Hitting a wrong note

For an event that is supposed to be a celebration of music, the Last Night of the Proms has become mired in the politics of national identity. Purists do not especially like such a raucous end to the world’s greatest classical music festival; but it is fun and has established traditions which participants – both performers and audience – enjoy. Indeed, such is the popularity of the Last Night that for the past 20 years it has been extended to encompass park concerts staged in the four parts of the United Kingdom.

But they do not all get the same programme. Towards the end of the night, when the stalwarts

Rule, Britannia!, Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem are played in the Royal Albert Hall, the Scots and Welsh are given separate offerings. On Saturday, just as the orchestra launched into Rule,

Britannia!, the BBC announcer Katie Derham said it was “time to say goodbye to Proms in the Park events in Swansea and Glasgow – they’re leaving us now”. From being a Uk-wide experience, it was limited to England and Northern Ireland.

Yet the words of Rule, Britannia! were penned by James Thomson, a Scottish poet. Moreover, the Last Night ends with a rendition of Auld Lang Syne, written by Robert Burns. Is it really necessary for the BBC, whose event this is, to pander to a separatism that the majority in the United Kingdom does not want? After all, a majority does not want to stay in the European Union, either, yet there were plenty of EU flags on show in the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, flourished by those who wanted to make a point about Brexit.

Perhaps next year the BBC could make sure that all of the United Kingdom shares in the entirety of the Last Night – Rule Britannia! and all.