You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party

The British Government has announced plans to reduce the potential for violence at this years Ronald McDonald Schadenfreude FIFA World Cup, at least the part that so-called England fans can participate in. New legislation before Parliament will allow the Police and CPS to apply for banning orders for unconvicted Football Hooligans to have to report to their local police station for a period of up to five years when England matches are played, an increase from three years under the current regime.One thing that amazed me was that there was no obligation on anyone subjected to a Banning Order to tell the Police in the UK if they changed their name. For example, if the Banning Order was issued to John Smith and he changed his name to Sebastian Weetabix, the miscreant could travel quite legitimately under his new identity without having to report to the designated Police Station. The Government and Law Enforcement Agencies would then be unable to enforce the Order, as it was no longer holding a valid name.

The German Interior Minister has commented that “anyone who misbehaves will be leaving the country rather quickly” when talking about the potential for violent behaviour. What he failed to add was the miscreants would probably be requiring Air Ambulance transportation after the local Riot Police have finished kicking ten bells of crap out of those arrested. Several insurance companies have denied including travelling to the World Cup in the dangerous pursuits categories of their travel insurance policies. One hopes, maybe forlornly, that the German authorities will drop their posturing and confrontational approach to policing and take on board the lessons from Euro 2004 where the Portuguese Police adopted a lower profile and came through the tournament with lower than expected arrest figures despite the presence of a large England following. When trouble did occur, particularly incidents on the Algarve, they took a politically expedient route by foregoing the opportunity to link the trouble to the tournament. Whatever the truth, it killed the media stories linking the tournament to those events and diffused any potential lingering resentments.

Somewhat bemusingly, the German Authorities are recommending that England fans do not participate in their usual witty song repertoire in public places, citing that chanting “Two World Wars and A World Cup Too” and “617 Squadron” (the theme from The Dambusters) might actually cause public disorder to take place. No shit, Einstein. These guys are really on top of this hooligan problem, eh? Next they will be telling us that the inevitable Nazi salutes from the brainless NF thugs will cause offence when England play Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg. Perhaps FIFA will take more care when deciding which stadiums are allocated particular matches in future.

Still the sub – editors at the Red Tops won’t have to worry about headlines. If England struggle in the match or there are any court cases arising from the match you can be sure that they will be using “England (fans) face Nuremberg Trial” as the headlines. It may be worthwhile popping into Ladbrokes and see what odds they will give on which paper using this. Hot favourites are The Star and The Daily Mirror with The Sun seeing this as too cheap a shot. Talking of which, it is the very same media that wants to sensationalise and demonise hooliganism yet at the same time promote the “Little Englander” / “Island Siege” mentality. This allows them to appear sanctimonious in their condemnation and adopt the hypocritical denial when in the past they have been handing out the cash to enable the mindless thugs to get hammered in the hope that alcohol will fuel trouble.

Whilst the arrests at English grounds are falling there remain doubts about whether the violent minority that follow England is diminishing, despite the legal measures adopted. There are many sociological works that deal with the personal and environmental mentalities. Some of it may be true but it can be also noted that the majority of travelling England fans are followers of lower Premiership and Division clubs who do not get the chance to regularly travel abroad for football. It cannot be a coincidence that Liverpool took 40,000 fans to Istanbul and there was no reported trouble yet if 40,000 England fans went to a match there is a stronger potential for trouble.

Still, we live in hope that the event will pass peacefully and that England can celebrate the end of a forty year wait…

Todays tunes are from Neil Young:

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Ohio