Tory compares football fans to flag-waving Nazis

A LEADING Tory has compared the fashion for flying England football flags with the Nazis' attempts to whip up nationalism.

Brian Coleman, chairman of the London Assembly, yesterday declared that he was not a fan of the game and was uneasy about the flag waving of recent weeks.

Mr Coleman told a local newspaper that it was also "naff" and unconvincing of ministers and David Cameron to insist on putting the Cross of St George on their cars and bikes.

"I am as patriotic as the next man, but the sight of drunken football fans singing the national anthem out of tune in a German square makes me wonder exactly what sort of patriotism the World Cup has stirred up," he wrote in a column in the Barnet and Whetstone Press.

"A Jewish friend of mine remarked how the sight of endless Cross of St George flags reminded her of the Nazis' taste for flying flags at every possible opportunity and the nationalistic feelings whipped up by totalitarian regimes."

Mr Coleman went on: "The Argentinian generals used their World Cup victory in 1978 to lay the groundwork for the invasion of the Falklands four years later.

"One of the great things about being English is that our patriotism is restrained, rather like all our emotions. If England win the World Cup, let's have some polite applause." He said that politicians who climbed aboard sporting bandwagons risked making themselves look "foolish".