Once again this week we have the sad and shocking news that there has been another murder in Bilston.  Another family grieving, another life snuffed out before its time.

My thoughts go the family of the victim, Tom Berry, a father of two children.

Bilston has seen too many violent deaths in recent years.  As well as this week’s killing, a man shot dead at the Tropical Harmony nightclub, a man shot dead outside Gavin’s Sports bar and another man killed near the bus station.

The people of Bilston do not want this violent crime on their streets.  Bilston has been through tough economic times in recent years and the people have stayed strong.

It is important at this time that we work together – politicians, police, and people to stand up for the decent values of the community so that the people of Bilston can go about their lives without these killings on our streets

In these pages the other day I wrote about the joy of the 1974 Dutch team and how they had brought Total Football to the world.  It inclined me towards Holland in the final, in memory of what their predecessors had done for football.  But it didn’t take long in last night’s World Cup final to see that the inheritors of that tradition are not today’s Dutch team, but Spain.  

It was Spain who tried to play attractive football. And the Netherlands who seemed intent on kicking them into submission.  Van Bommell and De Jong were fortunate to still be on the park at half time and perhaps would have been dismissed by a less tolerant referee.  Howard Webb had a good game but it seemed he didn’t want to send a player off in a World Cup final and only did so very late in the game.  I’m not sure why the Dutch players were complaining at the end.  He could have been a lot tougher on some their players.

The way the Holland of today played – as distinct from in the past – it would have been a shame if they had won.  Football isn’t just about the final score.  It’s about the spirit in which the game is played, the joy that this brings to those watching.  And with their patient passing and fluid movement Spain are playing the game in the right way.  They were worthy winners.

Closer to home, on Friday evening I met up with some young players from JCT of Punjab who were spending a week training with Wolves.  The trip was the brainchild of the brilliant Punjabi Wolves supporters club and stems from the Wolverhampton India project I helped set up a few years ago.  They brought their coach, Palminder Singh who played many games for his country over a 10 year international career.  I hope both players and coach got something out of the trip and that it helps football to grow and develop in India.  Well done to Punjabi Wolves and to the two clubs for making it possible.

On Friday I also attended the Summer Fayre at Wilkinson Primary school and the 80^th birthday celebrations for Loxdale school, though I resisted participation in the karaoke.

World Cups age you.  Like a clock that ticks once every four years, we can remember the first time we became aware of the World Cup and the defining moments in each one since. Maradona’s hand of God, Gazza’s tears, Frank Riikard spitting in Rudi Voller’s face, the French triumph of 98, Zidane’s head butt of 2006.

The first World Cup I remember was Germany 1974.  Billy Bremner holding the game up against Zaire, anxious to hold on to a 2-0 lead and bank the (then) two points for a win.  But whatever the domestic concerns, the main memory of that tournament was the wonderful Dutch team of Cruyff, Neeskins and the rest.

Built on the brilliant Ajax team of the time which had won the European Cup three times in the early 1970s, this group of players played with such skill and joy it has stayed with me forever.  Total Football they called it.  Every player in attack.  Every player in defence. 

And at the heart of it all, the magnificent Cruyff.  Passing, movement and skill like I had never seen.  It was like a different sport.  And they captured the hearts of every neutral.

Despite it all they lost in the final but of course, you can never write off the Germans…

For a Scottish lad of 13, 1978 will be remembered for ridiculous hype before the competition then coming down to earth with a bump by getting beat against Peru,  drawing with Iran and then the magical moment provided by Archie Gemmill scoring what most people agree was the best goal in the history of the national team.  But again the bigger story of the tournament was the Dutch team, and again they lost, this time to Argentina, in the final.

And so fast forward to Sunday night.  What of this World Cup?  African teams on the whole did poorly though Ghana’s denial by hand ball of a place in the semi final was heartbreaking.  It seemed for a time that “old Europe” was fading, that the crown would pass back to South America.  England, France and Italy all came home early.  Yet in the end the last two standing are the Netherlands and Spain, the creators of Total Football and the team who perhaps today more than any other embody the beauty of passing football.  

Simon Kuper, author of “Football: Against the Enemy” and consistently the best commentator throughout this World Cup, has traced the genealogy of this passing culture through Cruyff, Louis Van Gaal and the clubs of Ajax and Barcelona.  A Dutch philosophy adopted by the Catalan club who have won the Champions League twice in the past four years.  And watching Barcelona in the first 20 minutes of the Barcelona Arsenal quarter final at the Emirates stadium was the best display of passing and movement I have seen in years.  Football has a mesmerising flow of pass and move, pass and move.

