England, the Cross of St. George and the World Cup

Having just seen the England football team completely outplay Jamaica at Old Trafford to win 6-0 in their final friendly before the World Cup, I was impressed by two things: the incredible amount of English patriotism on view in the 70,000 strong crowd, with the red and white of the flag of St. George seemingly covering every inch of the stands; and the fact that England surely won't really miss injured striker Wayne Rooney THAT much given that the gangly but skillful Peter Crouch certainly can score goals too (he scored 3 in this game).

It's been really lovely to see English patriotism (not nationalism mind you) steadily on the rise. For far too long we English seem to have been embarrassed by our great nation and have hidden our patriotism from view. All over the world other countries celebrate their national identities for all to see, and I'm so pleased we're now starting to do the same here.

And please, please, please can we stop hearing about Wayne Rooney from now on. Enough is enough - there are other players in the England squad more than good enough to "cover" for his absence, so let them get on with the job in hand.