Yesterday two completely different audiences watched two aspects of our country highlighting the enormous prevailing gap in our increasingly polarised society.
Last night of the proms provided a group of hopelessly misguided, and without meaning to sound to bitchy, universally ugly white middle England types with the annual opportunity for gratuitous flag waving. The celebrating of a heritage mostly based on a mythology perpetrated by part time nationalists, those whose idea of pride and identity involves waving a plastic flag once a year whilst singing along to what is essentially second rate classical music.
For me the worst part of all this is the real agenda lurking just beneath the surface, that of bare faced racism. Individuals using the opportunity to indulge in a token fist shaking at the so called political correctness that has tainted their warped ideas of England’s green and pleasant land. The whole thing is like some kind of hideous joke, essentially an educated BNP meeting attended by pasty suburbanites.
Rule Britannia my arse.
This stands in contrast to Olympic boxer Amihr Khan watching Bolton play Man U at the Reebok stadium as guest of honour. Okay so football is football and we all know it’s got it’s faults, but you know sometimes it can be poetry to watch and for the fans it’s an honest expression that carries with it no ominous undertones. Every week the backbone of the country turn out to celebrate the real England in the form of foreign players like Henry, Okocha and Reyes. A genuine British experience rooted in yesteryear that is still relevant in today’s modern society.