Lionesses Victory Parade

To London to see the England Women’s football squad, winners of the Euros 2025,  in their Victory Parade along the Mall to a presentation outside Buckingham Palace by the Victoria Memorial.

I’m short and getting shorter; 60 years ago a little girl would be urged to the front to see better and I’m glad to say today was no exception. But I’m old – I’m not pushing in front of a child.

I’m old enough to remember the men’s victory in the World Cup in 1966. I think one of the reasons I remember it so well is that they have not won a major tournament since. Hopefully the girls and boys I saw in London will carry the memory of today into the 22nd century. Or maybe English teams will win more often so that 2022 and today become good memories in a string of future memorable wins. One can but hope.

After the match on Sunday to hear Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton declare “I am so proud to be English” and “we have English blood in our veins” followed by young Michelle Agyeman (Essex born) speaking unashamedly of her Christian faith and how that has helped her in all she does was so heartening.

What’s more they repeated their pride in being English outside the Palace today.

The support team were praised and their contributions recognised.

I’m aware of the bread and circuses method of keeping a population under control. As George Orwell wrote of the Proles

“Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

But this is in spite of the authorities not engineered by them. We are becoming harder to control.