HOW COULD I EVER DOUBT IT?

Well, maybe not Lou Reed perfect, as a couple of things brought a couple of downers but nevertheless a very good day.

For a start, Manchester United were soundly beaten by Everton, where the boy Rooney had his upbringing, bursting onto the Premiership scene with much badge kissing and assertions that he was an Evertonian for life. And then he went off to Old Trafford. And this evening, our old friends from down the M27, the blue few of Portsmouth, lost at home to Stoke City to cement their rightful place at the foot of the Premier League table. Meanwhile, the Saints went to Norfolk and beat Norwich City 2-0 to inflict league leaders Norwich`s first home defeat since the first game of the season. Wycombe away on Tuesday, then Walsall at home next Saturday. Heady days indeed. No, really.

And I don`t know, but I may at last have stumbled on a political party that suits me. Not the Tories, not the LibDems and most certainly not `new` Labour. Nothing extreme or nasty but an outfit that talks my language - the English Democrats!! Now I haven`t studied them or their policies at all carefully, but from the report I heard of their `conference` held today in a modest venue in Doncaster, they, like me, are fed up with England being run by a Scottish Prime Minister, a Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer and loads of other Scots in the Government. They don`t like uncontrolled immigration, they are opposed to `political correctness` and they want out of the EU. And they want the same devolved powers and an Assembly or Parliament for England, the same as those already enjoyed by the Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish. Of course, I know they`re not going to win the General Election and they might not even win one seat, but I suspect that if I vote for them at least it will make me feel better.

There have been a couple of downers today, one being the Winter weather which just goes on and on and the other being the launch of Labour`s election campaign, marked by a slogan that defies belief and headed by a grinning, self-satisfied, robotic Gordon Brown. So the discovery of the English Democrats has lightened the political gloom and that discovery might turn out to be just as satisfying, if not more so, than today`s results at Goodison Park, Krap Nottarf and Carrow Road. Maybe there is a God after all - how could I ever doubt it?