As you enter the store, you’re greeted by an aisle decorated with 47 national flags. One of the 48 flag positions is empty. There’s a gap where the England flag should be. Possibly nicked?
The aisle features things to buy to consume during the football: fajita kits and dips, Coca-Cola, chocolates, crisps and snacks, boxes of beer and cider and bottles of wines, including the Kylie Minogue range.
England face Argentina in a World Cup semi-final this evening, and Tesco Extra in Abingdon is getting behind the team with the message: ‘Make History England.’
The store background music as I walked between the aisles was ‘Jerusalem’ and that helped to create a patriotic warm feeling.
There’s also a mini football pitch where children can test their shooting skills.
Whatever happens tonight, Tesco Extra in Abingdon have made the most of the world cup. There was also a buzz of excitement in town as people congregated on a warm evening at different pubs and locations to watch the game.
No. A gap where the English flag should be? Perhaps if is the recent propaganda where the English flag is to be feared. Really? It is good to be patriotic. I have just returned from America where nearly every house flies the American flag all the time.
Do Americans fly the fag because they have a view that the USA is unique, which fuels their patriotism?
I don’t think the English take the same exceptional view of their country. In part this is because our political identity is fused with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish sensibilities and histories, requiring compromise and adjustment. Those qualities don’t make for simple patriotism that marks the American experience.
Trump complains about an American player getting a red flag. The English red card was simply accepted as the ref’s decision. Two different ways of expressing national identity: I know which I prefer.
And do we want schoolchildren to begin every day with flag in the corner of the classroom? And which flag?