by HMKGrey » Fri May 05, 2006 1:11 am
The way England is changing is very interesting to me. Partly as an ex-pat but also as a curious person in general. I'm not surprised that the BNP is making strides. They were making huge strides in the mid to late 80's and while the economic situation isn't particularly similar now, there are other factors that probably play to them - though I don't think they're necessarily hugely sinister so much as reflective of a pretty simple society (at blue collar levels) grappling with it's own sense of identity. FWIW...<br><br>Up until 1996 the red and white cross of St George flag had been almost completely appropriated by the racist right wing as their own symbol. You could pretty much be arrested for wearing it openly and prominently on clothing or carrying it as a flag. That's how bad it had become. It was an actual symbol of racist thinking. Then came Euro 96 - the European Nations Football Tournament - which was held in England, the first major soccer tournament to be held in the UK since the 1966 World Cup. <br><br>Realising that the home nation had effectively surrendered its flag and that the Union Jack would be the wrong flag to represent the tournament - particularly as England would play Scotland in the opening stages of teh tournament, the English Football Association, aided by the press, lead a succesful campaign to rehabilitate the cross of St George and make it once again a respectable banner that represented England in isolation from its counterparts in the British Isles. <br><br>England performed well in the tournament - eventually losing heroically in a semi-final to Germany in a penalty shoot out. [Cue headlines: We didn't win the war on penalties!]<br><br>Significantly, of the tens of thousands of fans that attended games a huge percentage arrived wearing, carrying and painted in the red and white flag. My father who'd been watching England teams for 50 years told me he'd never seen anything like it. Further, the crowds were massively multi-cultural. Every age, every race... In June 1996, the whole country seemed to celebrate itself. <br><br>This, combined with the heroics of individual players, created an immense feel-good factor in England and could probably be said to have kicked off Brit pop and much of the 'Cool Britannia' fever that soon followed. I've read in more than one of the broadsheets of the time how Euro 96, together with the reclamation of the flag <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>gave England its self respect back</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. <br><br>In some ways, I think this was the mass consumer high that was all but inevitable at the end of the rave era (1988-1993) which had broken down many class and race barriers. By 1993 domestic football violence was all but gone, black music dominated the charts (and would do so for most of the next decade) and London had returned to something approaching the swinging, muticultural metropolis that it is routinely described as. <br><br>So far so good. <br><br>For me the first hints that something was wrong came while watching Live 8. I noticed that the crowd shots from Hyde Park revealed an almost exclusively white audience. This was in total contrast to the London I remembered as being densely packed with what seemed like the essence of every country and large city on the planet. Of course, like any big city London tended to be compartmentalized even back in the 90's but what set London apart was that Londoners of all colors and persuasions always knew how to come together and celebrate or protest. As far as I know this has always been true and the rave scene had simply made it aregular and more intimate occurrence. <br><br>Then, it wasn't long until someone pointed out to me that the UK pop charts are now almost exclusively white. In fact, earlier this year the entire Top 20 singles and album charts were both 'white' for the first time in more than a decade. <br><br>I was in London a month ago and went drinking in the West End with a friend. We finished the night in a lounge in Goodge St and I noticed immediately that everyone in there was white. I asked my friends about this and he simply said that that's the way things have become now. Things used to mix up a lot but not any more. He didn't think it was racism so much as that after years of mixing people had simply reverted back to type. There had been a big old party for a while and now it was over and people had simply gone back to where they'd come from. <br><br>Physically and mentally, I guess he meant. <br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
