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The St George’s Cross will fly above Downing Street during the World Cup as a show of support for the England team, David Cameron has announced.
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons he was sure people throughout the United Kingdom “will be cheering ‘come on England’,” and had given orders for the England flag to replace the Union Flag for the duration of the tournament.
At Prime Minister's Questions Mr Cameron was urged to show his support by Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon, who said: "I ask you to do a great thing for the people of England and cut through the bureaucracy and nonsense and fly the flag of England over Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup."
Mr Cameron said: "There was some question that this was going to have a cost impact but I've managed to cut through that and I can say that at no additional cost to the taxpayer the flag of St George will fly above Downing Street during the World Cup."
As the residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Downing Street traditionally flies the Union Flag, but because no other home nation had qualified for the World Cup, Mr Cameron said he was sure MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would back the move.
He added: "For the purposes of this I'm looking at all the benches here and I'm sure that everyone in this House, no matter what part of the United Kingdom they come from, will be cheering 'come on England'."
Tony Blair, who was prime minister during the last World Cup in 2006, ordered the England flag to be flown from Number 10 on the days of England matches.
Fabio Capello's team begins its campaign against the USA in Rustenburg, South Africa, on Saturday night. The flag will be hoisted on Saturday morning and will stay in place as long as England stay in the tournament.
(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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(Agencies)
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英國首相大衛?卡梅倫日前宣布，唐寧街（10號）將在世界杯比賽期間懸掛英格蘭圣喬治旗，以表對英格蘭隊的支持。
卡梅倫對英國議會下院表示，他相信全體英國國民都會發出“英格蘭隊加油”的吶喊。他已下令在世界杯比賽期間，唐寧街10號掛上英格蘭旗，換下通常所掛的英國國旗。
在日前的一次首相質詢會上，來自埃文河畔斯特拉特福德的保守黨議員納丁?扎哈維請求卡梅倫對參加世界杯的英格蘭隊表示支持。扎哈維說：“我請你為英格蘭人民做一件偉大的事，那就是克服官僚主義和那些毫無意義的質疑，讓唐寧街10號在世界杯期間升起英格蘭旗。”
卡梅倫說：“有人質疑這會有成本影響，但我已經解決好了這個問題。我可以保證，世界杯賽期間在唐寧街10號懸掛圣喬治旗不會對納稅人造成任何影響?！?/p>
作為英國首相官邸，唐寧街10號通常都是懸掛英國國旗，但由于大不列顛王國的其他幾個成員都沒能晉級世界杯決賽，所以卡梅倫希望來自蘇格蘭、威爾士和北愛爾蘭的議員都能支持這一做法。
他說：“為此，我期望在座的各位都能給予支持。我相信在座的每個人，無論來自大不列顛王國的哪一部分，都會高呼‘英格蘭加油’”。
在2006年世界杯期間，時任英國首相托尼?布萊爾下令在英格蘭隊比賽日期間在首相官邸懸掛英格蘭旗。
由法比奧?卡佩羅率領的英格蘭隊將于本周六晚間在南非的勒斯滕堡迎戰美國隊，開始他們的世界杯之旅。英格蘭旗將于周六早晨在唐寧街10號升起，并將一直掛到英格蘭隊結束世界杯之旅。
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（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯蔡姍姍）
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