If a white player looked unhappy at being subbed off while playing for England, there is absolutely no way it would be treated as anything other than an example of how much they cared about playing for their country.

And as if to further make the point. The anti-Blackness in discourse around the (approx 50% non-white) England team, including frequently from those overseeing it, is incredibly overt.

Currently drawing away to another relative underachiever, Israel (36th ranked team in UEFA, 19th largest population).

Hard border with Yabbie Creek.

Yeah, it was more wide than deep, thankfully. I did tell my mum and sisters to enjoy the additional iron.

Interesting approach to lining one’s self up as his potential successor for the Home Secretary as well.

Solidarity, Mark. x

A few replies to the above posts have highlighted the conditionality and contingency of these past acts of accepting refugees, and rightly so. But given official discourses so often use them to launder Britain’s reputation as welcoming, there is value in forcing the govt to confront its hypocrisy.

Realising later in life that the actor who played Ben Jahveri in those films was not Indian, that he was in fact the same actor who later played Phoebe’s psychiatrist boyfriend who’s a bit of a dick in Friends, was really quite the eye opener.

Man those films were kind of racist.

Yes, I should clarify: the myths about British openness to refugees - including those instances - are precisely that, but given the way the political class trade on them for moral superiority, they should be compelled to acknowledge that they actually wouldn’t have helped those groups themselves.

Croatia are really quite phenomenal. Tbh the calibre of the former Yugoslav sides is really - they range from 9th-38th in the FIFA rankings of UEFA members compared to 24th-48th in population sizes.

Also football is popular there and they’re next door to Romania and Ukraine.

Arsenal 25-26 season review but it’s the Book of Job.

Had to try and explain to my 8yo the other day why I refused to buy her a Harry Potter Kinder Egg and if she really wanted one to get the regular one.

All fair points, it certainly was not an example of generosity, despite the way it’s been retrospectively portrayed. But given the way those cases are often weaponised as an example of Britain’s humanitarian streak I think it’s really important to highlight the hypocrisy and make them own it.