GOD SAVE THE BRITISH ANTHEM?
Every four years, as England prepares to kick off yet another doomed attempt at the World Cup, the people of England bask in a few beautiful moments of false hope as their team links arms and belts out a stirring rendition of God Save the Queen. But now, according to proposed legislation before the U. K. House of Commons, God Save the Queen’s days at English sporting matches may be numbered. The National Post’s Tristin Hopper delves into why.
WHY ABANDON THE NATIONAL ANTHEM?
God Save the Queen is indeed a national anthem, but it’s not technically England’s national anthem. Rather, it’s the anthem for the United Kingdom; the confusing mash- up of Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. God Save the Queen will continue to be the standard at events where the U. K. fields a unified team, such as the Olympics. But at events where Scotland, England and Wales play separately, Scotland and Wales have taken to singing their own anthems ( Flower of Scotland and Land of My Fathers, respectively). The proposal would simply grant England an English- specific song to sing.
WHO PROPOSED THIS? IT’S THOSE REPUBLICANS, ISN’T IT?
The motion was proposed by Labour Party MP Toby Perkins, who has felt the need to come out as firmly pro-Queen. “I’m not a Republican, I sing (God Save the Queen) with gusto,” he declared in a New Year’s Eve tweet. But giving England its own anthem would cement the idea that the U. K. is a “union of four separate nations with their own identities,” he said.
REPLACE IT? WITH WHAT?
The “obvious” choice, according to English political types, is the song Jerusalem. The 1916 song is about an apocryphal visit made by Jesus Christ to England when it was a Roman colony. The song is already ubiquitous as England’s unofficial anthem.
DIDN’T GOD SAVE THE QUEEN USED TO BE CANADA’S ANTHEM?
Never officially, but it did get sung an awful lot before this fine Dominion agreed on O Canada. It’s still Canada’s Royal Anthem, however.
DOES THE QUEEN CARE?
Inside the halls of the U. K. parliament, there’s a big mural of a bunch of Englishmen beheading the last monarch who weighed in on an act of parliament. So, no; Queen Elizabeth is likely quite satisfied with already being commemorated on British and Commonwealth currency, bobby helmets and bottles of HP Sauce.
DOES BRIAN MAY CARE?
Brian May, the guitarist for Queen who recorded a spine- tingling rock version of the anthem in 1975 and then famously performed it from the roof of Buckingham Palace 40 years later? No, he doesn’t seem to care either.
DOES ANYONE CARE?
Conservative legislator Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned that an English anthem would divide Britain by encouraging “individual nationalisms.” “What greater pleasure can there be for a true- born Englishman or trueborn Englishwoman than to listen to our own national anthem — a national anthem for our whole country, our whole United Kingdom,” Rees- Mogg said.