A dinosaur rears it's head

[D'Artagnan 173]

There was probably always some in the 50s/60s, but nothing like the upsurge in the 70s.

 

Prof Walker was talking about the 1920's CB

[simplythebest 0]

I'd also argue the nats have greatly taken over the idea Scottish identity.

[chilledbear 16]

Prof Walker was talking about the 1920's CB

 

Can't argue with that mate.

[der Berliner 3,263]

Spot on with that post, bud. I reckon the strident Britishness thing started largely as a reaction to the Troubles in Northern Ireland and to our hygenically challenged friends in the east end supporting the Republican side. Back in the sixties union jacks were flown at the stadium much, much less than they are today, being seen as an 'English' flag.

 

Cheers mate, that made my day so far!

[Tumshie RFC 0]

I don't think we should ever lose our British identity as long as any songs we sing do not get the club in bother with the authorities.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

Im not so sure about that RPB. I remember reading one of Prof Graham Walker's book /essays - he says there was a significant increase in British symbolism amongst the Rangers support post Word War 1.

 

yes, that's a fairly well accepted viewpoint and has much to do with the arrival of the shipworkers and their families from Belfast, whose allegiance to Britishness was much, much stronger than the native Scots population. (People tend to forget, or not to know in fact, that Scotland was much more of a separate country until the 60s than it is now, communication and travel being what they were, there wasn't the immediacy and integration that there is now. Up until then, people would work on Christmas day here, for example, since this was a celebration of almost no importance to us, whose big celebration was Hogmanay).

 

I think there was always a certain identification of Rangers as being, not so much the 'Protestant' club until then, but more of the 'Not the Irish Catholic club'. The arrival of the shipworkers, coupled with the natural post-war feeling of belonging to something greater that had just experienced unparalleled suffering, i.e. Britain, helped push us in the direction of being overtly "establishment".

 

It's true you would always see union jacks in the crowd, prior to the 70s/80s, but they were nowhere near as numerous as they have been of late and it was more common to see flags which looked more like the French tricolour.

 

What it never did, (on a side note), was push us in the direction of Conservative, right-wing politics. This is something which has only arisen as the British nationalism associated with certain elements of the fan base has become more strident and antagonistic and, as is a prerequisite for voting Tory, nasty. The idea of working class people voting Tory was utterly ludicrous until the time came when the "working class" ceased to exist and people started voting 'against' things rather than 'for' things.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

I'd also argue the nats have greatly taken over the idea Scottish identity.

 

I'd argue that they haven't - indeed, that it's not even possible for a political party to take over a national identity.

 

What they have tried to do is represent aspects of the Scottish identity - progressive, modern, ambitious, confident, independent, forward-thinking, open-minded, internationalist - and allowed the unionist parties to represent other aspects of the Scottish identity - reactionary, small-minded, timid, cowardly, dependent, craven, backward looking, isolationist....mind you, that's just my personal view

[chilledbear 16]

I'd argue that they haven't - indeed, that it's not even possible for a political party to take over a national identity.

 

What they have tried to do is represent aspects of the Scottish identity - progressive, modern, ambitious, confident, independent, forward-thinking, open-minded, internationalist - and allowed the unionist parties to represent other aspects of the Scottish identity - reactionary, small-minded, timid, cowardly, dependent, craven, backward looking, isolationist....mind you, that's just my personal view

 

hahaha, nice one.:fish:

 

Let us say, where once we were Scottish first and British second, now it seems to be reversed.

 

To the the detriment of the Club in my eyes.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

i blame 1966 and to a lesser extent bravehart.

[Bluedell 5,348]

What it never did, (on a side note), was push us in the direction of Conservative, right-wing politics. This is something which has only arisen as the British nationalism associated with certain elements of the fan base has become more strident and antagonistic and, as is a prerequisite for voting Tory, nasty. The idea of working class people voting Tory was utterly ludicrous until the time came when the "working class" ceased to exist and people started voting 'against' things rather than 'for' things.

 

You have to be antagonistic and nasty to vote Tory? What a lot of crap. There's a lot of bitterness involved in that statement, something more akin to supporters of other teams. The votes for the Conservative and Unionists was a lot higher back then than it is now.