Stop apologising for our nation’s proud history

THE Prime Minister has spoken for the nation – or at least the vast majority of it that does not hate this country’s history nor want it rewritten, cancelled and apologised for. His response to the BBC’s decision to remove the words of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia from the Last Night of the Proms has drawn a line in the culture war the Left has unleashed.

First they came for the statues of great men and women who shaped this country and the world and now they want to cancel our patriotic songs.

Daily Express readers will agree with Boris Johnson when he says “It’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, about our culture and we stop this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness.”

The fact that it is the BBC – once the guardian of Britain’s culture and heritage – that is engaging in this wanton vandalism of our history and traditions is truly shameful. We have to say loud and clear that the wokeness infesting our great institutions be they the BBC, universities, museums or elsewhere has to stop.

There are many reasons to be proud of British history. It was glorious as our future is too. It shaped who we are and our values.

Not only is it multicultural, international in its reach and impact, it also lays out how this country shaped freedoms and values that underpin democratic countries today.

Those who do not want to hear the words “Britannia rules the waves” should remember that when this country did do just that it stood alone as a major power against slavery.We may not “rule the waves” now, but British values in many ways still do exercised through Nato, the UN, the European Convention of Human Rights (all British inventions).

So let’s stop the apologies and the cringe and stand up for our history and principles.