The Daily Mail‘s campaign against some of the Olympic athletes who will compete for Team GB – lambasting them as “plastic Brits” – has always struggled for consistency. Partly, it was that the Daily Mail brought about the most egregious “passport of convenience” case with Zola Budd in 1984, by campaigning on her behalf. Mostly, it was a refusal to define the terms, so that different Mail writers attacked the British credentials of some athletes whom their colleagues praised.
I’ve written before about this, noting:
Twelve per cent of people in Britain today are foreign-born. Because that percentage is twice as high in London, the Olympic host city, the team of Olympic volunteers will probably have more multinational roots than Team GB. As a newspaper that celebrates patriotism and integration, the Mail could celebrate that 70 per cent of those born abroad feel a strong sense of belonging to Britain, even slightly outscoring those born in this country (66 per cent), as a State of the Nation poll found. They don’t think they are Plastic Brits; instead, they fly their flags with pride.
One thing that was stressed for the defence was that this was not a pejorative attempt to attack all foreign-born athletes as “Plastic”. But it transpires that the Mail has run a news story defining and counting the Plastic Brits: declaring there are 61 plastic Brits in Team GB, once the Mail defines a plastic Brit as “any citizen who was born abroad”. It seems that both Mo Farah and Belgian-born Bradley Wiggins are “plastic” after all. And poor Prince Phillip is a Plastic Brit too.
I have written to Mail editor Paul Dacre suggesting that Friday’s opening ceremony would be a good moment to adopt the tradition of an Olympic truce (see below).
Once the torch is lit in Stratford, it should be time to set aside the “plastic Brits” controversy for a fortnight, and to instead join the London crowds in their desire to get behind every Olympian invited to compete for Britain. If the Mail can bring itself to wave the Union Jack for all of the Olympic athletes chosen to compete for Britain, then they could count all of the medals that they win for Team GB in the medal table too.
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Dear Mr Dacre,
The next fortnight will see the country rally around Team GB in the hope that they will write another golden chapter in the proud history of British sport.
The Daily Mail’s sports pages have sparked a lively and controversial debate in challenging some of the Olympic athletes selected to compete for Britain as “plastic Brits”, where they are naturalised citizens, or have qualified for the Olympic team through parental connections to Britain. The Mail has also praised the pride and contribution of many foreign-born Brits, such as Mo Farah, who arrived here as an 11-year old from war-torn Somalia to become a world-beating athlete.
No Team GB member has been able to jump the citizenship and immigration queue, nor bend the rules of their sport, though this has also been a debate about how best to reflect the spirit of international sport.
This “plastic Brits” debate has sparked passion from all sides. But might the opening ceremony provide an ideal moment to adopt the tradition of an Olympic truce?
Once the torch is lit in Stratford, it should be time to set aside the “plastic Brits” controversy for a fortnight, and to instead join the London crowds in their desire to get behind every Olympian invited to compete for Britain.
The London Olympics will be an experience that many of us hope we and our children will remember for a lifetime. So let’s wave the Union Jack for all of the Olympic athletes chosen to compete for Britain – and count all of the medals that they win for Team GB in the medal table too.
Best wishes,
Sunder Katwala
Director, British Future
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