I Am British And Proud Of It, And If You Ask I Am English,

and Proud of that too, but it does upset me when somebody tells me, or any body else for that matter to take down their national flag, in my case the white and red St George, a group of Rovers fans from the Havelock Inn pub in Blackburn had already unfurled the flag, emblazoned with the slogan 'Havelock Blues', at Fulham and Hull City without problems, and the St George's cross is seen at almost every football stadium in England at every level of the footballing pyramid on any given weekend, their flag of St George, England's national flag displayed prominently all over the nation and a source of much pride to many English people, was confiscated as being a 'racist symbol' the Rovers fans themselves were left bemused and bewildered by the actions of the stewards, "When we got there we started putting it out, and the steward came up and told us we couldn’t.," one fan, David Iley told The Evening Telegraph, "It never entered my head at first that the St George Cross wasn’t allowed. I thought it was just that we couldn’t put it there," he continued, "So we hooked it over the hoardings at the front instead, and the next thing we know a steward was taking it away, saying it could be seen as a racist symbol, "I couldn’t believe it, when we took it to Hull the stewards even helped us put it up, "It’s the national flag and it's absolutely stupid that Arsenal should ban it." Dan Tolhurst, communications manager at Arsenal, said, "Arsenal as a club prides itself on being inclusive with respect to all nationalities, cultural and ethnic groups, we have therefore decided that in order for all of our fans to enjoy their experience at Emirates Stadium, we are asking that only flags without any national emblems are displayed within the stadium." He also confirmed that the ban is lifted for international matches at the ground, wait a minuet, read the last sentence again! He also confirmed that the ban is lifted for international matches at the ground. (my italics) Dan Tolhurst you are the most two faced person I have ever heard of, what gives you the right to ban any countries flag on a whim? but why was it banned? An Arsenal spokesman explained that the measure dated back to 2006, when a Turkish-Cypriot season ticket holder enraged Greek Cypriots when he displayed a political banner (not a national flag) at the Gunners' stadium in December of that year, but read it again those are the very matches where the ban came from and it was a political banner, as far as Arsenal is concerned shame on any country for taking pride in your national flag.