The New Football Season

The 2012 American Football season kicks off today with Dallas Cowboys playing the New York Giants – as many readers of this blog will know (and the title might give a clue), I’m a Washington Redskins fan. Their first game is on Sunday in New Orleans.

I’m a subscriber to NFL’s Game Pass – so most Sunday evenings I’ll be watching like on my Desktop computer – or more likely these days – on my iPad. Should I be otherwise engaged (for example during the Sunday evening of the Labour Party Conference, I can watch later. Being the total nerd that I am, I will have my recently purchased “2012 Official NFL Record and Fact Book” at my side.

I also have on my iPhone and iPad the “NFL ’12” and “Official Redskins Feedr” Apps – and of course – as is my practice – I read the sports news in the Washington Post (also through an iPad App.

What is it that I find interesting about this game? It was the references to American Football in political speeches which first attracted my interest (Nixon and Reagan often made references!), but I enjoy the strategic aspects of the game – (hopefully) marching up the field using a series of carefully planned moves – each team trying to outsmart the other. In many ways so much like politics. I even keep my own “playbook” – plays that have been used in Parliament, and particularly Congress (where the scope for innovative procedural tactics is much greater) in order to advance or halt legislative progress.



Are you an American Football fan? Which team do you support? If you'd like to tell fellow readers of Washminster what attracts you to the game - or why you support a particular team - drop me a short piece on jdavidmorgan@washminster.com - which I can then repost here.

Revision for Exams

Below is a video I prepared for my OU Law students last year. Well exams again loom - so, if you have exams coming up - you might find this useful.

Carr and Morgan on the Republican Convention

This is a recording (with pictures) of the interview former Congressman Bob Carr and I did last Friday following Mitt Romney's speech at the Republican Convention. The BBC Presenter is Stuat Linnell.

Britain and the American Civil War

As long time members of the Washminster Community know, I am fascinated by the American Civil War (and very grateful to my friend John Dickert for taking me to so many of the battlefields.) Last week C-SPAN rebroadcast a very interesting programme about Britain's role in the US Civil War. Many Brits served in the opposing armies - and of course the war was of great interest to policy makers and politicians in London (to say nothing of manufacturers and their workers, particularly in the North and the Midlands).

The programme can be accessed at

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BritainsRo

Welcome back...

... to the Washminster Blog. Summer, sadly, is now over [though it hasn't been a great one in the UK] - and a busy Autumn (or Fall) beckons. So Washminster will be publishing posts about


- The US elections – which are on November 6th
- The British parliamentary scene – the House of Commons returns this week, and the Coalition must face Parliament after a stormy summer
- British party conferences during September and October
- Forthcoming exams for my Open Students – but all are welcome to read my revision pieces about the British Constitution; English legal System; EU Law and Criminal Law
- The new American Football season
- The conclusion of the Baseball season – which has been pretty spectacular for the Washington Nationals
- And much, much more…

Please do contact me if there are any subjects you’d like to see posts on – or have a contribution you’d like to make.