More fans chose to cheer and applaud the team when it took the knee at kick-off many opposing teams showed solidarity by following suit the multi-racial squad exceeded expectations in reaching the tournament’s final and when the team lost on penalties and the racist abuse of three players followed, there was an outcry with overwhelming support for them and an emblematic rallying of community outpouring in Manchester where a mural of one of the players, Marcus Rashford, had been defaced. Yet, in the aftermath of the competition, it is clear that the strategy has backfired. Through his press spokesperson, the Prime Minister refused to condemn those choosing to boo the team. Right on cue, the Home Secretary came out with a TV interview decrying the move as “gesture politics”. When some England fans attending a pre-tournament friendly in Middlesborough booed the team for kneeling before kick-off, the right sensed another culture war opportunity.īefore the tournament began, Conservative MPs voiced their opposition to taking the knee, with one backbencher saying that he would boycott all England games. So, with the onset of Euro 2020 and the England football team declaring its intention to show its opposition to racism in sport, wider society and the media, the hard right thought that they had a juicy target. The global impact of the Black Lives Matter movement after the brutal murder of George Floyd, followed by footballers and athletes showing their solidarity by ‘taking the knee’, has produced a veritable explosion of bile and hatred from the national populist right – whether on right-wing Twitter or with countless articles in Unherd, Spiked and the Spectator, all seamlessly seeping into the tabloid press and wider culture. However, events have taken a different turn. They thought that they could cultivate the nationalist, racist element of their electoral coalition at no political cost. The Conservatives’ ‘culture wars’ strategy has suddenly come a cropper. Russian Interference Byline Times leads the way in exposing the anti-democratic influence of the Kremlin over the affairs of other nations.Cronyism and Corruption Byline Times uncovers the nepotism that greases the wheels of British politics.The Coronavirus Crisis Byline Times exposes the Government’s dangerous ‘herd immunity’ approach towards the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as how incompetence and conspiracies contributed to the UK’s shocking death toll.Identity, Empire and the Culture War Byline Times explores the weaponisation of Britain’s past as a key tool in a dark project of division and distraction.The Crisis in British Journalism Byline Times investigates media monopolies, their proximity to politicians, and how the punditocracy doesn’t hold power to account.The Cost of Living Crisis Byline Times investigates the causes and consequences of Britain’s biggest recession for 30 years.Democracy in Danger The newspaper’s extensive reporting and analysis of the various threats to democracy from populism, oligarchy, dark money and online disinformation.
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