Posted on 12/05/2007 6:38:28 AM PST by Hacklehead
As the nation settled down on Wednesday night to watch England play Croatia, I sensed an air of optimism in the land. A feeling that all would be well. I mean hey, England were holding their own against Brazil when Croatia didn’t even exist as a nation state. So what chance would these swarthy-looking Yugo-ruffians have? They were minnows in a tank of sharks. They weren’t going to be beaten. They were going to be eaten.
Hmmm. I’m afraid I knew we were going to lose moments before the match began. I looked at our players mumbling their way through the national anthem and realised they didn’t really care about playing for England. Because they don’t really know what England is. And truth be told, neither do I.
When I was their age it was crystal clear. Newspapers would report: “Fog in the Channel: Europe cut off.” Peter Ustinov would arrive at JFK airport and, having studied the signs saying “US citizens” and “Aliens”, he’d ask a security guard where the British should go. We were separate, different, better.
We had hardback dark blue passports with a personal message from the Queen on the inside cover “requiring” that foreign border guards allow the bearer to do whatever he or she pleased without let or hindrance. Slap one of those down on a Frenchman’s desk and the crack of invitation grade cardboard would have the greasy little oik sitting up straight; that’s for sure.
We had saved the world from tyranny so often we’d lost count; we’d brought decency, truth and cricket to every continent and every coral pinprick. We’d sailed iron steamships into America when they were still using coracles. We were defined by our brilliance, our superiority, our technical know-how.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Sad commentary....with much truth.
Rex Harrison, "My Fair Lady"
“We’ve been robbed of our Englishness (Also applicable to the US)”
Not robbed. The English, and now the Americans, have been giving their national pride away for decades.
England is 200 years of history, unhampered by progress.
Read the comments. Sick-making. Half the posters stick up for Clarkson and half criticize him and call him a fascist. Clarkson is right, England is lost if half its people believe in the let’s-hate-England thesis.
Great column, but already posted. Search is your friend.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933310/posts
That makes the point pretty well. What he describes in England is true here too. And in the South it is doubly true of the shaming of Southern culture. That jauntiness and pride in the South and our military heroes has been squashed by the efforts to build the new South just as rude and materialistic as anywhere else. We have surrendered now to Affirmative Action, political correctness, and New-speak.
True...your post is well said, sadly so.
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