The beautiful game

There are some lovely parodies on public.interest.co.uk as our leading political commentators look ahead to the World Cup. Examples include:

Polly Toynbee: Ignore the tabloids. They can drape themselves in the flag of Saint George and fantasise like adolescent boys about a resurgent England, but the fact is there is only one team from Group B who have any chance of winning: Sweden.
Sir William Rees-Mogg: I fully expect England to win the World Cup, with or without Wayne Rooney. All the indicators suggest that they will beat Argentina 3-1. Steven Gerrard will score a hotly-disputed penalty two minutes from the end of the first half, John Terry will get a near post header on the stroke of 60 minutes, with Theo Walcott coming on as a substitute on the seventy-first minute and scoring with his first touch. The Argentinians will get one back in injury time but by then it will all be too late.
Peter Hitchens: Along with most children of my age, I used to play football every afternoon after school. Every Saturday too, my father would take my brother and I along to White Hart Lane to watch Danny Blanchflower play. There were no obscene chanting then, let alone any hooligans, and we were safe to walk home, on our own, without a care in the world in our tweed suits and ties.

Thanks to Mr Eugenides.