Just watched the first episode, and what seemed odd to me was that the english people watching the football match in pubs and at their homes, were waving Union Jacks and wore Union Jack hats. A quick google image search proved this to be accurate.
Can anybody tell me why people back then weren't waving english flags instead? Seems to me they were supporting Great Britain rather than England. And in footy this seems silly.
JG
England flags were relatively rare then and the Union flag was automatically regarded as the country's flag by most English people. Most English people would have described themselves as British and to have called yourself English - unless pushed to make a distinction - would have seemed like you were deliberately making a political point rather than being simply more precise.
I suspect that it was the later rise of the devolution movements in Scotland and Wales which made English people aware that there was an increasing need for a distinction between England and Britain - which lead to the greater use of the English flag when it came to sporting events.
Even then, it took a long time for most people to get used to seeing anyone who waved an England flag as not necessarily being particularly antagonistic towards other UK countries or excessively nationalistic.
to come to the discussion 2 years late,....I am glad you call the flag the UNION FLAG rather than the UNION JACK which is what most people wrongly call it.
I don't agree with your comments,it is a fact supported by photos and newsfilm that the crowds at the 1966 World Cup Final mostly waved Union Flags,indeed somewhere I have a copy of the final programme and it has a Union Flag on the cover.
But I don't recall seeing english flags very often except on Church Of England churches and on English hertiage owned buildings.
Seeing english flags was indeed unusual years ago.
I was born in 1960 and when the National Front were big news 1975-1980s they carried union flags on their demos,which in turn poisoned our flag for decent people (I an a Scottish/British person voting to stay in union with England.)
In the 1970s the Conservative Party had a logo with the Union Flag on it which was controversial because the flag does not just belong to one party.
Anyway I don't recall the NATIONAL FRONT or the BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY flying the English flag but I do recall seeing UKIP on tv driving around in Land Rovers with English flags on them,which is daft because they are called UKIP.
ib011f9545i:
Thanks for your comment. I agree, and always did, that English people used the Union Flag at sporting events until fairly recently and very rarely the English flag. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.
Where I agree I was wrong was in misremembering that movements like the National Front mainly used the English Flag. You are right that they mainly, if not exclusively, used the Union Flag. The memory plays odd tricks.
I've changed my original comment and hope it is clearer.
Regards.
St George Crosses began appearing at England matches in larger numbers in 1990. Then Euro 1996 happened and the Union Flag was dead as an emblem of the England team. It was the FA's branding machine that helped more than enything
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