Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Arise, Sir Gareth!

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issue 20 July 2024

I detected a degree of surprise among those people who were uncommonly cheered by Sir Keir Starmer’s election victory that England failed to beat Spain in the final of the European Championship. That wasn’t in the script. For those Labour supporters in the press and floating in the shallow trough of luvviedom, an England victory would have been the first thing to gild this brave new era of kindness, generosity of spirit and diversity.

I would not begrudge Southgate a knighthood, given the state of the national game when he took over

These were the sorts of qualities associated with the England manager...

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