David Maddox: A question of values

While much of the world has been gripped by the events leading up to the inauguration of the USA's first black president, most of the rest have been engrossed in the week's other the big story - Manchester City's offer to buy a young Brazilian called Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, otherwise known as Kaka (pictured), a former world footballer of the year, for £108 million from AC Milan.
So what better time for a delegation of journalists from the Italian region of Lombardy (capital city: Milan) to visit the Scottish Parliament? There is no shortage of football mad MSPs, so when they arrive on Thursday they will no doubt have to field some questions about this subject of world importance.
But the saga does raise some interesting questions about values - both monetary and political. Not least because Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the owner of AC Milan, dashed back from the Gaza Peace summit to deal with the world record breaking transfer deal and to try to placate angry Rossoneri (AC Milan fans).
While Edinburgh recently saw hundreds on the streets protesting about Israel's bombardment of Gaza, hundreds protested for the last two nights in Milan about Kaka's possible departure. It's a question of priorities and serves as a lesson to never under-estimate the powerful mix of football, sport and politics.
However, the affair poses the inevitable question of what £108 million would be worth. After all spending so much on a luxury does seem a bit distasteful in the current economic climate.
Kaka is well known for his devout Christian faith so the Church of Scotland may be pleased it could just afford him with its annual collection plate take of £108 million (2007 figures).
The sum would also build around 20 primary schools or one seventeenth of a new Forth Bridge.
Manchester City were apparently proposing to pay the 26-year-old £26 million a year. So one Kaka is roughly the equivalent of 945 teachers (based on current average pay), assuming there were any jobs for them in Scotland, or 455 MSPs (let's face it 129 are more than enough!), 290 GPs, 345 dentists or 27 failed banking chiefs (based on former HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby's basic salary).
But, while these analogies are always drawn when the latest story about an exhorbatant transfer fee for a footballer comes around, we have to remember that we still live in a market economy, even if our banks are being nationalised, and it is the market (which is morally neutral) that decides the value of jobs.
No doubt, though, in the ever decreasing circles of the debate in Scotland over how to fund capital projects, the SNP would approve of Manchester City's plan to buy an asset using direct capital receipts from an oil fund. No PFI or borrowing here.
As I finish this blog, I hear the heartening (for a Milan fan rather than a Man City one) news that Kaka and the AC Milan officials have decided to go with their hearts and, unusually in football, not follow the ridiculous sums of money. The deal with Manchester City is off, but no doubt the young man can comfort himself with his £9 million annual salary set to increase to £12 million by 2013.
And just to underline the importance of sport to the careers of politicians, Mr Berlusconi has announced the details on national television, most of which he owns anyway.