English anthem

The other one you suggest sounds a bit like the one from The Italian Job,
This Is The Self Preservation Society.

Well, it's really called And Did Those Feet.... So it would be super relevant at a football match!?

What could be more English than the village green?
So how about the Village Green Preservation Society?

Jerusalem is absolutely out as you couldn't have our anthem with the title of a city in Israel.

I'd heard it often enough Ana (being a Rugby fan) but didn't know its name until I looked up Wiki. What would I do without Wiki?

Oh, thanks anno, I didn't know that.

NI and the Republic have a joint Rugby team and they sing a specially commissioned anthem, Ireland's Call. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIxe5ooQtqI
It has also been adopted by a number of other sporting bodies.

ShowerGel your verses are really good, well done.

"Flower of Scotland" Jings It has been mentioned above. Keep up.

Or just 'anthem'...I'm getting confused!

What's the NI national anthem, for that matter?

What do the Scots sing then? "Picking a bluebell in the merry month of May", or something from Brigadoon? Marie's wedding? "Heel for heel and toe for toe..." Be nice that.

Jalima It took me a while to realise this. It is about finding an anthem for such events as the six nations when you need to separate the currrent "national anthem" to one for just England itself.

Why has it got to be for England only?

Because when England play eg Wales or Scotland at rugby it doesn't seem right for the Welsh/Scottish to sing their own anthems and for the English to sing the British one.
It would be very odd if England, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc etc all sang GSTQ. Or I suppose it would save time, everyone could sing it together just the once.

Not just sport, other events too.

Ho. Sorry. It must mention fish and chips and curry. We need to be all inclusive.

Why has it got to be for England only? (sorry if that has been gone over) God Save the Queen is for all, isn't it?

Jingle, it's for England not the UK , I agree with Nellimoser, England has much to be proud of so I hope an anthem celebrating this will be chosen

Well Jingle knows what I am getting at 12 seconds between those ideas.

No. We need an anthem celebrating all things British. And not that horrible "bobbies on bicycles" thing! (How many of those do you see about these days anyway? The fuzz in incandescent coloured cop cars might not sound right really)

Patriotism is ok if you don't start going on about conquest and putting down foes.
This is where the Welsh anthem is so good. That just praises the country and it's history and language.

This is one reasonably close translation.

"The land of my fathers is dear to me,
Old land where the minstrels are honoured and free;
Its warring defenders so gallant and brave,
For freedom their life's blood they gave.

Wales, Wales, true am I to Wales,
While seas secure the land so pure,
O may the old language endure.

Old land of the mountains, the Eden of bards,
Each gorge and each valley a loveliness guards;
Through love of my country, charmed voices will be
Its streams, and its rivers, to me.

Though foemen have trampled my land 'neath their feet,
The language of Cambria still knows no retreat;
The muse is not vanquished by traitor's fell hand,
Nor silenced the harp of my land."

We English need something on similar lines, praising our countries artistic achievements, perhaps our pioneering engineering and our landscape.

Think Will Shakespeare and our other poets, artists and muscians, which probably lead to some suitable tune by Elgar.

Now who could write the words? It has to be a rousing tune with a chorus.
no more dirges.

I had a go at re-writing some of the words of 'There'll Always Be An England' yesterday, I cut out the first few lines - the tune is rousing enough and not aligned to any football club, as far as I know.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayiydam4nCk

^There'll always be an England
While there's a country lane,
Wherever there's a cottage small
Beside a field of grain.
There'll always be an England
While there's a busy street,
Wherever there's a turning wheel, A million marching feet.

Red n’ white flags flew; what does it mean to you?
Surely you're proud, shout it aloud,
"England, awake!"
The people too, we can depend on you.
Freedom remains. These are the chains
Nothing can break.

There'll always be an England,
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me^

Land of Hope and Glory is aggressive! . Like we've got our eye on the rest of Europe.

(Wider still and wider...)

Isn't Jerusalem too Christian? All the unbelievers would be shouting out, "No"!

(And did those feet...)

Well, I am dithering between the two, but think on the whole that Jerusalem wins out and sounds great belted out..... But then so does Land Of, oh what a dilemma.

Oh wow how amazing that would be to get rid of our dull and drab national anthem. Being a rugby fan I'm all for "Jerusalem ". However "Land of Hope and Glory "would be good too!

I love the tune to 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and was thrilled when they included it in the finale of The Last Night of the Proms but now they've dropped it again