Footballing Revisionism

So, we're in that phase now when British politicians pretend that they like football.  The sight of various government figures - who had previously effectively encouraged people to boo the England football team for taking the knee - suddenly asking us to believe that they now fully embrace the team's success in their progress to the final of Euro 2020, is more than a little perplexing.  Surely one of the more bizarre - let alone audacious -attempts at double think and historical revisionism yet attempted by the Johnson government, it is yet another indication of the utter contempt with which they view the electorate.  Yet they still keep getting the votes.  Quite extraordinary.  But nothing succeeds like success and politicians always like to associate themselves with successful ventures, hoping that some of the shine will rub off on them or, even better, that they will be able to claim credit for it.  I mean, if we were to believe Harold Wilson back in 1966, he, Jim Callaghan and Roy Jenkins had all been on the England team sheet in the World Cup Final and that he had scored the winning goal.  Indeed, Wilson laid some of the blame for his government's unexpected defeat in the 1970 general election on England's failure to retain the trophy, believing that the consequent 'feel good' factor could have be capitalised upon to carry Labour to electoral victory.  

But this present Tory government's attempts to hijack the England football bandwagon at this late stage is remarkable by any standards.  After refusing to condemn those 'fans' booing the team for expressing their opposition to racism on the grounds that the 'fans' likewise were only exercising their freedom of speech, we now have Home Secretary Priti Patel taking to social media to praise the England team for progressing to the final.  Oh, and we've also had the awful spectacle of professional public school bully Jacob Rees-Mogg quoting the lyrics from 'World in Motion' in the Commons, as if this somehow indicates that he somehow likes football, let alone knows what it is.  I mean, really, does he really think that he can convince anyone that he doesn't actually see the average football fan as some awful lower class oik that should be kept in penury and serfdom?  Then again, as - judging by the booing of other teams' national anthems and taking the knee by players - a not insignificant proportion of them appear to be bigots and xenophobes, he might have some common ground with them.  The most telling of these bandwagon-hopping pieces of photo opportunism is probably the picture of Chancellor Rishi Sunak wearing an England shirt which subsequent photos of him taking it off clearly show, still has the sales tags on it.  Well, at least he can claim that by keeping them on, he was able to take it straight back to Sports Direct for a refund, thereby saving the Exchequer a few quid.  Still, if England win on Sunday, there'll be a publicity feeding frenzy on the part of the government, with knighthoods all round for - arise Sir Harry Kane.  But if they lose, they'll be back to being a bunch of weak-minded idiots duped by the deep Woke conspiracy into unwittingly disseminating neo-Marxism by taking the knee.  It's all bullshit, isn't it?