Express & Star

Cathy Dobbs: Don't be a tweeting twit - choose happiness

Cathy Dobbs’ weekly look at life.

Published
Beth Mead lifts the trophy during a fan celebration in Trafalgar Square to commemorate England'€™s Euro 2022 triumph

It’s good to see Gary Lineker has amended his most famous saying. After England was knocked out by Germany in the semi-finals of Italia '90 he said: “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”

On Sunday evening he tweeted: “Football is a simple game. 22 women chase a ball for 90 minutes and, at the end, England actually win.”

It was good to chat with a friend and discover we have two rare things in common – we’ve never played the Lottery, and never watched EastEnders. The Lottery, because we understand probability. EastEnders, because of the storylines.

Another thing I try not to do is look at Twitter as it tends to be filled with confused, angry people.

Take Gary Lineker’s post on Sunday evening, it didn’t take long before comments appeared from ‘Those That are Desperate to be Offended’. This included “What kind of backhanded congrat is this. Never heard it be called simple on MoTD” and “That’s a patronising comment. They just won a Euro final”,

Each one was corrected by condescending Twitterers, which descended into name calling and jibes. While all this ranting was going on I was still dancing around the sitting room with my nine-year-old cheering ‘We Won’.

If you have to choose between happiness and social media, always choose happiness.

Talking of Twitter, let’s not forget what Boris said in his Hasta La Vista Baby speech. The advice to his successor was “It’s not Twitter that counts. It’s the people that sent us here.”

So, while a few people on Twitter loved Joe Lycett’s dig at the government during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, there were plenty that did not.

Most of us were thankful to Birmingham for pulling out all the stops to show how modern, fun and quirky we are. It was refreshing to escape the negativity and see everyone on our screens being positive. I wish Birmingham could adopt Michael McIntyre. He would have done a much better job and made us ALL laugh – not just the Twits on Twitter.

When it comes to positivity, it’s those that are actually involved in the games that have it – and by the bucket load

If you haven’t got tickets, go online now and snap up some of the available seats. Not only will your ticket give you free transport across the West Midlands, it will also allow you to experience the excitement of seeing world-class sport, all in your own backyard.