England 動かすs...

This is the season for 飛行機で行くing 旗s: 旗s on cars, 旗s in windows, 旗s on houses. Some 大臣s make us cringe by waving them. Shops are doing 広大な／多数の／重要な 貿易（する） selling them.

For as much of the next weeks as Wayne Rooney's sacred foot makes possible, a host of people up and 負かす／撃墜する the land will follow the 旗 in a fashion that might impress Kitchener's ghost. And yet, what 旗 is this?

At the 1966 World Cup, or indeed at any big 冒険的な event until recently, the only emblem which any English person would have thought of hoisting was that of the Union.

We have always known that the Welsh don't do much サッカー and the Scots hate cricket, but that was not the point. The Union 旗 was the 国家の symbol of England and Britain, which were understood to be interchangeable.

Until very recently the only time I can remember seeing St George's Cross 飛行機で行く was on a West End 行う／開催する／段階 around 1950 during a 生産／産物 of that wonderfully soppy Victorian children's melodrama Where The Rainbow Ends.

Few of you will be old enough to remember that its story 関心s a group of children, unlucky enough to find themselves in trouble with dragons. They 召喚する St George to the 救助（する） by making a 旗 out of knickers and 略章s. In 1950, we all sobbed.

If the play was 生き返らせるd these days, the audience of streetwise 21st-century children would have to be 問題／発行するd with sick 捕らえる、獲得するs. The point here is that for centuries, St George's 旗 was almost unknown to most British people. The only 信頼できる symbol of patriotism, on the 戦場 or the sports field, was the Union 旗.

The fact that today, in this World Cup season, the old 基準 has become invisible 反映するs a sea-change in 態度s within the 部隊d Kingdom. It is possible to date the start of the 過程 surprisingly 正確に／まさに.

It was 1967, and England were playing Scotland. Before such matches, 支持者s of both 味方するs had 伝統的に sung God Save The Queen. This time, howe ver, to the amazement and 当惑 of the organisers, when English 支持者s started singing the 国家の 国家, many Scots booed.

By 1976, Scottish 感情 had become so rabid that the Scottish Football 協会, with 政府 是認, introduced Flower Of Scotland as a 代用品，人. Mr Tripp's 見解（をとる） was 利益／興味ing, because he was sales director of 海がめ & Pearce, the company that had been making 旗s for Britain's 明言する／公表する buildings since 1871.

'I find myself 狼狽d by the anglophobia often 遭遇（する）d north of the 国境'

His peroration on に代わって of the English ended: "We'll look after ourselves. I think England is discovering a sense of itself." This seemed true when he spoke in 1998, and is even more true today. The English are belatedly stirring, in the 直面する of Celtic greed and 敵意.

Having loved Scotland all my life as a 訪問者, these days I find myself 狼狽d by the anglophobia often 遭遇（する）d north of the 国境.

Many Scots, of course, remain as delightful and friendly as they always were. But hardly a day goes by without some McPigmy in the Scottish 議会 説 something disagreeable about the English ― and the 病気 is catching.

At Scottish pubs and 石油 駅／配置するs, an English accent often 刺激するs unenthusiastic vibrations from behind the 反対する. English friends who own 所有物／資産／財産 up north 会合，会う 重要な 敵意 from some 地元の people.

In 田舎の むちの跡s, too, there is 憤慨 of English wealth and second-home owners. The gravy train of English taxpayers' money 注ぐd into ridiculous Welsh language 事業／計画（する）s has brimmed to 洪水ing, but not enough to still 敵意.

It is plain that Ulster's historic 運命 is sooner or later to be 再会させるd with the Irish 共和国. Where once the south was a poor 隣人, now it is a much richer relation. Many Northern Ireland Protestants dislike us, the English, even more than the Scots or Welsh do.

Yet curiously enough, the 信奉者s of dreadf ul old Ian Paisley 粘着する to us for the 推論する／理由 that once 与える／捧げるd mightily to the 団結 of the 部隊d Kingdom: 憎悪 of their カトリック教徒 隣人s.

Now that we English have become a 大部分は irreligious people, we forget how powerful was the Protestant 社債.

For several centuries, 恐れる of mighty カトリック教徒 フラン and カトリック教徒 Spain 原因（となる）d the Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish stick together like glue until long after Waterloo. Now, only the last-ditchers of Northern Ireland still rant on about the 'scarlet harlot of Rome', and mean it.

'The history of the British 小島s for the past half-century has been that of England getting richer'

The other 広大な／多数の／重要な historic binding 軍隊 of the 部隊d Kingdom was, of course, empire.

Scots, in particular, recognised that 株ing Britain's 世界的な dominion gave them a 火刑／賭ける in something much bigger than they could ever have aspired to on their own.

Scots 兵士s, 仲買人s, engineers fought, made fortunes and built 鉄道s and 橋（渡しをする）s from Calgary to Calcutta. It was a Scot, James Thomson, who wrote 支配する Brittannia in 1740.

Even though most of the Irish never welcomed British 支配する, they fought with us 熱望して enough, in those wonderfully 指名するd 連隊s the Connaught 特別奇襲隊員s, the Munsters and Leinsters, the Dublin Fusiliers, on a hundred 戦場s across the globe.

Likewise the Welsh ― although the 24th Foot was not a Welsh 連隊, many Welshmen served in its 階級s at one of the most famous 皇室の 戦う／戦いs of all, the January 1879 defence of Rorke's Drift's against the Zulus.

