On 6 May 1953 Mr Leo Blair's wife Hazel gave birth to a second son in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was given the name Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.
He spent his early childhood in Australia before moving with the family to Durham. But he has his secondary education in the city of his birth at Fettes College, Edinburgh.
Yesterday he became another Scot to become all English saying:
"I support England very strongly, but if Scotland was playing - not England - but a game against someone else why [take the attitude] that I don't want Scotland to win when they are part of the United Kingdom?"
The thing is Tony it is just this sort of attitude that the English will happily adopt an Scot, Welsh or Northern Irish sports team of person as their own when doing well but always reject them when they start to wane that leads to the Celtic nations looking for teams of excellence to support, especially if we are neutral. That plus the fact that the English still go on about 1966. So the Scots have to keep reminding the English that they were the first team to beat the World Champions when they met in 1967. The same may eventually be true of Rugby from 2003 but the Irish take great pleasure in reminding the English who beat them first as world champions.
We also live in a multi-cultural society Mr Blair are you asking the Australians, Germans, French, Americans, Italians and others who live in England and are supporting the land of their birth or forefathers to support Ingerland? Or what about Norwegians, Austrians, Russians or New Zealanders who are merely supporting a team maybe they have some connection with, or maybe has some players in their league?
Last time I checked I was free to support Northern Ireland living here in Scotland. In fact the other Livingston fans applaud me for it. I also support Ireland in the Rugby whether at Murrayfield or, as happened once, at the Scottish Lib Dem conference with the party leader stood beside me.
So when all this jovial anybody but England support is out of the way at some point from the 24 June to the 9 July we'll either be hearing about the 40 years of hurt continuing or ending ad nauseum until the next World Cup or beyond. So allow the Scots their 4 weeks of pleasure Mr Blair, after all tis only a game of fitba.
Apart from the atrocious typos throughout, and i am very disappointed by them! lol, did I read all that correctly? Did you say it is ONLY football? Safe to assume you wont be watching any of the matches today then ;)
ReplyDeleteYou know me so well.
ReplyDeleteOf course I'll not be glancing at the large screen TV about 4 metres away from 3pm onwards.
There is a lot of anti-English feeling in the celtic countries, and it does border on racism (sometimes it becomes outright racism).
ReplyDeleteI don't care about 1966, England won. We've lost a lot of matches since. Some people go on about it, so what? Ignore them, don't try to place the blame on England for the attitude of some Scottish fans.
Yes, the English will support people or teams from other countries in the UK when they're doing well, but drop support when they're not doing so well, well that's natural, people do that with everything including English sportsmen and local teams.
Its not to do with their not being English but to do with their failling people's expectations.
If there's an Englishman and the sport is seperated into the UK Countries then the English will support the Englishman first, just as the Scots support the Scotsman, but once the English are out of the running, allegence is transferred in most cases.
I fail to see what is wrong with that.
Its the crass anti-Englishness which is the problem. The 'anyone but England' attitude which people object to, and quite rightly.
Personally I don't care who wins the world cup. If England do then great, it'll be good. If Scotland were to win, the great too (although if they beat England in the final it'd be a bit galling, but a great sign for the sport in Britain).
Tristan,
ReplyDeleteI'm actually objecting to a Scot's born politician trying to tell part of the country where their allegiences should lie. It is not liberal to tell people that they must support one country just because they are there and a short distance away while yours is not.
Personally I am enjoying this World Cup as a neutral as neither Irish team qualified this time. In fact there are a large number of players, across a large selection of teams, who have either graced Almondvale or Anfield taking part in this tournament. I am glad to lend my support to the number of Liverpool players present and past in the England team, as always.
With only a couple of notable exceptions one in Largs and the other in Germany there has been no trouble in the Scots supporting anyone but England in this World Cup. In fact the English up here who I've met are enjoying having a bit of banter through the matches it is a lot more of a real match atmosphere than if everyone was on the same side.