Like many, I have been fairly avidly watching England's progress in the Euro2020 championship. Since being a teenage supporter of Ipswich Town when they were in their glory days under Bobby Robson I have always enjoyed good football. And, odd matches apart, the Euros have supplied that.
They have also done two other things. One is that they have supplied good refereeing, the quality of which has usually been exemplary, although Sterling was lucky to be awarded that penalty. The benefit of excellent regulation has been very apparent in this tournament.
The other delight has been the very obvious consistency in England's approach to inequality throughout the tournament. The government thinks Southgate ‘deep woke'. I think they are right. He is. And rightly so. He leads a deeply multicultural team representing a deeply multicultural country. Many have done that. But Southgate clearly believes that this imposes a special responsibility on him, over and above that to deliver results on the field.
The result is obvious. The team take the knee because Southgate sets the tone, I am sure. But he liberates them to show their commitment to each other. In turn that liberates Harry Kane to show his support for Pride, which was so powerful. And it provides Marcus Rashford the confidence to become the spokesperson he is becoming.
Don't dismiss Gary Lineker's comments either.
And in case that is thought to be the woke BBC at work this was Gary Neville on ITV last night, taking a direct swipe at Boris Johnson and the poor quality of his leadership.
Gary Neville speaks for the nation. pic.twitter.com/bZ0PTaw7kI
— Kevin Osborne (@skinoverbone) July 7, 2021
It's easy to criticise the racism, homophobia, populist nationalism and English exceptionalism of some football supporters, and I will. Some idiots booed the Danish national anthem last night without apparently appreciating that if the Danes had not turned up, and been worthy opponents (which they were) there would have been no match. That sort of small mindedness deserves to be condemned.
But what Southgate has done that must really irritate these people, and their friends in Whitehall who encourage their booing of the players when they take the knee, is that he has shown that this is a minority activity. His stand shows that people are in favour of equality. They do oppose discrimination. They want justice. He makes very clear that the nonsensical claim that to do so is Marxist is simply drivel. But he also undoubtedly promotes a politics based in civility at the same time, and unashamedly so.
My guess is that this is a very big reason why so many people are watching these matches. They are wanting England to win for reason that they never imagined possible, which is what they actually stand for. And what they do stand for is unambiguous. They stand for a country that is inclusive of us all when the government is deliberately creating disunity, division and chaos as a mechanism for control.
No wonder the government hates Southgate. He and his team are showing them up.
That's a very good reason for hoping England win against Italy in the final. I will be watching.
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Popular because they are woke?? They are popular because they beat the Germans on the quarters and are now in the final.. end of story.. you know nothing about the culture of the game..have you ever been to the old baseball ground or Ayresome Park or Roker Park or non league?? Thought not.. you jumping on the bandwagon yet again
Blundell park, once
Portman Road, many many times
The old Layer Road
Selhurst Park in south London days
The Dell when a student
Many others
And Cambridge United is my most common venue now
My response to you is the problem of misunderstanding is all yours
“The other delight has been the very obvious consistency in England’s approach to inequality throughout the tournament.”
Haha – Ashford’s on £10m a year.
Who is Ashford?
And do you think inequality unidimensional? If so, think again
1966. David Jones becomes David Bowie. Launch of Action Man. “The Sound of Music” and “Doctor Zhivago” each win five Oscars. Gemini 8 through 12. First broadcasts of Camberwick Green, Till Death Do Us Part, It’s A Knockout, The Frost Report, and The Monkees. Second Doctor Who. Problems in Southern Rhodesia after UDI in 1965. US troops in Vietnam double to over 400,000. Beatles are “more popular than Jesus”. World Cup trophy stolen in London and found by Pickles. Selective Employment Tax. Labour under Wilson wins snap election with increased majority. First scheduled hovercraft service across the Channel. Longleat safari park opens. Moors Murders trial. Patent granted for ATM. Launch of Barclaycard. Dylan plugs in, Judas. Plaid wins first Commons seat at Carmarthen by-election. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Launch of first Polaris submarine. Independence of Guyana, Botswana, Lesotho, and Barbados. Aberfan. Cathy Come Home. Hillman Hunter. Ford Cortina (mk2). Terry Wogan joins the BBC. Centre Point completed but left empty for a decade. Floods in Florence. Births of inter alia Rick Astley, Alan Davies, Nigel Clough, Chris Whitty, Chris Evans, Teddy Sheringham, Phil Tufnell, David Cameron, Tony Adams, Jeremy Hunt, Gordon Ramsay, Dennis Wise, Martin Offiah.
And one of those stood out (excepting Aberfan, the shock of which I still recall) and that is your comment ‘Dylan plugs in, Judas’
So, we won’t agree on Blood on the Tracks then
Oh, that was in the wrong place! (I think he means Rashford, by the way.)
