Labour Party (Great Britain)

After installing a Labour government for the first time in 14 years, the country is looking to a historical precedent as a presage to a long-awaited sporting success.Whether “football’s coming home” is as unpredictable as ever. But in England, watching this weekend as its men’s national soccer team comes within touching distance of glory, the dreaming and dreading seem less anguished this time around.Three years ago, in the deadly grip of the coronavirus pandemic and the acrid wake of Brexit, England suffered a heartbreaking loss to Italy, on penalty kicks, in the final of the European championships in London.England’s run through that Covid-delayed tournament had lifted a country that badly needed it. The team’s unofficial anthem, “Three Lions,” swelled in pubs and living rooms across the country, offering the hope, however far-fetched, that after five decades of tournament disappointments and 14 months of lockdowns, “football’s coming home,” as the lyrics of the song go.Home looks very different this year.As England prepares to play Spain in the final in Berlin on Sunday, there’s a sense of a country turning the page, on the field and off. Last week, the Labour Party swept out a Conservative Party that had been in government for 14 years, leaving a professed soccer fan, Keir Starmer, as prime minister, and raising a tantalizing historical precedent.England flags in London. As the country prepares to play Spain in the European final in Berlin on Sunday, there’s a sense of a nation turning the page, on the field and off.Andy Rain/EPA, via ShutterstockThe last time England won a major international championship, the World Cup in 1966, it came four months after the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, had scored a landslide victory over the Conservatives. The 58 years since then have been a sad litany of missed chances and unfulfilled promise — or as the song pitilessly puts it, “England’s gonna throw it away, gonna blow it way.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More