Empire reached its apogee, and its last hurrah, in World War II. This ― and World War I ― gave a 新たにするd 賃貸し（する） of life to the 部隊d Kingdom, as all its 構成要素 nations 株d the greatest ありふれた experience of the 20th century.

For １０年間s afterwards, the memory kept alive 深い 感情s in the minds of all who had fought together under the Union 旗.

Yet, as the 戦時 世代 老年の, the most 損失ing 軍隊 of all began to play on the spirit of union: 産業の 拒絶する／低下する in the north and west.

The history of the British 小島s for the past half-century has been that of England getting richer, while the lands of steel, coal, mills and shipyards have languished and grown bitter.

Mrs Thatcher, as 首相, 強めるd 憤慨 by using Scotland as her testbed for the 投票 税金.

'In the 最近の past, the English were the least nationalistic people in the 部隊d Kingdom

In truth, it has not been the fault of the English that むちの跡s and Scotland have 苦しむd so much.

Celtic remoteness and the 拒絶する／低下する of 伝統的な 産業s have been matched by a 拒絶する／低下する of entrepreneurial spirit which even homegrown Scottish 商売／仕事 調査するs 認める.

Today, Scotland's 全住民 numbers are 支えるd only by the influx of English 退職 families. Glasgow languishes. The English 補助金 of Scotland ― to the tune of about £1,000 a year apiece ― only 料金d Scots' self-pity.

They embraced Mel Gibson's idiotic movie Braveheart, which 説得するd many younger Scots that they could 再構築する a culture out of hating the English.

Our northern 隣人 is today in danger of becoming the home of 20th-century lost 原因（となる）s, a metropolis of the 明言する／公表する-dependency culture. This would be a 悲劇の 運命／宿命 for a once-広大な／多数の／重要な nation, and it is absurd to 非難する us southerners for it.

In the 最近の past, the English were the least nationalistic people in the 部隊d Kingdom.

A 1996 調査する 設立する that 64 per cent of Scots and 41 per cent of Welsh people thought of themselves as Scottish and Welsh rather than British; yet only 25 per cent of the English felt explicitly English.

Today, however, those 人物／姿／数字s are changing. A growing number of English people are 主張するing their 身元 ― and not only at World Cup time.

Irritation is turning to real 怒り／怒る; that while the Scots are not very nice to us, Scottish 政治家，政治屋s 主張する a grotesquely d isproportionate 影響（力） over English 事件／事情／状勢s, and give their own people an extravagant 株 of our money.

Northern Irish 政治家，政治屋s play the 逆転する game: they scarcely bother to 参加する in Westminster 審議s, unless there is something in them for Ulster.

株d values?

Of all the 統一するing 軍隊s which once bound the 部隊d Kingdom ― 宗教, empire, a 承認 of 株d 経済的な 利益／興味, memory of both World Wars and 忠誠 to the 栄冠を与える ― only the 君主国 is left.

One of the Queen's most 重要な 役割s today, of which she is 深く，強烈に conscious, is as an emotional link between the UK's parts.

Jeremy Paxman wrote shrewdly 支援する in 1998: "The English are rediscovering the past that was buried when 'Britain' was created, and inventing a new 未来. The red-white-and-blue is no longer 関連した, and they are returning to the green of England.

"The new 国家主義 is いっそう少なく likely to be based on 旗s and 国家s. It is modest, individualistic, ironic ― based on values that are so 深く，強烈に embedded in the culture as to be almost unconscious."

What are those values?

支援する in 1940, the BBC ― which until recently was one of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 軍隊s for 国家の まとまり in the century ― formed a 委員会 to identify them. Its answers were: a love of tradition and order; a belief in 寛容 and fair play; and, of course, a sense of humour.

支援する in 1932, a Dutch academic 指名するd G.J. Renier wrote a 調書をとる／予約する する権利を与えるd The English: Are They Human? which 達成するd a 抱擁する popular sale here.

Unafraid of clich?s, the author identified the Scots as 'proud, intelligent, 宗教的な and unfathomable'; the Welsh as 'minute, musical, clever and temperamental'; the Irish as 'charming, untruthful, bloodthirsty and unreliable'. The English, as 'unintellectual, 制限するd, stubborn, 安定した, pragmatic, silent and reliable'.

Today, any 後継者 to Renier would find us much noisier and more extrovert than 70 years ago, and also いっそう少なく tolerant.

We do not want John Prescott's idiotic 地域の 政府s. We have heard more than enough about everybody else's 権利s, at the expense of our own.

It is too much to hope or 推定する／予想する that the Scots and Welsh, far いっそう少なく the Northern Irish, will suddenly discover a 広大な／多数の／重要な emotional enthusiasm for the 部隊d Kingdom. Northern Ireland will probably 再会させる with the Irish 共和国 in the next 世代. Only the British island will then remain.

むちの跡s is too small to think of going anywhere else. The Scots will grudgingly stay on board, because the money is too good for them not to.

Here in England, I think we shall hear much more of this country's 指名する. As Jeremy Paxman 示唆するd, we are rediscovering an English 身元, 大部分は 軍隊d upon by us by the behaviour of our Scottish 隣人s.

In many 尊敬（する）・点s, such a 復活 is 延滞の, and welcome.

Yet I hope that English 国家主義 does not mean that in the 未来 we shall favour the 旗 of St George over that of the Union, other than in footballcompetitions.

This country has done such 広大な／多数の／重要な and wonderful things under the old 旗, that it will be a 悲劇 if our 国家の symbol is ever （太陽，月の）食／失墜d.