Quite the rag bag there, but enough for everyone to pick something out, even those of us who ahem were not around 🙂
Perhaps I should have put “Judas” in quotes: that was the heckler’s word, not mine. And of course Dylan responded “I don’t believe you … you’re a liar … play it fucking loud!” … and then launched into “Like a Rolling Stone”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrlLDG0ynU
🙂
And the right response by him
Personally I don’t want an England win at all especially under this horrific Tory Government who are going to milk it for all the wrong reasons. The bigger picture is that the Tories are still in charge and that means the media too to a large extent.
I was hoping for a ‘Jesse Owens’ moment last night – a fascist nation taught a lesson by a country that does things it seems a lot better. Oh well, the Devil looks after his own right?
Last night I did some work instead – I got loads done. I did watch the Italy-Spain match however which was excellent.
As you know I’m a student of Timothy Snyder – the arch ‘woke’ scholar of fascism – and I’ve been struck by his observation about fascist /pre-fascist behaviour and attitudes which I see in the fascist-like notion of national injustice and ‘imagined victimhood’ in football than we have about the victims of austerity, Covid mismanagement, BREXIT and Tory lying. I find it all deeply discomforting. I even heard that the Danish free kick only worked because our goal keeper was obstructed apparently! The Danish goal was even an injustice created by a corrupt and malign enemy! I mean it’s bollocks. From what I heard, Harry Kane spent most of his time falling over in a vain search for free kicks and penalties.
We apparently all suffer because we have failed to repeat 1966, we are all victims. We apparently deserve better for some reason and we talk of bringing football ‘home’. Well, not me – I’m a victim of austerity and BREXIT. I’m a victim of my Government who is telling me it can’t afford pensions and the NHS. Sod football and all those over-paid players I say, knees taken or not.
We all suffer because we’ve had Governments failing to keep their promises. Yet time and again we are presented with alternative enemies (Iraq, the EU, the German football team etc.,) when the biggest enemy is home grown – politicians in the pockets of the global rich.
Football is just soma for the masses in my view – a mass distraction during a time when we are being ripped off left, right and centre.
I’d certainly invite people however to watch a documentary called ‘Whistle to Whistle’ about the Belgian football team and their manager (in my view, England has had a very easy route to the semi-finals than Belgium, France, Germany etc,). It is a story of ambition underpinned by real investment towards a goal of being the best in football.
Imagine if that thinking at a national level could be taken out of football and put back into the NHS, pensions, children’s services, social care? That’s what we need folks. Football success will not solve the lack we see elsewhere.
P.S. – about Bobby Robson I agree – ahead of his time. I’d like to have seen Brian Clough have a go at the England job too , but Bobby was a superb manager who was treated abominably by the English press. He was a real leader of men even when money started to dominate the game. It’s telling that he was much highly thought of abroad don’t you think?
I will not watching on Sunday. Mind you, the poor Italians have a worse Government than we do – how many have they had since WWII?
Italy is a really strong team – look at how they played against Spain!
The counter argument to being woke is of nonsensical construction and built entirely of ignorance.
I’m glad they are doing well and conducting themselves as embassies of their sport.
The Sterling foul was not a penalty or a dive. It was a slight coming together but I’d never have given it. I wonder which camp the people calling him a cheat belong to because anti woke elements exist outside England.
On a point of how there is such a sea-change in the footballing mindset in the England camp, the answer is a SCOTSMAN – the great Alex Ferguson.
It was and is his cadre of schoolboy footballers that returned Man Utd to the fore. And it is them who have carried HIS socialist sensibility into their future careers. – from these that housed the homeless in their hotels to the welfare of feeding children through the ravages of imposed Austerity; which gave rise to resentment that led to the acceptance of BrexShit, The full effects of which have been hidden by Covid – hence the continued need to divert and infect even more Brits! The EU will certainly ban all travel from the U.K. within weeks.
Alex Ferguson’s socialist, grass roots , bottom up sensibilities are on display in THIS England team – not that the gammonites will notice. They will be hammered by the MSM Barbies and Ken’s under instructions of ii managers in short order – just watch what happens to the political statement of the Manager and team as they try and extend their modern social democratic attitudes in their future careers as has already happened with the grassroots BLM taking the Knee started by another great US athlete who’s career has been destroyed by his principled stance.
––––-
I have no torch to carry for football.
I find it a dismal game and the bad example of referee abuse carries straight through to little kids emulating ‘heroes’.
The laser into another iconic ManU goalkeepers son – these perpetrators should be tracked down and in prison.
The game can easily adopt tv replay refereeing as Rugby has in tight decisions of fouls as it has on goalines and the actually absurd off-side.
The foul counts of both teams do favour the England Team last night.
If their fitness levels can see them through and their goalkeeper can keep a clean sheet for 120 minutes they have a great chance.
If it goes to penalties …not as much.