January 26, 1991

PATRIOTISM KEEPS HOME FIRES BLAZING

ERIC ELLIS, London

Few people keep the home fires burning during wartime with as much relish as the British. Across the country, which proudly boasts that it has never lost a war, Britons have galvanised behind "Our Boys" with a stoic vigour positively Churchillian in its execution.

Opinion polls show that four out of five people approve of the war. Corner stores greet shoppers with the strains of Rule Britannia piped through the Muzak, while jean shops busily stencilling the Union Jack and "Operation Desert Storm" motifs onto white T-shirts with the dark portent that that "These Colours Don't Run".

Already heroes abound, like RAF Wing Commander Mike Heath, whose war was mostly spent in front of the camera before and after his Tornado malfunctioned and crashed in the Saudi desert just minutes into his first sortie.

Another heroine was 52-year-old Ann Thompson, who sewed a Union Jack on her shopping bag and patriotically marched off to her Pound 56-a-week ($A135) toil on a Luton production line.

Unfortunately for Ann, Luton is known as Little Karachi for its overwhelming Pakistani population. Ann's boss took a dim view and ordered her to put the offending bag out of sight lest it offend her Muslim colleagues.

Ann refused and was duly sent home. The Sun got wind of it and an unrepentant Ann was rewarded the next day with front-page treatment.

There has been considerable angst over the performance of the pride of the RAF, the Tornado, which despite flying less than 5 per cent of the allied sorties, accounts for 30 per cent of allied losses.

There has been criticism over the BBC's decision to refer to "British troops" instead of "our troops". The popular press could never be accused of neutrality, with headlines calling Saddam a "BASTARD".

Britons can't get enough news. Newspaper circulations are up by an average of 25 per cent, while 20 million viewers nightly tune into the BBC and ITN evening news. A record 24 million watched last June's World Cup semi-final between England and West Germany. Football attendances are well down.

BBC Radio has even produced a list of songs it has advised its station managers not to play during the course of the conflict. They include John Lennon's demonstration anthem Give Peace a Chance, Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight, Abba's Under Attack and The Cure's Killing An Arab.

Also taboo is Status Quo's In the Army Now, Village People's gay anthem In The Navy, Elton John's Saturday Night's (Alright for Fighting) and Blondie's Atomic.

One song that slipped through the cordon, Paper Lace's 1970s anti-war pop hit, Billy Don't Be a Hero, attracted 120 calls of complaint after it was innocently played.

But one show is proving as durable as Saddam's dug-in forces. Britain's most popular soap, Neighbours, is still showing twice a day.

News that both Kylie and Jason were "peaceniks" Down Under was greeted with some grumbling.

Recruitment offices have been kept busy. The Ministry of Defence reports twice as many inquiries as normal since January 16, a comment as much on recessionary prospects as it is on Saddam Hussein.

Production of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes has doubled while demand for Iraq's flag is also up, presumably to burn.

Oh, What A Lovely War.