Britain never signed up to the full ‘Schengen’ agreement by which all member states of Europe, plus a few others like Norway agreed to ‘free passage of Europeans between states’. We never signed up because we’ve always had a small-island-mentality and we always will. Not saying it was a bad thing not to do the full Schengen, just saying it was a thing. Which won’t matter a jot once we finally, eventually, agonisingly Brexit because we’ll probably end up joining the Schengen to get the trade deals. Even though we didn’t need to when we were a part of the madness that we’ll call ‘Europe’. That clear?

Free passage of Europeans means that they can cross borders. It never referred to the freedom of Europeans to march along the streets of Islington singing German marching songs in groups of 15,000 or more whilst setting off flares and being very foreign. We never signed up to that.

So when someone on Thursday night sent me a video of precisely that I immediately went and hid behind the sofa. I mean; fuck me!! Germans marching with gesticulating arm-movements and aggressive chanting in London! Holy shit. And on a thursday too, which is not a European football night. Then I realised that for some poor souls, Thursday night IS Euro night. That other Euro night. Oh. (Sorry; but for 20 years we’ve endured such gloating so cut me some slack here). And this was just those lovely Cologne fans come to see their relatively lowly team compete at even that minorly ‘high’ level for the first time in decades. So the whole fucking town came over. Even though they were only awarded 3,000 tickets for the ‘away fans’. Itself a bit ‘mean’ really, but that’s Arsenal for you. 20,000 of the Germans came, a-singin’ and a-marchin’ and basically being really Germanic. Without tickets. Though many did have tickets but in the Arsenal sections of the ground. Supposedly some error in the system where you enter the team you support; “zat vould be ze Arzenal’, and your address: Bustenhalterstrasse 52… and those very clever computers work out whether you might be a chancing away fan rather than a true Gooner scumbag. Or not, as the case may have been.

You have to laugh.

Off to Wembley soon for the Swansea game. Doubtless after yesterday’s ‘event’ at Parsons Green the security at the game today will be vast and thorough. I bloody hope so.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx