England to get a national anthem?

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Graham Kennedy
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England to get a national anthem?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

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MPs have given initial support to the idea of England adopting an official national anthem.

God Save the Queen, the national anthem for the UK as a whole, is currently used for England during most sporting events.

However, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins believes England needs its own anthem and presented his case in the House of Commons as a ten minute rule motion.

His English National Anthem Bill was adopted by the House.

The idea will be debated again at a second reading on 4 March.

The bill would bestow a responsibility on the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to hold a consultation across the UK, and Mr Perkins suggested there could even be an "X Factor style programme" to select a song.
I would love this - God Save The Queen is a dirge, and no country should have a miserable national anthem!

Personally, I would go for this...



But I guess I'm going to be in a small minority on that one. :(
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Mikey »

Huh. I thought "G-d Save the Queen" already was your national anthem. Anyway, here's hoping you guys choose better than we did.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Captain Seafort »

Mikey wrote:Huh. I thought "G-d Save the Queen" already was your national anthem.
God Save the Queen is the UK's national anthem. The debate is about establishing an official English anthem.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Mikey »

Captain Seafort wrote:
Mikey wrote:Huh. I thought "G-d Save the Queen" already was your national anthem.
God Save the Queen is the UK's national anthem. The debate is about establishing an official English anthem.
I see. So, is there in fact a song titled, "We tolerate the Scots, Irish, and Welsh but obviously consider ourselves superior?"
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

I won't lie. England not having a national anthem is news to me, too.

The Doctor Who theme, perhaps?
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

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This has my vote.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Mikey »

"Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?"

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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Mikey wrote:
Captain Seafort wrote:
Mikey wrote:Huh. I thought "G-d Save the Queen" already was your national anthem.
God Save the Queen is the UK's national anthem. The debate is about establishing an official English anthem.
I see. So, is there in fact a song titled, "We tolerate the Scots, Irish, and Welsh but obviously consider ourselves superior?"
Only in my fantasies.

Jerusalem seems popular, but that's a bit weird to me as it's named for a foreign city. Plus, it was inspired by the fanciful idea that Jesus visited the British Isles at some point. I'm not a fan of anthems that heavily religious - which is one reason I don't care for the current one.

Rule Britannia is ever popular and oft-criticised for being a little jingoistic... which is one reason I love it. Especially this performance



One objection is that the statement "Britannia rules the waves" is overtly not true for the last 70 years or so. However, for one, so what? National anthems are rarely literally true. And for another, it doesn't actually say "Britannia rules the waves", it says "Britannia rule the waves"; it's an instruction, not a statment of fact.

Land of Hope and Glory is also terribly popular :



Good lyrics for an anthem, too.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by IanKennedy »

The Peruvian nation anthem is the worst:
For a long time the oppressed Peruvian
the ominous chain he dragged
Condemned to a cruel servitude
for a long time, for a long time
for a long time he quietly moaned
But as soon as the sacred cry
Freedom! in its coasts was heard
the slaves' indolence shakes
the humiliated, the humiliated,
the humiliated neck raised up,
the humiliated neck raised up, neck raised up...
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Kinda whiny for a national anthem...
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Mikey »

Graham Kennedy wrote:Only in my fantasies.
:laughroll:
Graham Kennedy wrote:a little jingoistic
Isn't that the point of a national anthem?

Ours is one of the worst towards that end, BTW. The Star-Spangled Banner, as you can tell by the title, is a paean to our flag, not to our country itself. To be fair, yours is addressed to your monarch rather than to the UKoGBaNI.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

I rather like the star-spangled banner. It's got a very recognisable first few bars, which is always a big plus for an anthem since it makes it so recognisable. One reason I don't like ours is that it's so slow and dreary that you hardly know what tune it is until you're well into it.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Mikey »

Graham Kennedy wrote:I rather like the star-spangled banner. It's got a very recognisable first few bars, which is always a big plus for an anthem since it makes it so recognisable. One reason I don't like ours is that it's so slow and dreary that you hardly know what tune it is until you're well into it.
The music is appropriately stately (although actually being a British song from 1780.) The lyrics are about a specific point in a specific battle in a war that technically just sort of fizzled out instead of being decisively won. "America the Beautiful" should be our national anthem. The only issue I see, as an outsider, with "G-d Save the Queen" is that the music is so similar to that of "O Canada." Also, it's a national anthem of New Zealand, some sort of official song in a handful of Commonwealth nations, and the musical basis for "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in the 'States.
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by IanKennedy »

A couple of points:

1) We got there first
2) There's a reason for the similarity ;) (as in we used to "own" them)
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Re: England to get a national anthem?

Post by Captain Seafort »

Mikey wrote:The music is appropriately stately (although actually being a British song from 1780.) The lyrics are about a specific point in a specific battle in a war that technically just sort of fizzled out instead of being decisively won. "America the Beautiful" should be our national anthem.
Why don't you go back to your original one.
The only issue I see, as an outsider, with "G-d Save the Queen" is that the music is so similar to that of "O Canada." Also, it's a national anthem of New Zealand, some sort of official song in a handful of Commonwealth nations, and the musical basis for "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in the 'States.
It's also the old German national anthem, and the current one of Liechtenstein.
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