Mab of Dream

Me and Mum counted the flags on cars only, from the Scotlands to Wyrley, and they numbered 66! That's a 10 minute car journey for those who don't know north Wolverhampton (actually, isn't that everyone... LOL).

I found it highly amusing and tittered when I got that e-mail, about those with a low IQ are now required to fly a St George's flag from their cars. When I pledge allegiance to a flag, it tends to be the Wolves flag or the Draig Goch. Football is my religion, as much as everyone else's in Britain, as long as the colours are burned gold and black, but the higher levels tend to pass me by. Other than amusement, I haven't really given it much thought. (For those outside England, right now the entire of the country is covered in St George's flags - white with a red cross on it. By covered I mean that in 10 minutes you can count 66 flying from the cars along; they are also flying from flag-poles, from windows, from the necks of children; the major fashion right now is to be wearing an England shirt of some description - whether it be the official one or a mock up one from Bilston Market.)

The thing is, I've never seen this country so patriotic. I've seen it decked in the Union Jack, which I personally find distasteful - too many connotations with the BNP and NF, not to mention what the Union Jack STANDS for (neither the Welsh Draig Goch nor the Northern Irish Red Hand of Ulster are present at all, but what is there is the English St George's flag stamped over the Scottish St Andrew's flag. Apparently the original version was the St Andrews over the St George's, but there was a near riot and it was swapped. Given the times, the Scottish weren't in a position to fight very hard at all.) To me, it doesn't represent Great Britain. It represents England ruling over the Celtic nations, which, while honest, is a little insensitive methinks.

I would be quite happy to see the Union Jack banned, simple as that.

But since Saturday, I've been looking at all of the St George's flags and thinking about it. This is English nationalism and I applaud that. The more that the English find their own voice and identity, the better, because until now England seems to have only found representation in how well it can drown the identities of other nations and people. The Union Jack is fucking over the Celts; the big nationalist songs - 'Rule Britannia' (Britannia rules the waves'), 'Land of Hope and Glory' ('Wider still and wider, shall thy borders be set, God who made thee mighty, shall make thee mightier yet', even the National Anthem ('Send her Victorious') are all about the British Empire, colonizing countries far away, so we can get rich while they get poorer.

Right now, there seems to be a move towards finding an Englishness that is English for itself - tea, crumpets, strawberries and cream, the St George's flag, the football team - and that's bloody brilliant! :-D I was sitting in my car last night, cleaning the windows on the inside (and messing up my neck big time, but that's a different story), and I suddenly heard singing. The goosebumps went up on my arms and I switched my tape off to hear it. I haven't direction of sound, so I didn't know which way to face, but I listened to a group of men singing in rich tenors and baritones. It didn't matter what they were singing, they made it great, but incidentally it was 'I'm H-A-P-P-Y, I'm H-A-P-P-Y, I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm H-A-P-P-Y', intercepted with strains of 'En-ger-land, En-ger-land, En-ger-land'... it sounded like a male voice choir! LOL And it turned out to be not one but several groups, coming down different roads towards the Old Quarry. I don't know what they were doing over there, but I watched around 30-40 people, mainly blokes, but one or two wenches too, going over the pit, whose entrance is 50 yards from my front door. I nearly went over, but I didn't. If I had a St George's flag too, I might have gone, but I have a Draig Goch and I'll go instead to hear the blokes of the Rhondda sing their own tunes; or, more likely, I have a 'Pride of the Black Country' flag with a wolf on it, I'll go when they sing 'Hi Ho Wolverhampton' and sing at the top of my voices with them. You can't steal others identities and so I didn't go.

I didn't put my tape back on, I listened to the sound of England Calling instead and grinned at their awakening identity.

Soooooo Wayne Rooney scored again, did he? 4-2? Good lad.

yours

Matti (or Mab, if you're reading this on Kindly Ones)

xxxxx

Posted by: Mab / 10:57 am