(yes, I do realise I’m using a baseball metaphor as a headline for a post about football. Just ignore it)

So Gordon Brown has apparently said he’ll support England in the 2018 World Cup. Aside from the fact that caring about the 2018 World Cup 11 years beforehand is completely ridiculous, why is this an issue at all? The Independent describes it as “another thinly-disguised attempt to boost his appeal to voters south of the border”, but has anyone stopped to consider that, oh, Gordon Brown might actually be quite happy supporting England? It may be a long way off, but judging from experience Scotland will fail to qualify for the World Cup again in 2018, so it could be a purely strategic decision. Not all of us have to follow the advice of our wise First Minister and support Trinidad and Tobego over our Union neighbours. Yes, I am a Scot who gets annoyed over the equating of ‘England’ with ‘Britain’ (and as someone who’s lived for a long time in the States I’ve put up with my fair share of “oh, is Scotland that bit at the top of England?”), and I know few who aren’t. But when papers are going on and on about the SNP resurgence and a possible referendum on independence, why do they assume we’re all so rabidly anti-English? It’s true that a large proportion of Scots spend the length of the World Cup supporting any team playing against England, but I, and many other people (probably including Mr Brown himself), find the idea of a patriotism rooted entirely in anti-English feeling puerile. Most of us have English relatives and friends, frequently come to England on holiday (or to university, of course), and at the same time are proud of the fact we have a devolved Parliament, separate education system, separate health service, etc., etc. You don’t have to be anti-English to be Scottish, and it’s quite possible to be Scottish and British at the same time. I should know, I’ve tried it.

And, ironically enough, last May Jack McConnell said of his decision “football is not about politics”!

Filed under: gordonbrown, scotland, ukpolitics on January 20th, 2007