Everyone loves change. It’s at least as good as a rest.
This is an observation rather than a political statement, but it seems to me that the struggles of the Better Together campaign in the Independence referendum are based simply on the fact they’re opposing change.
Of course the campaign for the union is negative, it has to be; they want people to say No. It’s always far more easy to say Yes, I’m for change.
To get back to my comfort zone of sport REALLY quickly, there has been a clamour for change in Scottish rugby of late.
It really started after the Calcutta Cup “nilling” by England in the RBS 6 Nations, which was a curious tipping point in itself. Somehow it’s okay to lose at home to Tonga, on neutral ground to Samoa, get “nilled” by South Africa at home, and be horsewhipped by Ireland, but score no points against a pretty decent England team, and that’s suddenly intolerable.
Like everywhere else, everyone in Scottish Rugby seem to like the idea of change after the mauling by England. Indeed, a group calling itself Change For Scottish Rugby was formed and got some media attention.
I have no doubt the people involved in this group have the very best of intentions. They want to improve Scottish rugby, clearly. They set up a website which got lots of traffic, their facebook page got plenty of likes and comments very quickly, and their tweets got retweeted widely. There was certainly a reaction to their call to arms, and was probably roundly representative of the mood at the time.
They even got a meeting with SRU chief executive Mark Dodson. This was actually quite generous of Dodson, who had every right to ask them exactly who they claimed to represent.
Because at least he can say, I’m an appointee of the clubs that form the Scottish Rugby Union. I’m accountable, and if I don’t do my job properly, they’ll sack me.
All CFSR seem to be representing was a general and vague mood of discontent borne of losing to England – which, let’s face it, we should be well used to by now. Yes, they got hundreds of likes and retweets, but you’ll have to get something a bit more than a collection of computer clicks to constitute a revolutionary movement. I’m not so sure that vague mood even exists anymore, just three months later.
And exactly what kind of change is being asked for here?
Part of the problem with Scottish Rugby historically and especially in the modern era has been the conflicting directions people want the game to go. Everyone wants to change the culture, but never their specific part of the culture, it’s always someone else’s.
There’s no unanimous view on what should be changed, and there never will be. Even now, in the debate about where the windfall from BT will go, nobody is agreed on anything, not even on whether getting £20 million for two initials ahead of `Murrayfield’ is a good thing.
Some want a third pro team. Some want a semi-pro club league, some want the district championship relaunched. Some want the debt wiped out. Everybody wants grassroots to be helped, but nobody’s really agreed on how we should do it.
And they’ll never agree. Twenty years on, we still hear strident voices decrying why Scottish rugby chose pro teams rather than traditional clubs or districts to forward professionalism. Whether it was the right decision or not is utterly irrelevant in 2014; we are where we are now.
When the decision was made, a large number of those “disenfranchised” acted liked spoiled brats, many actively choosing their own small bit of the culture and turning their backs on the whole. Many significant mistakes were made by the Union in professionalism, but this widespread attitude didn’t help matters one bit.
The best letter or email I received this season about Scottish rugby summed up the best way forward. It was from an ordinary fan, who tried to get along to his local club, often lugged himself out of bed on Sundays to take the kids to minis, and bought tickets for Murrayfield when he could.
He didn’t manage to do all these things religiously, he wrote. But, he added, if everyone who cared or claims to care about Scottish rugby was PARTICIPATING – supporting their club, pro team and internationals, helping at minis, playing if you can – then we probably wouldn’t have a problem at all.
That, at least, we can surely agree on.