WE are England
With the British National Party choosing to hijack St George’s Day to launch their anti-English, anti-British manifesto (which would criminalise journalists who criticised them and lead to deportation for anyone who follows suit) it seems like a good time to put up this video from Philosophy Football, which is, ostensibly, about their new T-shirt for the World Cup.
The BNP say that anyone who is anything but white cannot be English, even when born here. Yet look around the country, especially London, where I live, and you see all colours wearing the England shirt and cheering them on. The BNP would like to see an England squad without the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe and Ashley Cole. They would exclude Aaron Lennon, Glen Johnson and David James. The BNP would like to ‘repatriate’ these players and their families. Though who knows where to?
On the subject of football fashion, Umbro have some rather nice stuff available for the World Cup, as do Fred Perry.
Come on England. And the English.
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23 Apr 10 at 5:15 pm
I want a shirt. Brilliant post! Tweeting now.
smittenbybritain
24 Apr 10 at 1:08 am
I watched the ‘We are England’ T-shirt launch and the recent Umbro’s England Anthem advert with interest because I’m doing an Edinburgh show called ‘Kiss The Badge, Fly The Flag’ on our attitude to wearing the shirt and flying the flag of St George.
It’s based on the contradiction that I support England, but as a black Englishman I still feel uncomfortable wearing the football shirt or waving the flag of St George – why? The show is a funny and enlightening look at multi-cultural Englishness with jokes and anecdotes – featuring filmed encounters I’ve had with the BNP, Billy Bragg and the national press. Plus interviews with his family, teenagers, politicians and celebrities – such as comedians Richard Blackwood, Shazia Mirza, Reginald D Hunter and actor Adrian Lester.
What I’ve found so far is that this world cup could be a threshold moment in the creation of a new more inclusive sort of Englishness. The fact that You Tube had to delete racist comments in response to this advert shows that there’s a way to go. But I want to congratulate Philosophy Football and Umbro and wished that they sent me a shirt when I told them about my show two months ago – in the end I made my own (red ‘66 shirt of course).
Paul Ricketts – Kiss The Badge, Fly The Flag!
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010
Venue: Just The Tonic at the Caves, 253 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1NN
Room: Just Out Of The Box
Time: 10.40pm (1 hour)
Dates: 5th – 29th August (except 13th & 16th)
“highly accomplished” Time Out
Check out mu blog: http://paulrickettskissthebadgeflytheflag.blogspot.com/
Paul Ricketts
18 Jun 10 at 6:43 pm
Thanks Paul. Keep me up to date with the show.
iainaitch
18 Jun 10 at 7:15 pm