Apparantly a leading politician has called for Scotland to back Trinidad and Tobago in the forthcoming Football/Soccer World Cup in Germany, instead of neighbouring England. Of course, there has been a mild outcry by the shocked rest of the British Islands, mainly London, that Scotland would dare to support anybody else but England, and anti-english sentiments are blamed for it. Most of the mainstream media is based in London and often focuses on news in England, with the British Parliament based there as well. Because of the history of oppression, many Scottish people seem to tease nowadays some Southerners with weird results of the devolution.
First, I was quite happy to hear the news: “How nice that Scotland is always sympathetic and supportive to the Underdog”, I thought. “Maybe this Scottish politician just went through the list of participating countries and picked the smallest one with the least chance of winning. ”
But hah, how naive of me! The reason of why the call was made, one of my fellow students explained, “is that actually most foreign players in Scottish teams are from Trinidad and Tobago than from any other country.”
Comments
Comment by Seymour Veer on 2006-06-12 22:00:00 +0100
I am an imigrant who now lives in Somerset (nowhere near London!) & I will be supporting England. I am quite shocked at both the Scottish & Welsh residents here in Somerset who support ANY TEAM but England. It seems so small minded especially when the English allways support the Welsh or the Scots and the English have no problem with significant numbers of Welsh & Scots actually coming to live here! It seems to be they are acting like the jealous younger sibling. Only when they are mature & sufficiently self confident will they support England.
Comment by chridman on 2006-06-13 10:58:38 +0100
When England failed to qualify for the World Cup and the European Championships, and Scotland did, i was happy to support Scotland. Yes, England has treated Scotland badly many centuries ago, but isn’t it time to forget that now? Why should the Scottish enjoy all the benefits of being a member of the UK, living in England, etc. and then hate the English? Aren’t we all just British? Perhaps it would be a good thing if we had a British
football team, as we do in the Olympics!
From Chridman, born in England but proud to have a British passport.
Comment by Neil Ged on 2006-07-06 10:53:06 +0100
Firstly; the Scottish do not hate the English. Scots not supporting the English football team
is due to a long running (largely one sided though it may be) footballing rivalry. This
rivalry is similar to that between England and Germany (the Germans do not see England as
their main rivals) and England and Argentina (Ok this one is mutual).
Secondly; where you have a country which is split into identifiable groups (England, Scotland,
Wales & Northern Ireland) you do tend to find a rivalry between them. This rivalry naturaly
tends to eminate negatively from the smaller groups to the larger groups and is down to
simple human nature.
Thirdly; to deal with some other related issues:
“Scottish MP’s can vote on Issues outside Scotland for which non Scottish MP’s have no say
in Scotland” – Not met a Scot who would agree this is fair. We didn’t vote for devolution to
control Britain, rather to have more say in our own afairs (nothing wrong with this surely).
– “no Scot shold be Prime Minister”. As British PM this position must be open to all British
MP’s.
-“England should have it’s own devolved parliment”. If that’s what you want lobby hard and
get one, it’s what the rest of us had to do.