THE NEWS

Jun. 8th, 2004 04:05 pm
kingandy: (Wandering Blossom)
[personal profile] kingandy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_3777000/3777753.stm

An interesting (if simplistic) piece from the Children's BBC team on how HP3 got its "PG" rating. Basically: Children's movies are allowed to be a bit scarier, because being a children's movie you know everything will turn out alright. Hmm... I don't know, I'm not sure that reasoning holds up to close scrutiny, but I can't easily put it into words. They're right when they say that the majority of the audience will have read it already, though.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3786397.stm

Speak Your Brains: Is flying England's flag right? There's a variety of opinions there, ranging from worries that the St George's Cross has been co-opted by racist bigots, to those who don't see what the fuss is about and don't know why you'd wave a flag anyway ("Birthplace is fairly arbitrary"), by way of those who believe they should be able to show their patriotism and racist bigots be damned. Personally I'm with the people who don't particularly see the point, but I also think it's a shame that those who do like to wave a flag only seem to feel the need to do it during football tournaments. They're not saying "Our country is the best", they're saying "Our lads can beat your lads at football".

The reason it's been co-opted to an extent by the far right, of course, is that they've taken "Our country is best" and extended it to "because all foreigners are dirty and should stay where they belong", which is much worse. Given the choice, I think a world in which people could support their team at sporting events without raising unfortunate associations would be a good one. But then, I'd quite like a world in which people could support their teams without painting their country's flags on their enormous distended bellies, which currently seems sadly out of the question.

Right, that's quite enough half-baked drivel from me for now.

Date: 2004-06-08 09:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arwel.livejournal.com
It's not even that I associate it particularly with the far right. To me it represents that particular brand of almost casual racism and xenophobia that people seem to get away with, particularly against the French, Germans and of late imigrants.

Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I definatley see Welsh flag waving as a more innocent gesture. It would still make me cringe to see it flapping on cars with the frequency that I've seen the St. George's cross of late. It's just not a classy thing to do.

What do you read into when you see people waving the Welsh flag, or even the Scotish one? Do you feel any amount of anti-English sentiment behind it?

Date: 2004-06-08 09:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stsquad.livejournal.com
"What do you read into when you see people waving the Welsh flag, or even the Scotish one? Do you feel any amount of anti-English sentiment behind it?"

Proud to be Welsh/Scottish? I think is most cases it simply is that. I'm sure to some Scots/Welsh it may represent them standing up to the English oppression but is that a reason to deny all the others the chance to celebrate their nation?

I was listening to the debate on 5 live on the way in this morning and one of the panelists was continually asserting that all ethnic minorities felt threatened by the flag even though people who where of ethnic origin phoning in saying they had no problem with it and flew the flag themselves. By the end of the phone in it seemed to me this guy had convinced himself that the St George's flag was inherently racist because it had white in it and the only solution was to design a new one to which "they" had input. I had to discount his opinion in the end because he didn't advance the argument apart from a "I'm right, your wrong" approach. Political correctness gone mad I tell you...



Date: 2004-06-08 09:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samharber.livejournal.com
I seem to remember the uptake of the St Georges Cross by football fans only really happened AFTER the Scotiish had done the same in teh early 80's. My memory is hazy, but I recall images of thousands of scots painted up and waving flags coming down to england (before being forced to return without ever getting off the train due to fears of hooliganism) and the english being very, well, british about it.

I blame the Sun.

Date: 2004-06-08 09:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arwel.livejournal.com
"I blame the Sun."

As do I. I wonder if we'll be treated to those wonderful plastic bowler hats daubed with the St. George's cross this year.

Date: 2004-06-08 10:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samharber.livejournal.com
Wouldn't that be nice. It would be just like a trip to Blackpool, but with less risk of food poisoning.

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