Why are we the only country who CAN NOT be patriotic or express their opinions?????

[EvesMama]

where i live there is uproaor about a local pub daring to display the england flag across the front/top of its building...told to take them out of charity shop windows etc..now on t.v this morning..some scottish people are filmed asying they HATE English and will be supporting trinidad and tobago in world cup...????

we cant so much as think anything like that..and now this close to home?, were both part of britain FGS

if that was and english guy/gal saying that ther'would be a whole heap of trouble?

again where i am from..crime in the surrounding towns is high and statistics show that a high % is caused by people our country have given asylum too, who we allow to live in our country who receive help from US and if anyone dare say they think it is unfair, we are racist?

i just cant get my head round it?
the world is going mad.

expecting some 'good' replys on this, but im sorry i just think some people take the P out of us because they know it'll be us in bother

I am a mongrel also (Irish, Spanish and German blood)Also, I believe the Irish have much Nordic ancestory. Hmmm, what's my point? Well, I guess I just don't feel "British" in the sense that I want to fly a St George's Flag. My heritage is so mixed. If the flag could come to represent the diversity this country is composed of, maybe I could come to fly it but it still for me represents facism, colonialism and hooliganism (as does the Union Jack). I don't judge people who fly the flag, wear the t shirts etc, but it's not for me.

My heritage is mixed - Irish leg and Welsh arm - but my heart is definitely English!!!

Plummy were you born and raised here? You mention Irish first is that the nationality you first identify with. The funny thing is, to my knowledge I dont have an Irish bone, but come the world cup if England hadnt made it it would be the Irish i would be hooting for! I quite like the French cos I do have a likkle connection there and an house in the south.

why don't the scots like the english? highland clearances ring any bells? why don't the english like the germans? bombed us quite a bit

hmmm. I see a trend.

I LOATHE seeing the flags. To me it screams of knee-jerk "I'm better than you" patriotism rather than "I'm proud of my country". It'd be lovely to think that the people waving them are thinking "Ah england, a liberal society that embraces other cultures and stands up for what it believes in, with a magnificent history and culture..." but I very much suspect its more about "Ug me big man, me better than you foreign man, ug ug ug."

but what do I know? I'm just a catfood.

Good Girl Fairy, oooh I can starting to feel myself puffing up with pride.

meowmix Union Jack is I love my country but to me St Georges flag is associated with St Georges Day (eh when is that by the way)? and sporting events.

Three cheers for Fairyjay and Tenalady!!

Yeah I was born and raised here. Irish dad and 3 irish grandparents (1 half german, half basque spanish)so yes I probably do identify strongly with the Irish. We grew up with close links with our Irish extended family over here and went there on holiday regularly. My husband is afro-caribbean and ds mixed race (obv)and dh doesn't like the flag either (I doubt you'll find many black families flying the flag)but we would both be happy if England won (though dh is supporting Brazil as he has loved them since a tot and it is the country that borders Guyana which is where his parents hail from.

yes I can see that Tenalady. Whereas the saltire is a holy thing....

nah. don't like flag waving, mayeven be allergic.

OK, let's design a new English flag. Something non-contentious and disassociated with the past. I am looking out of the window and I can see green field and trees and a pale blue sky - I think green and pale blue would be nice gentle uncontentious colours - couldn't possible offend anyone...until some tw*t starts draping it across their van and getting hammered whilst wearing it across his shirt.... Or perhaps the red IS part of the problem - maybe gentle colours would result in England footie fans drinking pints of lemonade, discussing the merits of both teams quietly and calmly and being nice to opposing fans

For a catfood I think you're very well informed Meowmix. I'm sure 8 out of 10 cats would choose you

Lets just abolish white vans and their drivers. Problem solved.

oh no. I'm definitely an acquired taste!!

not all England fans are thugs - in fact, the majority aren't

hmm I think we probably bombed the Germans every bit as much as they bombed us - if you go to Nordrheinwestfalen, most of the cities there are modern because they were destroyed in the war - and yet they don't define us by their experience of Britain in the second world war.

I dont have a St Georges flag outside my house, but i am patriotic, for what reasons? who knows but my feeling is that I was born in England,therefore I am English and I love the country that I was born in. Why should I feel embarrased to promote this fact?

Its easy to see that the Cross of St George may offend people, but only for the fact that it has previously been hi-jacked by mindless thugs, but that is MY flag just as much as it is theirs.

On the subject of the football, If I lived in Scotland/Wales, id be fed up of having the England world cup dream rammed down my throat every day.

OMG!

i couldnt give a shit who won the world cup

stop shoving it down my throat

i dont even live in a country who has qualified to play in it, but 24 hrs a day i am force fed every snippet of information about someones fucking foot injury, what someone else ate for breakfast, when they last farted, and the length of the latest ladder in their tights rendering them unfit

and all because they play for the neighbouring country

who are these people? football players

and the reason England and the people are unpopular (feeling brave here) is their attitude.

"we are better than you"

"we won the war"

"we rule the waves"

argh

you are not better than us (why do you seriously think so? you have so many problems as a nation)
you didnt win the war, it was a joint effort and no -one country could have done it alone
you dont rule the waves, thats so goddamn old fashioned

stop living in the past

STOP IT

open your eyes

how many other countries have been banned from travelling abroad because their football supporters have had no respect, got drunk and violent, the hatred pours from their mouths

its horrible

i hate football

we, on the other hand, are welcomed with open arms to all countries, we have a great reputation and when we tell people we are scottish whilst on holidays we are greeted with pleasure

saying that, i hope england win so they can all stop going on and on and fucking on about '66

A fine post Nailpolish.

They won't stop going on about 1966 though. They'll make up a new song, involving 66, trafalgar, WWII, and the 2006 world cup... 40 years of triumph, la la la la la... (none of it will make any sense but it will somehow all be connected in the minds of some)

Oh dear Nailpolish..... what a lovely lot of sweeping generalisations. I can see exactly why you'd be welcomed with open arms in any country you visited.

FWIW the only county I've ever been made to feel slightly unwelcome were Wales and Scotland.

dont go there then

Thanks Nailpolish. What a friendly soul you must be. I happen to love Scotland and have visited many times - fortunately most people there have a very different attitude to yours. But there's always a vocal minority - much like the unpleasant England fans you mention.

yeah and at Rangers Celtic matches the supporters are so well behaved and no hatred pours from their mouths at all

altho mebbe if England do win this year they'll work out they only get to win once every forty years and give us 39 years of peace?

Not everyone in England is like that Nailpolish, I dont know anybody who thinks that we single handedly won either of the world wars.

There are some mindless violent idiots in England, but I have come across just as many equally as mindless violent Scots men, so every country has their fair quota of twats.

you get me so wrong

i go to england every year for my holidays

you are all lovely people, EXCEPT when football is involved

you all become so fierce and wound up and wildy patriotic

i get comments and remarks when i go to england for my holidays, i wasnt going to mention it, but since you did

and on the subject of rangers and celtic, have you ever been to an old firm match? every rangers supporter waves a St Georges cross, its not all about being scottish (not at all actually)