Bring Me My Arrows Of Desire

[poliphilo]

Our national anthem is needlessly divisive.

If I were French I'd have no problem singing the (hair-raising) Marseillaise and if I were American I'd have no problem singing the (stirring) Star-spangled Banner, but the British national anthem commits me to monarchical rule and that's something I'm against. Like Corbyn I refuse to sing it. I'm a Republican. And in spite of everything the establishment and its media would like us to believe there's a a strong, honest and deeply patriotic tradition of British Republicanism. Let's reel off some names. Milton was a Republican, so were Burns, Shelley, Wilkes, Paine and Blake; I'm happy to be of their company. And then there's Cromwell (that very great man) who stands in solid, grim faced, Victorian bronze outside the Houses of Parliament- as a reminder and a reproach.

There are alternatives. The Scots have already adopted Flower of Scotland. Here in England there's Jerusalem. I'd have no problem singing Jerusalem. I'm a patriot, only not a monarchist- and the establishment has conflated the two. Listen, you lot, we fought a war over this issue; which- incidentally-  we won- and we're still here.  It's wrong that a nation of two opinions should have a national song that so offensively promotes the values of the dominant party.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It's perfectly possible for normal persons to sing the Bar Strangled Spanner, it just needs to be in a slightly lower key. It's not the range, it's the starting point. There is even a movement to get the key changed.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's over an octave and a half range. That's not horrific -- my range is a bit over two octaves -- but it's still a lot for casual singing.