The England Football Team Have Shown Our Tory Establishment For The Plastic Patriots They Truly Are

I think for the first time in my life, I am truly proud to be English. What is even more surprising is that it is football that has inspired this sense of English national pride in me. Like 31 million other people, I watched the England versus Italy game in the Final of Euro 2020 on Sunday. I was very disappointed to see England lose, but I am still very proud of the performance of England's Men's Football Team.

 

It is no secret to say that I am not a huge football fan, to put it mildly. What impressed me the most about this England Team was not just its skill on the pitch or the fact that it had reached its first major football international Final since 1966, but the honour and decency of England, its players and its manager. Gareth Southgate is a model of leadership who could put every senior British politician to shame. He is honest, humble and takes responsibility for his actions. He leads by example and as a result he has the respect and admiration from both players and fans alike. Then there are the players, at the start of every game they have taken a knee in solidarity with black communities and all the victims of racism. The solidarity the Team showed to support Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, following the racist abuse they received following the Final, is an example for everyone to follow. Jordan Henderson during the tournament has been unafraid to act as a proud ally for England's LGBT+ fans, which included him wearing rainbow pride shoe laces during the matches.

 

The England Team of 2021 are true role models who make England proud. They lead by example and are unwavering in their support for oppressed communities. Marcus Rashford, true to his working class roots, managed to persuade the government to continue to fund free school meals during the holidays last year. His campaigning alone has done much to improve the living standards of many of the poorest children in our country. I hope the England Team of 2021 will have inspired millions of boys and girls in England and around the world, regardless of their ethnicity, sexuality or class.

 

The England Team through its actions both on and off the pitch have revealed an England which is both liberal and progressive. It is an England of which I am deeply proud of. Nothing epitomises this more than the showing of public solidarity for Rashford, Sancho and Saka following the racist abuse which they received.

 

A greater contrast could not be drawn between the actions of the England Team and their anti-racist supporters and the current Conservative government. Priti Patel referred to taking the knee as “gesture politics”, which was condemned by Tyrone Mings. Boris Johnson refused to condemn people for booing players for taking the knee. Our right-wing nationalist Tory government has even tried to downplay the impact of racism within contemporary British society. They are attempting to whip up transphobia and deny fundamental rights to transgender people. And they continue to deny social justice to the poorest and most vulnerable people in our country.

 

For so long, this Tory government has been attempting to whip up English nationalism in order to wage its own version of a right-wing culture war. As the historian, David Olusoga has pointed out, the England Team "risk exposing the false dichotomy that underpins the right’s culture war"... the "concerted campaign to present race and class as binary opposites". However, the England Team has revealed a positive, progressive English identity. One which equally challenges the social injustices faced by working class people and the racial injustices faced by black, Asian and other ethnic minority communities. This progressive English identity has always existed, but up until recent days it has lacked the means of expression on the national stage.

 

This has revealed the current Tory political class for the plastic patriots which they are. They do not care for the real England or the real United Kingdom. They turn a blind eye to racial injustice, they undermine the rights of trans people and they try and pit pro-European communities against Brexit communities. They continue to alienate the people of Scotland and seem oblivious to the looming political and diplomatic crisis on the island of Ireland over the Northern Irish border.

 

“Red Wall” areas (those constituencies in the North of England and the Midlands, with large levels of deprivation, who have historically voted Labour) are often lazily stereotyped as culturally conservative. Polling evidence from YouGov however, has shown that “Red Wall” residents are no more conservative than the average UK population. In fact, on many important issues, they have a slight liberal leaning. The overwhelming majority of “Red Wall” residents support action against climate change and support children being taught about Britain's colonial history, including the impact of the slave trade. Both environmentalism and highlighting the racial injustice of Britain's colonial past are two issues which right-wing nationalists would brand as “woke”. These are issues which despite the lazy conservative stereotype are also important to English “Red Wall” communities.

 

My England is a progressive England, which believes that Black Lives Matter, that transgender people should not be vilified for being who they are, and that poor working class schoolchildren should not be left to starve during a pandemic. Real English and British patriots stand up against injustice. All the union flags in the world cannot disguise the fact that Boris Johnson and his government are no patriots.