y va marquer wrote:Sounds quite bigoted to me to imply that people who are proud to be English are potential fascists.
"Rainy fascism island" is tongue in cheek of course, it's a fairly common internet joke (Australia then being "sunny fascism island").
All nationalism has a fascist element. Forcing sportspeople to salute the flag, swear oaths, sing the anthem etc and cracking down on them when they don't? Sport gets used as a tool to try to determine the allegiance of ordinary people to government authority. Meanwhile even the left side of the British Parliament is running on "tough controls on migration" etc …
I can certainly respect an Irish republican not wanting to have a bar of the British national anthem, even if he is one of the "bad ones" or whatever …
Please bear in mind I used the word 'tendency' …