Standing Divided
I've spent the last week or so in Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. The weather has been great and I've managed to squeeze quite a lot of tourist activities alongside my working schedule. I have however become increasingly disturbed by the apparent hatred that the Scots feel towards the English.
Followers of football (soccer to you American lot) will be aware that England is the only team from the UK to have made it through to the finals. Now I can understand if that situation means that the other nations don't want to pay as much attention to the World Cup ongoings as those countries that have made it in, but what I can't understand is the attitude towards the English as a results of us being there and them not.
If it were the other way around, I am pretty sure that I (and probably most people in England) would rally behind the Scots, or the Welsh, if they were the only teams left in the World Cup finals from the UK. In Scotland however people seem to be going to great lengths to make sure that the English that are around do not get to fully enjoy there World Cup.
My Grandad has to watch the football in his own house (he daren't go to a pub - most of which have every flag except the St. George Cross pinned up in the bar) with his curtains drawn so that his neighbours don't see his English shirt or flag. In the past (Euro 2004) he had his house egged when he neglected to do this. In the recent news a young boy and his father were physically attacked whilst jogging in England shirts and another man was beaten for having a small car flag. Of course the local police are quick to assert that these are isolated incidents and that generally there is no ill felt towards the English. I would have to disagree to a certain extent. Granted there are not that many major attacks, but small localised incidents are happening all the time - do the police really think that someone (like my Grandad) is going to report his neighbours into them for egging his house?! No - that would only fuel their anger towards him.
I admit that I'm heavily generalising the situation based on a few incidents and I'm sure - in fact I know - that there are a lot of good natured Scots out there who don't have any problem with the English. In fact, as an example, only the other day my Grandad was in the local JJB sports shop to buy his new England strip and the guy at the counter lightly joked to him that if he kept the tags on then he could come back and get a full refund when England lose!
Its just disappointing that the few ignorant people have to ruin the atmosphere for the rest and make it appear that the UK can't stand united in any cause that the individual nations are persuing.
Followers of football (soccer to you American lot) will be aware that England is the only team from the UK to have made it through to the finals. Now I can understand if that situation means that the other nations don't want to pay as much attention to the World Cup ongoings as those countries that have made it in, but what I can't understand is the attitude towards the English as a results of us being there and them not.
If it were the other way around, I am pretty sure that I (and probably most people in England) would rally behind the Scots, or the Welsh, if they were the only teams left in the World Cup finals from the UK. In Scotland however people seem to be going to great lengths to make sure that the English that are around do not get to fully enjoy there World Cup.
My Grandad has to watch the football in his own house (he daren't go to a pub - most of which have every flag except the St. George Cross pinned up in the bar) with his curtains drawn so that his neighbours don't see his English shirt or flag. In the past (Euro 2004) he had his house egged when he neglected to do this. In the recent news a young boy and his father were physically attacked whilst jogging in England shirts and another man was beaten for having a small car flag. Of course the local police are quick to assert that these are isolated incidents and that generally there is no ill felt towards the English. I would have to disagree to a certain extent. Granted there are not that many major attacks, but small localised incidents are happening all the time - do the police really think that someone (like my Grandad) is going to report his neighbours into them for egging his house?! No - that would only fuel their anger towards him.
I admit that I'm heavily generalising the situation based on a few incidents and I'm sure - in fact I know - that there are a lot of good natured Scots out there who don't have any problem with the English. In fact, as an example, only the other day my Grandad was in the local JJB sports shop to buy his new England strip and the guy at the counter lightly joked to him that if he kept the tags on then he could come back and get a full refund when England lose!
Its just disappointing that the few ignorant people have to ruin the atmosphere for the rest and make it appear that the UK can't stand united in any cause that the individual nations are persuing.
posted by ugli-stix at 28.6.06
1 Comments:
It's because they have a complex about the English being better than them.
Most nations have something like this with a nearby neighbour to some extent. I often worry that my dislike of the French (in a purely sporting sense of course) is not due to them being great competition, but because subconciously I think they are better than England/Britain.
After much consideration I of course come to the conclusion that actually it's because they are frog leg eating surrender monkeys ;).
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