automatonrevolution

Ok time out. Whats with all the bitching about England and the World Cup? I mean, really. Give it a rest, huh?

Lets see…if they’re not moaning about the UK media coverage of the World Cup (missing the irony that all they are doing is adding to it….), they’re whinging about the apparently scandalous suggestion that since we’re in Britain, and England is part of Britain and also the only part that managed to get a team to qualify, then maybe we should give them a bit of support. Then theres the stustie that came about when someone complained about the frankly childish “any team but England” attitude, which would be considered racist if it were anyone but England…but is somehow supposed to be seen as “banter” because its England.

Gimme a break. Why is that we pride ourselves on being “the best small country in the world”, yet when it comes to our neighbors South of the border we have an attitude thats stuck 400 years in the past? Doesnt anyone else think its ridiculous to blame the England football team for the actions of a bunch of English Kings who’ve been dead for quite a wee while now.

Grrr. It just seems that every time England does anything that its inhabitants think is worth celebrating that we have to put up with weeks of anti-English crap in our media here.

So England got into the World Cup. Whoop-de-doo. Its shouldnt be an excuse for people to let rip with more variations on “We hate England cos we watched Braveheart once.” I’m sick of it. England is full of people who are pretty much like us, when you get down to it, but the way some people act you’d think that they’re all mutant troglodytes or something. And its the ordinary joes who are on the recieving end of all this ire. The ordinary bloke in the pub who gets a pint glass in the face because hes English. The grievences that form the chip on our collective shoulders really has sod all to do with 99% of the English..its with the Governments that have been making the decisions…so why do so many people insist on blaming the whole country for the actions of just a few? Why does Scotland insist on defining itself by the worst parts of its history rather than its best?

This anti-Englishness isn’t banter, its racism. Its not funny, its nasty. And it ill becomes us as a nation. We’re better than this. Its about time we started acting like it.