You wouldn’t bring a British flag to an England match … #Anthem4England

! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.

The rugby world cup has started so it’s time for the obligatory whinge about the English RFU using the British national anthem to represent England.

You wouldn’t bring a British flag to an England match so why would you sing the British national anthem?

You wouldn't take a British flag to an England match

11 comments

  1. Old Albion (4 comments) says:

    I agree Re. the anthem. However, some still do bring Union flags to English events Wonko. More so English football, but it happens across the board. Further education needed.

    • wonkotsane (1133 comments) says:

      You got the odd tit that takes the wrong flag but 99.9% of people know that they’re supporting England and that means the English flag, not British. Time to start harassing the RFU again I think.

      • ThreeLionsThreeSeaxes (3 comments) says:

        Do those people fly the wrong flag because they’re too stupid or stubborn to get with the programme? Or is it because they’re Brit plants? When you consider that the British state is one giant dirty tricks department (just look at Westminster’s shabby referendum campaign in Scotland last year, as an example), I wouldn’t rule out the second possibility, but it’s more likely the first. As Old Albion says, more education is needed, but that means those of us who are more enlightened persuading the less enlightened, rather than being abusive. It also might help if certain sports governing bodies remembered that they govern their particular sports in England, rather than the entire kingdom

  2. SJ NM (5 comments) says:

    Let’s have an Anthem for England. No problem with that.

    But you know how it works – the people who currently moan about England using the UK anthem will be the first to complain about the idea of there being an English anthem – “what does it mean to be English anyway?”, “but such an anthem would alienate the ethnic minority communities in England”, “an English anthem would be a jingoistic, xenophobic, retrograde step”, or “such an anthem should address the darker side of English history”, etc etc.

    There is a significant block of opinion out there that is anti-England and anti-English no matter what.

    • wonkotsane (1133 comments) says:

      You’re not wrong Steve.

    • Stan (222 comments) says:

      Well as a leftie and proud of being both English and British, I can’t see any reason why we can’t have an English national anthem. There is nothing xenophobic about being patriotic.
      Personally I would prefer “Jerusalem”, which is both beautiful and moving(and I say that as an atheist)

      • SJ NM (5 comments) says:

        Well as a leftie you should be aware that in much of the “progressive” left the England flag already has nationalistic, far-right connotations.

        http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/26/patriot-games-battle-for-flag-of-st-george-english-identity

        It’s always the same. People complained about England fans using the Union Jack, because that is the British flag and it’s unfair for the English to claim it exclusively for themselves. But even that isn’t good enough, since now the English fly the “correct” flag lefties still moan about the CoSG – because the flag is “too English”, or “not English enough”, or whatever.

        Whichever way you look at it there is no pleasing the “progressive”; they object to the very notion of Englishness, and it doesn’t matter what flags we fly, anthems we sing or saint’s days we celebrate. It’s English, so they hate it.

        • Stan (222 comments) says:

          It’s not the flag that matters to me, it’s attitudes of the people who wave them that’s important. A flag is just a piece of cloth.

          According to Graham Bartram – vexillologist, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations and author of British Flags and Emblems – the Cross of St George only became widely used by English sports fans during Euro 96.
          It was only because Scotland qualified that the English fans realised that waving their usual Union Flag meant they were supporting both teams and that was the point that the George cross became popular for sports fans.

          Personally I think that it’s great to be English and living in a country with a patron saint who was born in Turkey, the son of a Roman soldier and a Palistinian, and whose flag was nicked from the Republic of Genoa. It represents what a truly mongrel and multicultural race we are.

          • SJ NM (5 comments) says:

            Yur use of the term “mongrel” to describe the English is a racial slur.

            I have no interest in talking to the likes of you.

          • Stan (222 comments) says:

            So I’m racist against myself? Interesting seeing as I love my country.

            I think I’ll reserve the right to call myself what I damn well please thank you very much.

  3. William Gruff (138 comments) says:

    Upsetting ourselves over flags when we should be working towards the development of an English political identity seems pointless. I couldn’t care less what flags people take to sporting conquests. My sense of self as an Englishman is not formed by flags or sporting prowess. If Englishmen and women wish to fly the union flag at ‘British’ sporting tournaments let them do so and stop whining.

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