Dear Messenger,
Just thought I had to reply to the letter from Phil Hutchinson last issue about the craze for displaying the flag of St George. I mean, “narrow-minded nationalism and retrogressive petty triumphalism”. The thing is Phil I think you’ve been so busy reading your dictionary that you didn’t realise there was a football tournament taking place (Euro 2004).
If you stopped 99.9% of the people sporting these flags, you’d probably find that’s all it’s about. Stop looking for sub-conscious racism that doesn’t exist and realise that someone waving the flag of their country doesn't mean there’s a hidden agenda.
I’ve just come back from Jamaica, where you see the national flag flown with pride everywhere you go. Does that make them narrow-minded nationalists? I certainly don’t think so. So why is it different in England?
Simon Lewis