And so on Sunday evening, when I sit down to watch I will admire both teams.  But as I said, World Cups age you and for those childhood memories of Total Football, for lighting up the childhood of people around my age, for Cruyff’s team and for all the joy it gave, in the end for me on Sunday it will be Hup Holland Hup.

Yesterday in Parliament, the Secretary of State for Education made a statement about the future of the Building Schools for the Future programme.  This was the programme introduced by the Labour Government to refurbish or replace every secondary school in England.  It is the biggest school building programme since Victorian times.

In our constituency, the programme includes plans for refurbishment of Colton Hills School, Moseley Park and Deansfield and the replacement of Parkfield and Bilston schools with a new build City Academy.

Shortly after the recent election, I wrote to the Secretary of state asking what the future was for local schools and whether he would stand by the commitment made to this constituency by the Labour Government.

Although many school projects were stopped yesterday in the latest round of cuts announced by the Government, we have been told that the Wolverhampton projects will be unaffected by yesterday’s announcement.

I take this to mean that the refurbishment of schools and the new build that Labour planned for our constituency will go ahead.  This is important in increasing opportunity for local young people.  We have to get standards up and lift the levels of both ambition and achievement in local schools if local young people are to get the chances in life that they deserve.  It is important now that the council, the government, and the schools themselves work to press ahead with the changes and the investment needed to make this happen.

Second day soup often tastes better.  I think a chemistry teacher at school once explained the reason to me but I have forgotten it now.

I was reminded of second day soup when I heard about the announcement from Government that they are launching a website for people to suggest which laws they want abolished.

It reminded me of the time in 2006 when I launched just such a facility on the better Regulation website.  Businesses or members of the public could use a portal to suggest which laws to be abolished.  Departments had to examine the suggestions and respond to the person within, if my memory serves me right, forty days.

Every year we would publish a list of things we were getting rid of like not requiring small businesses to hold an AGM, not requiring planning permission for a second satellite dish, getting rid of out of date licenses and so on.

Today we have an announcement of a website where the public can suggest which laws to… well, you get the picture.

Now I want to stick up for a much maligned breed here – the government press officers and spin doctors who are often accused of costing a lot but not doing much.  But they have done a good job of convincing media outlets that this second day soup is a new announcement.  However, you’re only as good as your last gig and having set the bar, I will be looking for similar inventiveness in selling more second day soup in the future.

Yesterday the Cabinet met in Yorkshire.  I remember the Labour Government being criticised for meeting outside London but let’s leave that aside.

The key announcement made on the day was the establishment of a £1bn regional growth fund to be spent over two years.  The Prime Minister then referred to this growth fund at Prime Minister’s Questions as evidence for the Government’s support for the regions.

At the same time, the Government said it would abolish all Regional Development Agencies and have in their place Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Let’s consider the numbers on this.

Currently, RDAs are spending around £1.5bn per year.  So over two years they would spend around £3 bn per year.

If the new fund is in addition to that level of RDA spending it would of course be welcome.  But if it’s instead of it, it would mean less support for the regions.

I have had no clear answer on this but the Government has had 24 hours to say this is new money and hasn’t done so.  It therefore looks very much like this is simply shifting a declining RDA budget into a new pot.

So what can we expect next?  Huge university cuts with a “university fund” unveiled as supposedly extra support?  The research budget chopped with a new research fund people can bid for?  This could catch on all across government.

On the policy itself, it looks like CLG have won a turf war with BIS.  Previously, Ministers had suggested RDAs may be kept in some regions if that was what business wanted.  No longer.  Now they are all to be abolished.  The suspicion has to be that CLG, under budget pressure, saw the chance to “repatriate” their contribution to the RDA single pot and offer a smaller chunk to local authorities.  And so a Whitehall budgeting exercise comes to be dressed up as localism.

And what this means is that the government are now consulting having effectively ruled out an option they said would be on the table.  They have made many claims about overheads, getting spending closer to local areas etc.  Some local authorities will be good at economic development but others less so.  And it remains to be seen how business will feel about trying to negotiate projects with numerous local councils instead of a single regional body.  But that’s the future they face – more players but less money.