Not much surprises me in the national press any more. It’s a shame that journalists feel the need to shape a story with such sensationalism but the blame can be put on the market it’s aimed at rather than journalists themselves. Usually the newspaper that annoys me the most in this respect is the Daily Mail but recently The Sun has been stirring up some unnecessary trouble in regards to the World Cup this summer. This, the newspaper that described Obama meeting the Dalai Lama in February as “Obama Lama Ding Dong”, has been caused by an article online entitled “Three Lions off my shirt” and is on speculation that some England shirts may be banned from certain pubs.

Now, rather than a logical person who would describe this as a precautionary and advisory measure to reduce anti-social behaviour in a few pubs, The Sun have span it as a tough stance by the police to cut down on Englishness because immigrants are offended by the red and white of St George. This is nonsensical. First of all, pubs in Glasgow enforce similar rules for the Old Firm games so Celtic and Rangers fans don’t kill each other (using sensationalism for dramatic effect). It is a depressing reminder of how the press pick up on a small detail and blow it all out of proportion, as well as how gullible a lot of readers of the tabloids are. Not slating tabloid readers themselves, a lot of them realise it’s all a bit ridiculous and read them with a pinch of salt.

The article begins: “ENGLAND shirts could be BANNED at pubs screening live World Cup matches. Killjoy cops have urged landlords to bar anyone wearing a Three Lions top.” First off, I hate it when certain words are capitalised in newspapers, you don’t yell certain words out to people in real life so why do it in writing? Secondly, the ambiguous terms of “pubs” and “killjoy cops” suggest it is ALL pubs and ALL of the police. See, capitalising words IS annoying ISN’T IT?!

As this is the ‘internet age’, the internet obviously helps to big up this fear. Somehow, from the Sun article facebook groups named “Fly your flag, wear your shirts, ITS NOT RACIST, just supporting England” have sprung up. While this is one of the more tasteful names, it still manages to construe a subtext of racism out of that article, which is never raised in the Sun article. Other slightly more ignorant and less tasteful groups include “if the England flag offends you, I’ll be happy to help you pack”, “does my England flag offend you? Then hop on your camel and f*ck off home” and my personal favourite “…it’s funny how our flag offends you but our benefits don’t”. The latter claims in its information tab: “If the English government suddenly imposed a ban on the burkha or turban we'd be in World War III!!!” which incidentally was not addressed in the ConDem coalition agreement, shocking I know.

So whose fault is it that such a bizarre spin has been spun on an otherwise very uninteresting article? The journalists? The readers? The answer is yes, both. The lingering doubts in some people over ‘political correctness gone mad’ and racial tension is amplified by selective journalism and right-wing extremism. Whilst there is a light-hearted undertone to most of this blog post, there is a serious message, which I shall reveal…now: even though England has never really been close to a political revolution, I would like to raise the example of the Bosnian war in 1992 and 1995. For all you who aren’t aware, this crisis was a racially based conflict between Croatians, Serbians and Bosnian Muslims. Small tensions that seemed relatively insignificant between Croats, Serbs and Muslims living in Bosnia were exploited by the manipulative nature of the Serbian and Croatian elites to divide Bosnia into two spheres of influence. I feel like I’m losing you, bear with me this has a point. The conflict was primarily caused by the elites using the media as a tool to incite racial hatred and division in a place which had once been so diverse. Can you see a reflection at all? The only thing missing is a leader who has the incentive to incite racial hatred…and even though Cameron is a posh etonian boy, I doubt he’s going to initiate civil war to drive out immigrants. Still, just look out for it, and if you see the BNP gain popularity be afraid The Sun…be very afraid…

So I guess the moral of the story is…don’t believe everything you read…not even this if you don’t want to.