The English football team vs the British government
It all started when the English football fans started booing the England football team when they took the knee before their matches.
Some fans felt that doing this was not right, but I suspect if you asked them why it was not right they would stumble around for an intelligent reason. What has been happening is that the UK government is creating these people who see everything as 'woke' or somehow 'anti-British'. They are easy to 'create' because they pick a side and off they go, they can be swayed in any direction as long as it sounds patriotic to them.
Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary said the following when asked about the booing of the English football team at the start of the tournament-
“I just don't support people participating in that type of gesture politics,”
And when asked whether England fans had a right to boo England’s national team, she said: “That's a choice for them quite frankly. I've not gone to a football match to even contemplate that.”
Boris Johnson also refused to condemn these 'fans' for booing the national team when taking the knee. He can't condemn them though because he needs these people, he needs millions of people who subscribe to his view of English exceptionalism and who will forgive him all of the lies and incompetence his government brings us every single day.
After the final, when three black players missed penalties, the racist abuse started happening on social media. It was predictable and in this case especially disgusting, but it started literally the moment the match was finished.
Priti Patel popped up again-
I am disgusted that @England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media. It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable.
It needs no words from me because the England defender, Tyrone Mings, responded rather eloquently-
You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.
He is a high profile England player and one of a few select people the government has been desperate to be seen supporting, and this is a BIG moment. His eloquence will likely have surprised many in the government who likely look down on football players as working class, and even more so the black players (presuming).
Andrew Lilico (he writes for The Telegraph) then popped up on Twitter-
You shouldn't be able to go around accusing the Home Secretary to her face of stoking racism & still play for England without an apology, submission & period of being unavailable for selection. The world can't work like that.
That's exactly how the world should work. The bad people will always lose to the good people (eventually) and this England team has, without saying anything controversial until now, acted as you would want high profile people to act and represent their country. The current UK government and the morons who caused violence around the stadium and who booed national anthems and kneeling have done the complete opposite.
I’m told that plans to have the England team to Downing Street for a reception this week have been shelved, with attention turning instead to the PM’s levelling up speech in a few days.
Aubrey Allegretti (writes for The Guardian) posted the above today and I suspect that it could have been written another way; the England team told us to shove our reception up our racist Etonian backsides.
And this leads us to the final comment from Martin Ware who rather sums up where we are at this moment in time-
We are now in the absurd situation where the England football team are the de facto opposition to the government, while the actual opposition literally opposes nothing.
What a time to be alive...