It appears no part of our daily lives is spared from the raging culture wars. Euro 2020, confusingly held in 2021, has already been shorn of much of its fun due to the pandemic and now finds itself at the centre of an unseemly row about taking the knee.
Players making the gesture as part of the ongoing fight against racism in the game were greeted with boos from their own fans on Sunday 6 March, turning the national game into a new battleground in the “war on woke”.
Conservative MP Lee Anderson, a “Red Wall” Tory, said he would stop watching the England team if they continued to kneel as it risked footballers “becoming like the Labour Party and that is having nothing in common with their traditional supporters”.
In contrast, Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell branded those who booed as “racists”.
Tellingly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to condemn the supporters for booing, and instead urged the country to get behind the team instead.
Even the more genteel game of cricket is defenceless against the “war”. The England Cricket Board’s (ECB) decision to suspend fast bowler Ollie Robinson over historic racist and sexist tweets scratched out fresh dividing lines in the debate.
This time both Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Mr Johnson waded in to criticise the ECB’s decision as being “over the top”, backed by dozens of Conservative MPs.
The Government has rarely missed an opportunity to take up arms in the culture wars as it aims to bolster its position among its new Red Wall voters. But ministers should exert caution in playing too often to one section of the gallery or risk turning off its more liberally minded voters.
It is also unwise to believe vast parts of the country have dramatically different social views to the rest of the country. Polling by YouGov in May showed Red Wall voters were no more socially conservative than the rest of the country. Perhaps politicians would be better served to leave sport out of the culture wars.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3uYwZHC
Post a Comment