CEP: England completely left out of Olympic celebrations

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Thursday, 28, Aug 2008 12:00

'If there is one thing which is totally unacceptable about the celebration back in the UK of the achievements of the Team GB at the Beijing Olympics,' Mr John Stanhope, speaking to CEP members in Wolverhampton where he is the Black Country organiser, 'it is the way our English medal winners, unlike the Welsh and the Scots, had no celebration as English competitors. In Cardiff the Welsh Assembly led by Rhodri Morgan the Welsh First Minister held an official reception. Crowds turned out waving the Welsh flag.to congratulate Nicole Cook and her fellow Welsh medal winners. The Asembly laid on a top-of-an-open bus parade. In Edinburgh the Scottish Parliament, led by the Scottish First Minister Alex Slamond, did exactly the same for the 4 Scottish medal winners, this time using the grandeur of Edinburgh Castle for the reception and celebration with the Scottish flag being waved everywhere. But the English medal winners, who comprised 37 out of the 47 winners, had no English reception or celebration at all.'

'O, yes. they had their own local celebrations. And they were glorious. The reception for Rebecca Adlington for example in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire was amazing. But not as English men and English women. And the organisers handed out British flags, not the English flag, for people to wave. There was no reception prepared for them in London which is the capital of England. No reception prepared for them in the House of Commons, which is the ancient Parliament of England, No open deck bus journey through the streets of London where some of the greatest things in England's long history took place.. Nothing whatsoever. The different way the English are treated from the Scots and the Welsh is incredible -and disgraceful. Their Englishness is just denied, their English identity is never recognised.

'And it will be the same again in October when the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, MP for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Scotland, will be holding an Olympic Victory parade in London. There they will be received and celebrated as British. No harm in that at all. All the British team, coaches and managers deserve all the praise possible. They did everyone proud.They exceeded our wildest dreams. They were exicting and dramatic beyond all expectation. But the whole period of celebration will pass without a single mention of 37 of the 47 being English, no celebration at all that they are English, in total contrast to the way their Scottish and Welsh team mates have been treated.

'I tell you this.' said Mr Stanhope, 'it is not fair. it is wrong. And our Campaign exists to put it right'

Contacts:

Michael Knowles

CEP Media Officer.

Tel: 01260 271139. Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk