I wonder, should we be surprised at the fuss caused by the appointment of Paolo di Canio as manager of Sunderland Football Club? His alleged political beliefs whether true or false have caused all sorts of outrage amongst the public and press and have led to Durham miners demanding the return from the club of a Trades Union banner (as though it were some sort of religious relic) and the resignation from the Sunderland board of the opportunistic ex-politician, David Miliband. It is all complete and utter nonsense but, no, we should not be surprised.

I’m afraid that this is just another example of our liberal national press whipping up a section of the population (usually referred to as a mob) into a state of righteous indignation at the thought that anybody with right wing leanings should achieve any level of power or influence. Such hypocrisy; and I thought we lived in a democracy!

Even if Di Canio is a Fascist- sympathising-Mussolini-loving-Roman-saluting crackpot with tattoos to match how on earth does that affect his ability to manage a football team?  Is he going to dress his players in Nazi uniforms and parade them, goose-stepping, on the pitch before each match?

No, of course he’s not. He is a football manager and nothing else. If I were a supporter of that football club I wouldn’t give two hoots about his beliefs unless, of course, he were to use his position to incite criminal activity. So far as I am aware, it is not an offence to harbour and express unsavoury beliefs no matter how far they might gravitate to the right or the left, though I have a sneaking suspicion that if his views were the latter rather than the former the fuss might not be so great.

Di Canio may or may not be a nasty bit of work with some wacko beliefs but if those beliefs don’t get in the way of his job shouldn’t we just leave him alone and judge him solely on how well he does that job? As for the press, haven’t they got better things to do? I understand there’s a bit of a crisis in North Korea at the moment.