within New Labour with the bonding confined to males.
The article notes that 'A demonstrable and genuine interest in football - a phoney can be spotted a mile off - remains an essential tool for those working in and around Labour politics.' So I would be all right.
The Major Conservative government included football fans in the two top positions: John Major (Chelsea) and Kenneth Clarke (Forest). David Mellor was also Chelsea (having at one time been Fulham), but chants at grounds alleged that he did unmentionable things in the team's kit.
The Notting Hill Conservatives have little interest in fooball with Dave Cameron preferring tennis. George Osborne feels that he and Dave run offices that feel a lot less like a locker room than Brown's No.10 operation.
But what would be the sport of choice of the Lib Dems (for the Plaid it's clearly rugby)? It would have to be a relatively obscure minority sport. One in which being a team player didn't matter very much, perhaps combining a love of remote rural areas.
All that points to the only sport in which I was anything approaching a competitor: orienteering. But perhaps others can think of something more suitable?
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