Patriotism and National Pride

I am not the World's greatest football fan and I rarely watch games but I do find facinating and a somewhat disconcerting the hysteria in England (my country of birth) over their team's performance in the World Cup. For the record, I am not supporting any team.


I have been away from England for nigh 20 years now, having made my home in Scotland. But, when I did stay South of the Border, the reaction to sporting (and specifically football) defeats seemed quite normal because that is what everyone else thought and did. It is only with hindsight and nearly 100 miles distance I have come to realise just how bizarre this behaviour is. When England fails to win the World Cup (as looks likely), it becomes a source of national humiliation and soul searching. Even if they were defeated in the final, the team would return in disgrace. As I write, England has to win a game to remain in the competition. This may yet happen but the excuses for defeat and subsequent accusations are already being prepared. Why?


When, some years ago, Bobby Robson, the then national manager, suggested that England did not have a divine right to beat other countries he was pilloried by the tabloid press. Clearly England do have this divine right. When they lose or even draw it is nothing less than an inversion of the natural order. It is not that the other team were better - this could not possibly be the case. Something has gone terribly wrong and someone is to blame. The culprit must be found and publically humiliated. Is it any wonder that the England manager is nowadays a foreigner? No national would want to live with the shame.

In 1998, I went out for a pint on the day Scotland exited the World Cup. There was live music - a one man singer and keyboards act. He led the whole pub in Flower of Scotland (twice). Yes, we had lost. There was disappointment but no disgrace. We tried our best but the other teams were better. There was no national crisis of confidence. Contrast this with England, which had already exited, undergoing the sad but inevitable handwringing and subsequent witch hunt. There was no singing of anything in any alehouse the length and breadth of that nation.

The 1998 World Cup was perhaps a formative time for me and not because I watched the matches. That Glasgow pub experience was influential; it was patriotism I could identify with. A year later I voted SNP for the first time. Some time after I became a Party member and activist. Please understand, I have nothing against England or the English; after all, my family live there. It is just that I can no longer feel part of it.