Times Change

We had our chimney swept yesterday and the sweep found a newspaper that had been stuffed up the chimney some time since the last time the chimneys were swept.

The headline referred to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's maiden budget. The paper in question was the London Evening News and Star. The Chancellor had inherited a £800 million deficit, which he said was "disturbing". The chancellor's name was James Callaghan and the paper was dated November 1964.

The back page, by the way, went on about how badly Leyton Orient were doing so I don't suppose everything's changed. (Although if the paper was a year later, I believe Northampton Town would have been enjoying their one and only season in the top flight.

Not related to sweeping but still with football, I was reading about the so-called Matthews final, when Blackpool won the FA Cup 5-3. Stan Mortensen scored a hattrick for Blackpool but despite that, it was still "the Matthews Final". When Stan finally died, some joker was heard to say at his wake, "I bet they'll be calling this the Matthews Funeral".