England team have world on their side as political order collapses back home | Marina Hyde

Tories, let’s be clear – distracting everyone by bringing down the government this week, of all weeks, is unacceptable

Thanks to David Davis and Boris Johnson, England are now one of those World Cup sides that can be described sympathetically as “playing on despite the political turmoil back home”. As the old saying goes: dance like no one’s watching, love like you’ve never been hurt and play a World Cup like your shitshow of a government is about to collapse itself and plunge your country further into the mire.

And you know what? Depending on how much barely charted territory you can handle – England are in the semi-finals of the actual World Cup, after all – it feels great to be that side. Those guys typically pick up a lot of secondary support from people whose own national teams have already gone out. In the bars of Rio, I hope people are beginning to say: “I’m rooting for England now – it’s so sad what their dreadful politicians have done to them. But, you know, in the middle of it all, they just want to play football. It’s a very pure, special thing. They really rise above it with their magical, spellbinding corners. They remind you why it’s called the beautifully planned game. Yup, come on England! WE’RE ALL ENGLISH NOW.” All that in Portuguese, obviously.

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