English anthem

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.

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.

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

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

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

ShowerGel your verses are really good, well done.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

Village Green Preservation Society was sung by the Kinks, not the one in yhe Itslian job. And the other one is called Jerusalem. Ask any WI member!

theconversation.com/jerusalem-a-history-of-englands-hymn-55668

Thank you for the link, dj. We sang it at the end of term at my school, and when the chapel was being rebuilt there was an outcry at the suggestion that it should be dropped. We felt that if it was not sung the term could not properly be said to have ended, so the authorities gave way and it was sung to a piano accompaniment at the end of assembly. Pupil power in the early sixties!

Well done your school, grumppa. Did you threaten to go on strike?

Interesting to see there were calls for it to be the national anthem in 1927. It's taken a long time.

If I were English and atheist I wouldn't want an anthem speaking of Christ trotting around Glastonbury and I wouldn't wish to speak of dark satanic mills, the former a lie , the latter not praise for a country there , certainly nothing to be proud of.

Difficult to strike at the end of term, but we had a bit of previous with a petition signed by literally a couple of hundred boys about the quality of the food. These things stick in headteachers' minds.

Not that it's a great choice. In today's Times John Julius Norwich points out the inherent nonsense of an anthem which asks a series of questions to which the answer is no.

Having said that, as a half-English atheist I can live with the concept of building the new Jerusalem as a philosophical ideal, just as my Welsh half can cope with being guided by the Great Jehovah.

I am guided by God but I don't believe Christ was in Glastonbury . Why can't you find an anthem which speaks of pride in your past not dreams of a place called Jeruselem in your country, you wouldn't even agree where to build it , north, south or middle

Land of hope and glory - hypocritical when the majority are atheists and God didn't make you mighty, swords, bayonets and guns did.

Swing low sweet chariot - a song sung by slaves longing for death and a better life in heaven

I think something new should be written , makes no difference to me, I don't have to sing it but it's a pity you can't seem to find an anthem which doesn't insult other countries or bring a god you don't believe in into it

First rule for those English who are looking for their own anthem: ignore all advice from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

And I don't believe that the majority of the English are atheists.

There was a poll last Easter that put Britain sixth from bottom in the religious stakes.

Only a small proportion was made up of 'convinced atheists' though.

I read the article, dj thank you. I am not sure if it mentioned it but I believe Parry actually donated/bequeathed the royalties from 'Jerusalem' to the Wonen's Suffrage Movement and then when women got the vote 1928?) that was passed on to the WI.