At least you know where you are with Christmas. No matter how disappointing the presents and parties, you still take down the decorations after 12 days. It's the rule. Failure to comply is met with public humiliation. It seems as if we could do with a similar protocol for the World Cup.
While most England flags came down within minutes of the team's miserable thrashing by Germany, there are still plenty to be found hanging out of house windows, dangling from vans and cabs. So what's going on?
Is there an unwritten code that says you have to wait 12 days until after the final has taken place? Did thousands of people have a heart attack and die during the Germany game and no one's got round to noticing their absence? Is there some sort of collective misbelief that Sepp Blatter is going to retrospectively allow Frank Lampard's goal to stand and order the entire World Cup to be replayed next week? Are there a whole load of people who look at their flags and think: "Only two years to go before Euro 2012, hardly worth taking them down"?
We're stumped.
