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Fish and Chips and Football

Stuart Butler

Sunday, October 6th, 2002

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Crispin’s Great Conker Debate has raised another interesting question about traditional British culture. But before that, many of our overseas visitors to the website must have no idea what conkers involve – please explain Crispin. Now on to fish and chips – something that many people in the world see as traditional British culture – a quick poem about that penned while reading the admirable “Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, 1870-1940” by John K. Walton.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Now that curry, they say, is our national dish,
Some thoughts cross my mind about chips and ’bout fish,
Like football and Empire the food spread so fast,
And spread o’er the world by dint of the mast,
Now the Empire is gone and plaice, cod and bass,
Are only consumed by our own working class,
A question I ask as I sit and wax fat,
Why ever on earth do you think that is that?

© Stuart Butler

Notes

Only football has survived from that 19th and 20th century imperial, culinary and cultural British expansion across the world; I thought this piece sort of vaguely fits in with Black History month too.
PS Just as I was typing this Celtic versus Rangers came on the telly – with an historical-poetical overview that also involved a focus on fish and chips.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/fish-and-chips-and-football/