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07/06/06 : Sodding world cup

World cup fever is about to hit the UK again.

Not liking football - or being patriotic (which I see as a socially acceptable form of xenophobia) - I find this deeply irritating. It's not just that the TV schedules are taken over by football - virtually everything media wise suddenly has a football theme - even advertisements for things that have nothing whatsoever to do with "the beautiful game".

The thing that pisses me off the most though? The complete turds who, in between the grunting chants of "in - ger - land", think it's a great idea to stick English flags everywhere. On their cars, on their clothing, hanging from their windows ... everywhere. Still, I suppose if I get amnesia I'll at least know what country I'm in.

This, from the ever brilliant Charlie Brooker:

Rejoice! Thanks to the national obsession with football, the cross of St George has finally been reclaimed from the racists. Nowadays, when you see an England flag on a car, sprawled across a T-shirt, or flapping from a novelty hat, you no longer assume the owner is a dot-brained xenophobe. Instead you assume he's just an idiot. And you're right. He is.

Read the whole thing here. The comments are fun too - I particularly liked this one:

I am assuming that Mr. Brooker also considers those that wear overt product labels on their clothes as being suitably idiotic.

I would guess that he does, yes.