We should be busy pouring adulation upon an England team that exceeded expectations. Southgate’s England – encapsulated in his Dear England letter before this year’s tournament began – is united, youthful and instinctively forward-thinking. For Boris Johnson’s government, the booing of the England team in the buildup to the tournament was a moment freighted with potential. Instead they spoke through silence; refusing to condemn them and dismissing the taking of the knee by England’s players as “gesture politics”. But the shame and shock that many people feel at the abuse directed against England’s black players will not halt the drumbeat of calculated provocation and wilful division that has helped bring us to this point.

Source: The Guardian July 13, 2021 04:52 UTC