Opinion : The flags of St. George are…. nowhere to be seen

England! England! England! Were my cries as we scored our first goal against the Russians in Euro 2016 on Saturday evening.

At the time I was sitting in an armchair watching the big match on my neighbours television, indeed several of us gathered for a football party and to show support for our team.

Looking around the streets of Wycombe it’s hard to tell that a football competition is happening at all.

In yesteryear motorists would be driving around with miniature flags flying from the windows of their vehicles. But this time around there yours truly has yet to see so much as a St. George design wing mirror cover let along a flag flying.

In previous competitions large flags draped have even from the windows of houses showing support for England or other teams taking part. Not this time though.

A few of the public houses around town have flags out, but then again you would expect that in order to drum up trade and entice supporters in. Very few of the ordinary people are showing any support at all.

So what’s wrong? Have we all abandoned the England football team? If so it’s a shame because they have a very exciting team line up as demonstrated in last Saturday’s match.

Is there a problem with the availability of flags and the like? Well, the shops in the town aren’t exactly full of such items, but then again these days everyone has access to the internet and after a quick look there were literally hundreds of flags, banners, etc…. available to purchase.

Maybe the problem is that people have become afraid to show their patriotism? After all so many of our festivals, like Christmas have become targets for the politically correct brigade, so perhaps these day’s it’s not PC to show support for one team in preference to another.

It’s not just the England supporters who are quiet though. Where are the Polish and Romanian supporters flags? After all Wycombe has a large Polish community and they seem to be quiet too.

As for my good self, well, I don’t have time for all this politically correct gibberish. I’m English and I shall not be deterred from supporting England, the three lions will be displayed on my shirt with pride and not hidden away in fear of upsetting anyone else.

What do you think?

*My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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