Oi, where's me England shirt?
Quite a different tack for this post but one I feel really has to be taken.
With the World Cup coming up, here in Ingerland we're going football crazy and people are once more getting ready to fly the flag, quite literally. Already I'm seeing St Georges cheeky little cross flying from vehicles as people show their colours. But wait! What's this? Yikes, look at the interwebs and you'll see that "they" are going to be banning people from wearing England football shirts! It's political correctness gone mad and we plucky little brits just won't take this lying down. That ever popular barometer of popular thought (somewhat of an oxymoron at times perhaps), the Facebook group, is positively exploding with people who want to fight back against the ban. Amongst others there's the "No To The England Football Shirt & Flag Ban" group, the "WE WILL RIOT IF THEY BAN THE ENGLAND SHIRT" posse (love the use of caps BTW, really DRIVES HOME THE POINT) and "whos up for running down spring bank in an england shirt ;-) fuck the ban haha". I'm led to believe that Spring Bank is an area of Hull with a large immigrant community.
Except it's all rubbish, there is no ban. Seems it all started this time round (we've had similar in 2002 and 2006), with a piece in The Sun about how police were seeking to ban England shirts in pubs. Except they weren't. It was just Croydon police sending a letter round local pubs with suggestions about how to minimize potential problems during the World Cup. Probably something to do with the 400 person riot there when England got eliminated from Euro 2004. So, no ban order on England shirts, just local police advice in a potential trouble hotspot. But this thing has legs now.
And as it runs there's been one recent report of a woman, Sam Fardon, being thrown off a First group bus because her two year old was wearing an England top by a bus driver with an eastern European accent. Originally reported in The Evening Sentinel, the local Stoke newspaper, it's now been taken up by The Daily Mail. Except that First has conducted an investigation and said that they didn't have anyone matching the complainants description of the dastardly bus driver on that route. Thirty people did back up the original complaint but none were found to be "credible". One witness they contacted, for example, said the incident had happened on the Monday, coincidently the paper went out while Sam Fardon had reported that it happened on the Thursday. Other bloggers have done a little digging it would appear that Sam Fardon has less than an exemplary past when it comes to theft and deception with incidents in 2002
and 2004. Of course, it may not be the same person but the lady in question is the same age and has the same name. Time no doubt will tell on this one.
So, what can be done about it? Me personally, I've spent a couple of hours trawling around other peoples excellent work on this and jotted this little missive to pass on, although as Mark Twain said "A lie can travel round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes". I've also been reporting the more overtly racist Facebook groups, which whilst it is having something of an effect is a bit of a whackamole game. Even so, maybe you might want to try it.
Talking of Facebook groups again I'll end this post on one of them, "...It's funny how our flag offends you but our benefits don't!!!..." which now boasts over half a million members. Worth checking out even though the name seems to speak of the usual semi-racist bile as people got in touch with the person that set it up and filled him in on the whole (non) story. At this point the founder was big enough to not only realise he'd been taken in and that his group was being overrun with racists but also turned over the admin rights to the group to a bunch of right thinking types who're proudly and wonderfully taking the mick even now. Best of British to them.
With the World Cup coming up, here in Ingerland we're going football crazy and people are once more getting ready to fly the flag, quite literally. Already I'm seeing St Georges cheeky little cross flying from vehicles as people show their colours. But wait! What's this? Yikes, look at the interwebs and you'll see that "they" are going to be banning people from wearing England football shirts! It's political correctness gone mad and we plucky little brits just won't take this lying down. That ever popular barometer of popular thought (somewhat of an oxymoron at times perhaps), the Facebook group, is positively exploding with people who want to fight back against the ban. Amongst others there's the "No To The England Football Shirt & Flag Ban" group, the "WE WILL RIOT IF THEY BAN THE ENGLAND SHIRT" posse (love the use of caps BTW, really DRIVES HOME THE POINT) and "whos up for running down spring bank in an england shirt ;-) fuck the ban haha". I'm led to believe that Spring Bank is an area of Hull with a large immigrant community.
Except it's all rubbish, there is no ban. Seems it all started this time round (we've had similar in 2002 and 2006), with a piece in The Sun about how police were seeking to ban England shirts in pubs. Except they weren't. It was just Croydon police sending a letter round local pubs with suggestions about how to minimize potential problems during the World Cup. Probably something to do with the 400 person riot there when England got eliminated from Euro 2004. So, no ban order on England shirts, just local police advice in a potential trouble hotspot. But this thing has legs now.
And as it runs there's been one recent report of a woman, Sam Fardon, being thrown off a First group bus because her two year old was wearing an England top by a bus driver with an eastern European accent. Originally reported in The Evening Sentinel, the local Stoke newspaper, it's now been taken up by The Daily Mail. Except that First has conducted an investigation and said that they didn't have anyone matching the complainants description of the dastardly bus driver on that route. Thirty people did back up the original complaint but none were found to be "credible". One witness they contacted, for example, said the incident had happened on the Monday, coincidently the paper went out while Sam Fardon had reported that it happened on the Thursday. Other bloggers have done a little digging it would appear that Sam Fardon has less than an exemplary past when it comes to theft and deception with incidents in 2002
and 2004. Of course, it may not be the same person but the lady in question is the same age and has the same name. Time no doubt will tell on this one.
So, what can be done about it? Me personally, I've spent a couple of hours trawling around other peoples excellent work on this and jotted this little missive to pass on, although as Mark Twain said "A lie can travel round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes". I've also been reporting the more overtly racist Facebook groups, which whilst it is having something of an effect is a bit of a whackamole game. Even so, maybe you might want to try it.
Talking of Facebook groups again I'll end this post on one of them, "...It's funny how our flag offends you but our benefits don't!!!..." which now boasts over half a million members. Worth checking out even though the name seems to speak of the usual semi-racist bile as people got in touch with the person that set it up and filled him in on the whole (non) story. At this point the founder was big enough to not only realise he'd been taken in and that his group was being overrun with racists but also turned over the admin rights to the group to a bunch of right thinking types who're proudly and wonderfully taking the mick even now. Best of British to them.
posted by Bill at 9:56 pm
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