Rugby league is a rebel sport – its northern strongholds will never turn Conservative | Tony Collins

01 November 2019 01:17
The game has its roots in the mines, docks and factories. Resistance to elites is in its DNAWill the decisive battles of the 2019 general election be fought on the playing fields of the north of England? Maybe so, now that the Conservative thinktank Onward has identified so-called Workington Man and his “strong rugby league traditions” as a key target for Boris Johnson’s election campaign.The idea that “rugby league traditions” have anything in common with the Old Etonians in charge of Britain is laughable. Rugby league was actually born out of a radical revolt against the stranglehold of the privately educated over rugby. When huge numbers of industrial workers in the north of England took up rugby in the 1880s, the privately educated leaders of the Rugby Football Union tried to restrict access to the game by making it an amateur sport. “Why should we hand it over without a struggle to the hordes of working men players who would quickly engulf all others?” asked rugby and cricket international Frank Mitchell in 1897. Related: Workington Man is London’s latest stereotype for the northern voters it neglects | Lisa Nandy Continue readingread full article

Source: TheGuardian