I have already confessed to being a regular listener to the early morning show on 'TOOORKSPOOORT' - I spell it thus as the best indication of how the announcer, in a deep, coarse voice, pronounces the name! I do so mainly because it saves money buying new radios which I tend to hurl round the room if they are tuned to the BBC morning programme in which a never-ending series of lying liars from Westminster are either shouted down if they are Right-wing or licked and cuddled if they are Left-wing.
Now, whilst it is true that the vast majority of the TalkSport output is mindless drivel - so restful when you wake up with a hangover! - occasionally they touch on a subject that makes me think. For example, today they were bemoaning the fact that some Spanish footballer who had lived in Britain with his family for over 5 years and had successfully applied for UK citizenship (subjecthood, strictly speaking) had let it be known that he would be happy and proud to play 'footie' for England. This gave rise to many 'phone calls of complaint in which, mainly, he was told to 'eff off'! But I wonder . . .
Sometimes immigrants are more patriotic than the residents. I mean, they actually chose to come here, and they have the advantage of not having lived here long enough to see the downside, let alone the underside. To give but one example, there are now a huge number of Gurkhas in the Hampshire area who have finished their military service and chosen to stay here. I would hesitate to question their patriotism, and indeed, in a fight I could not wish for better companions.
Speaking personally, I could, when I was younger, have been happy to move to America and would have served in the American army with as much enthusiasm as I did in the British, er, not that I was exactly an enthusiastic soldier but you know what I mean. Increasingly, I look upon the USA as my 'other country' which is probably why I spend so much time reading and writing about it. Oh dear, does that qualify me for the Tower, I wonder?
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