well done andy murray

[mrdonuts]

Backtracking after his PR realised what a major gaff it was. Tantamount to racism.
The fact he said it in the first place speaks volumes, joke or not.

He is not representing Britain, he is representing Scotland. Every Scot you see asks the same question "Why is he only British when he is winning".
You Scots seem to want it all, Scots when it suits, British when it suits.
.

you would do well to remember who is running (and financing this British thing)

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I think it's petty and stupid for any Scot to choose not to support England when there is no conflict of interest (i.e. direct competition between the two) but but then many people are petty and stupid, the sensible reaction is to ignore then, the petty and stupid reaction is for you to go petty and stupid in retaliation.
.

You are absolutely right - and if the earlier post about Murray not really having said that stuff about Paraguay is true, I am even more of an idiot than I thought.

The problem I have comes from arguing on a couple of other forums with Irish Americans and a Cornish bloke, both of whom claimed I was to blame for bad things that happened to their ancestors just because I am English (this is utterly untrue for reasons I can attest to, but that's not really the point, is it?).

You are totally right though, the proper thing to do is be better than people who do and say things you think are wrong.

It ain't always easy though, is it?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

A fair percentage of so called "Irish Americans" are in fact Ulster Scots, did they but know it...

Indeed. My English ancestors at the time of the Irish Potato famine were illiterate workers who probably didn't have the cash to buy a newspaper and couldn't have read it anyway (so even of the Potato Famine had been reported, they wouldn't have known about it) - they also didn't have the vote, so they couldn't have done anything to prevent Mr Chippy Git's ancestors from starving - but it's still my fault apparently.

[TheBigYinJames]

It ain't always easy though, is it?

No it's not. And in the heat of debate you tend to use like-for-like arguments, so you end up in an entrenched bigoted position you never really wanted to be in anyway and don't really believe in. You were just using the arguments to beat the other person.

We should all be allowed to blow off a bit and then allowed to retreat from what was said. Even Murray. I sometimes say men things in an argument, it doesn't mean I really believe them.

I wish he'd cheer his face up, though.

[shaunbhoy]

Well those jocular comments by the 19-year-old Murray certainly flushed out the bigots anyway.
For the record, I will fully get behind any English person (or Welsh, N.Irish, or Scottish for that matter) when they are representing Britain. Always have done, always will. Fail to see why others have a problem doing this where the likes of Murray are concerned, but hey, we are all free to make our own choices. As far as personalities goes I think Nadal has a much more appealing off-court side to him than Murray. However, although I expect Nadal to win, I will be fully behind Murray as we are long overdue some home success in this tournament.
That said, when sports stars are playing for England alone I find it much more difficult to generate any real enthusiasm at all, with the almost inexplicable exception of Cricket. Perhaps that is because I tend to view the England Cricket Team as almost the British Cricket Team.
I have often heard English people loudly proclaiming that they always get behind Scotland wholeheartedly, but the reality is that in the main they are largely ambivalent at best, and much of what they say seems to be some convoluted way of attempting to claim the moral high ground.
Whilst I doubt I would go so far as to actively support their opponents with any real intent, I would much rather be openly enjoying banter with my English friends and family, fully expecting to receive the same back when Scotland were playing. But that is just me.

[The Lone Gunman]

Well those jocular comments by the 19-year-old Murray certainly flushed out the bigots anyway.
For the record, I will fully get behind any English person (or Welsh, N.Irish, or Scottish for that matter) when they are representing Britain. Always have done, always will. Fail to see why others have a problem doing this where the likes of Murray are concerned, but hey, we are all free to make our own choices. As far as personalities goes I think Nadal has a much more appealing off-court side to him than Murray. However, although I expect Nadal to win, I will be fully behind Murray as we are long overdue some home success in this tournament.
That said, when sports stars are playing for England alone I find it much more difficult to generate any real enthusiasm at all, with the almost inexplicable exception of Cricket. Perhaps that is because I tend to view the England Cricket Team as almost the British Cricket Team.
I have often heard English people loudly proclaiming that they always get behind Scotland wholeheartedly, but the reality is that in the main they are largely ambivalent at best, and much of what they say seems to be some convoluted way of attempting to claim the moral high ground.
Whilst I doubt I would go so far as to actively support their opponents with any real intent, I would much rather be openly enjoying banter with my English friends and family, fully expecting to receive the same back when Scotland were playing. But that is just me.

Thats a nice balanced response and attitude Shaun. I like it.
I would not expect you to support England, why should you when you are not English, though I would hope that you were magnanimous enough to want one of the home nations to win over another country (unless you have a particular affinity for somewhere) if you cared at all.

Question: Who do players represent at Wimbledon?

I do believe that Scotland has a half decent cricket team nowadays.

[Bagpuss]

Has he lost yet?

[Moscow Mule]

Has he lost yet?

Nope,

but only because it's raining.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7484184.stm.

However, it doesn't appear to be raining at the bottom of the hill so maybe they'll start soon.

[shaunbhoy]

Question: Who do players represent at Wimbledon?

Well I tend to think of them as representing GB as a whole, and the captions certainly list any home players under the GB banner. I have supported the Brit players for a great many years as far back as Ann Jones, Roger Taylor, Winnie Shaw and Ginny Wade right through the David/John Lloyd Henman/Rusedski periods. Same goes for F1 drivers from Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Mansell, Coulthard right up as far as Hamilton. Might be a bit of a traditionalist though given my advanced years.
Same goes for Golf too.............Come on you Brits!!

[The Lone Gunman]

Well I tend to think of them as representing GB as a whole, and the captions certainly list any home players under the GB banner. I have supported the Brit players for a great many years as far back as Ann Jones, Roger Taylor, Winnie Shaw and Ginny Wade right through the David/John Lloyd Henman/Rusedski periods. Same goes for F1 drivers from Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Mansell, Coulthard right up as far as Hamilton. Might be a bit of a traditionalist though given my advanced years.
Same goes for Golf too.............Come on you Brits!!

I tend to do the same for golf, rally and F1 but I never see tennis as a British thing. I know they list them as GB. I do accept that some players want to be recognised for their own nation when not specificaly representing GB. In many ways you cant win. Lots want us all to be GB and lots want us all to be England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
I seem to have gone the other way. I was always British in my youth and fully supported the home nations teams and individuals (unless an Englishman was involved). In more recent years I have become increasingly aware of a more nationalistic attitude amongst the other home nations. This is no bad thing but it seems to have been accompanied with an increasing hatred of all things English.
That has coloured my attitude, possibly more than it should have.
I am a firm believer that we are a stronger nation as a Union, but we should embrace and celebrate the individual nations too.