Nike - New England Strip.

[Dominic]

I have just seen the new Team GB flag for the Paris Olympics. Originally I thought it was an April Fools joke. In this instance I am 100% team Firefly, for two reasons:

1. GB Athletics are something we can all be proud of. They haven't been disgraced by decades of drunken idiots putting the country (or GB) to shame.
2. The change to the cross was tiny, compared to this monstrosity. I mean, the cross was small compared to the rest of the kit. This change is huge. And it is horrible.

[WHL]

Agree 100%, the tiny cross on the back of the shirt was a none story for me,
but to butcher the union flag is a disgrace, i also thought it was an April fool joke, this needs to be rectified immediately..

[mark4007]

lol... team GB have "got form" taking abstract forms of the flag,....

it looks fine to me.. too many competitors appear in red white and blue (paticularly as the host country is france)..


looking forward to seeing our "heros" compete in this easily identifiable kit

[Chaddy]

I am amazed and saddened at some of the comments above. Dont get put off Firefly, i and many others of the silent majority are with you. My guess is that the true lovers of their country have kept quiet.

Miloman,have you got hour wording slightly wrong,did you mean the silenced majority.

[Miloman]

Chady, yes maybe, and look what it has led to because of the small protest about the English flag. I see no difference, a countries flag should not be messed with.

[Dominic]

How are you silenced?

[Bindi]

There was no outcry over the Stella McCartney design for the 2012 strip. This is just a right wing media led distraction from the real horrors in the UK now; whipping up anger about a triviality.

[Firefly]

Well for one, I object to the mindless alterations to the British or English Flag. This is not a triviality to me, or quite a few others I see.

What may I ask, Bindi, are the real horrors in the UK now? (in your opinion).

[mark4007]

Could be worse... the german kit for example with the number 44 on the back..

[Firefly]

Disgraceful.

[Bindi]

I know it’s only my opinion but I would consider knife crime, NHS waiting times, lack of dental care, crumbling schools, violence against teachers etc as far worse than changing a colour on a top.

[Dominic]

The German 44 number was down to the font, and quickly banned when it was realised.

[Firefly]

Bindi

I share your concerns re our problems here in the UK, that said, it was not simply changing the colour of a top. It was the changing of the colours of our nations flag.

Men and women, have fought and died for our colours, some still serving may do yet. It is highly insulting to our country, to display our flag as anything other than it is. Personally, I think that athletes should refuse to compete, until our true nations flag is displayed.

[Dominic]

I don't think it was the athlete's costumes, rather the merchandise that supporters could buy.

[mark4007]

Bindi

I share your concerns re our problems here in the UK, that said, it was not simply changing the colour of a top. It was the changing of the colours of our nations flag.

Men and women, have fought and died for our colours, some still serving may do yet. It is highly insulting to our country, to display our flag as anything other than it is. Personally, I think that athletes should refuse to compete, until our true nations flag is displayed.

why stop there...

All pensioners should refuse their state pension, until their true nations flag is displayed...

Encouraging sacrifice by others is so much easier than doing it by oneself..

[Firefly]

Playing a game is, I think, a tad different than working all your life, for the paltry financial reward, that UK pensioners receive.

Pensioners rely on that income to live, without the ability to increase that income, in most cases. Sportsmen and women are not in the same situation. Football players are paid obscene sums of money to play a game! What sort of sacrifice may I ask, do you refer to?

As for sacrifice, I think our servicemen and women, firefighters, police, etc. take the chance of sacrifice every day, as part and parcel of their work, unlike athletes.

It may interest you to know, probably not, that part of my pension is inherited from my late husband, a police officer. As part if his duties he was issued with a firearm, together with other officers, to apprehend an armed criminal, who had already killed one police officer, and injured another. My son, an officer in the British Army has been deployed to war zones. they both faced death as part of their work. So when you say sacrifice, your reasoning doesn't impress me.

[Devil]

I have largely kept out of this conversation, mainly because it is totally meaningless with the one group promoting belligerency and the second group denying it. Who is right? Not the members of either group – they are simply promoting a storm in a teacup. Other than myself, who on this forum has personally been on active service with very strict regulations as to what we could do or could not do outside the official encampments? For myself, this Churchillian set of regulations did not include the "British are best" theme because we spent our energy in protecting ourselves and not in waving any flag outside the camp.

I would go as far as to say that the British occupation of any country, including part of the British Isles (but not Britain) and Northern Ireland has mostly been catastrophic, at least up to the 1960s. The sad thing is that, for the most part, the withdrawal of Britain has been in some way or another rather catastrophic. I'm not saying that other countries have done any better in the art of withdrawal.

As a point of illustration, let's look at Cyprus. Without going into the details, the UK boo-booed badly in the administration of the country from the 1870s to 1960 and we Brits who are living here today still suffer from the numerous errors made in the past and even today. This thread started on UK nationalism (for or against), but it will never be settled in either direction. Why should it be?

A flag is only a physical collection of coloured thread; it is not a mindset.

[Firefly]

Devil

You are correct, a flag is a physical collection of coloured thread, but, it is a Standard which represents a country. It should never be interfered with, no matter what our history is.

I fail to see how the occupation of one country, by another country, is relevant in this thread.

[WHL]

Devil

You are correct, a flag is a physical collection of coloured thread, but, it is a Standard which represents a country. It should never be interfered with, no matter what our history is.

I fail to see how the occupation of one country, by another country, is relevant in this thread.

It is everything to do with this thread, it is what one persons view on what a flag represents, to someone else's view on what the same flag represents.

[mark4007]

I was looking forward to a summer of sport with the euros and the olympics..

I was looking forward to cheering on those young people who spend years of training and dedication to become the best they can be.. some of whom happen to be English or British.

But thanks to Firefly I now understand how silly i have been. These kids just "play a game" and whats far more important than these "games" is how a flag is (mis)represented on some merchandising.

So I am fully expecting our nation (or nations) best to "refuse to compete" and withdraw from these events

Of course the events themselves will still take place... maybe a replacement for Team GB and England can be found

Does anyone know of a state currently not competing in either the Euros or the olympics that accurately represents its own flag in its own kit.. ideally one that believes that sacrifice starts with learning to shoot (and be shot at by) others?... Asking for a friend...