Mann on Friday: United States of Europe would net more medals but lose identity Mann on Friday: United States of Europe would net more medals but lose identity

I HAVE to confess I broke my promise, made in last week's column, to be tucked up in bed when Steve Redgrave went for his Olympic gold medal.

I stayed up late because Mrs Mann insisted we had to be patriotic to Bucks and England by cheering on our man.

She proceeded to deafen me for several minutes by screaming at the telly as Redgrave and co rowed their epic race. And she was almost hyperventilating with panic as the Italians came dangerously close to winning.

Mrs Mann, normally a picture of refinement and modesty, then began dancing around the room with joy as the Brits sealed victory.

What perplexed me about this was that she knows next to nothing about rowing or indeed any sport.

Her ignorance is such that she reprimanded me for my bad language when I told her the English were competing in the coxless fours. She also asked how they could find anyone with two heads to compete in the double sculls.

And yet, like most of the rest of this country, she suddenly became an expert overnight as she began explaining to me the importance of the rowing team's split times.

But there is a moral to this. Ask yourself why she was so anxious to see victory for a UK team and a Marlow Bottom man? It's because, like millions of others, she is proud to be British.

I saw tears in her eyes as they raised the Union Jack and sang the national anthem after the rowing victory.

But, according to Euro union fanatics, we should all be one happy family. We should, therefore, really have been cheering the Italians equally as much.

These Olympic Games have confirmed, if we didn't know it already, that our great national identity is crucial to the normal folk of this country. I know nothing of Denise Lewis and Jonathan Edwards, yet I would have been crushed had they not won.

The logical conclusion to European union is that one day we won't have a British team. It will be the United States of Europe versus everyone else.

We'll certainly win more medals, but no one will care because we will have lost the feeling of unity and real belonging that means so much to every true Brit.

Mann on Friday: United States of Europe would net more medals but lose identity

I HAVE to confess I broke my promise, made in last week's column, to be tucked up in bed when Steve Redgrave went for his Olympic gold medal.

I stayed up late because Mrs Mann insisted we had to be patriotic to Bucks and England by cheering on our man.

She proceeded to deafen me for several minutes by screaming at the telly as Redgrave and co rowed their epic race. And she was almost hyperventilating with panic as the Italians came dangerously close to winning.

Mrs Mann, normally a picture of refinement and modesty, then began dancing around the room with joy as the Brits sealed victory.

What perplexed me about this was that she knows next to nothing about rowing or indeed any sport.

Her ignorance is such that she reprimanded me for my bad language when I told her the English were competing in the coxless fours. She also asked how they could find anyone with two heads to compete in the double sculls.

And yet, like most of the rest of this country, she suddenly became an expert overnight as she began explaining to me the importance of the rowing team's split times.

But there is a moral to this. Ask yourself why she was so anxious to see victory for a UK team and a Marlow Bottom man? It's because, like millions of others, she is proud to be British.

I saw tears in her eyes as they raised the Union Jack and sang the national anthem after the rowing victory.

But, according to Euro union fanatics, we should all be one happy family. We should, therefore, really have been cheering the Italians equally as much.

These Olympic Games have confirmed, if we didn't know it already, that our great national identity is crucial to the normal folk of this country. I know nothing of Denise Lewis and Jonathan Edwards, yet I would have been crushed had they not won.

The logical conclusion to European union is that one day we won't have a British team. It will be the United States of Europe versus everyone else.

We'll certainly win more medals, but no one will care because we will have lost the feeling of unity and real belonging that means so much to every true Brit.