English anthem

I vote 'LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY ' .

Not land of hope and glory , it doesn't apply to England only does it?

That's why I'm in favour of "in England's green and pleasant land"

If I had a choice nina I would choose Jerusalem, but only against Land of, for me I wouldn't want an anthem which speaks of Christ walking the land or satanic mills . I think our Welsh anthem is great, it just speaks of love and pride in the Land Of My Fathers

Pity there isn't similar for England , I feel sorry for English teams having to sing The Queen,

Someone should write one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAcE6x7-ygo

Let's have a catchy little number for a change

Great Merlotgran,

Someone should right a rousing anthem to John of Gaunt's speech in Richard II.......Howard Goodall would be my choice.

Jerusalem would be my choice too ( so what about satanic mills, they are all art galleries now anyway.) Land of is a bit dreary.
Where England is competing as a country we need our own anthem.

Many footballers (and others) do not know the words of God Save the Queen so what hope is there for for them to know/learn Jerusalem or Land of Hope and Glory?

We have to pitch a National Anthem at the level of the average footballer?

Land of Hope and Glory for me. You can't get any more English and patriotic and Elgar wrote amazing music.

It's not just footballers who would sing it though.
It would be good if someone wrote something new. It would need a rousing chorus.

Land of is not only for England it is for the UK and I think the claims that God
made us mighty is offensive to the many countries we occupied under the Raj , also the majority are atheists

I also think England needs an anthem , but Jesus didn't walk England's land and satanic mills are a shame in history not something to celebrate

The extent to which i hate 'Land of Hope and Glory' has become a standing joke among our friends. I thought i read somewhere that Elgar hated it too. Although i love 'Jerusalem', i think 'I Vow to Thee My Country' would be a good choice. It goes against the the grain to say it, since i would defend Her Maj to my dying breath, but God Save the Queen is an awful dirge that does nothing at all for most people. When she goes, it will be time for a change.

True, the words of Land of Hope and Glory are distinctly jingoistic. Good tune though.

I believe the "dark Satanic mills" are thought to mean the pagan stone circles (like the milling round the edge of coins - which incidentally was done to prevent people trimming off bits of silver and melting them down to make extra coins)

If the tradition had been true that Jesus visited these islands, the circles would have been here then, but the Industrial mills would not.

"God save the Queen" is really a personal anthem for the sovereign, like "Hail to the Chief" is for the US president.

Well you know ab there is a story that Jesus did walk Englands green and pleasant land, at least around Glastonbury ( you don't have to believe it.)
dark satanic mills was just written as a contrast to the green and pleasant bit, town and country sort of thing.

Billy Conolly once suggested the Archers theme!

There was a suggestion by Bill Turnbull on the BBC news this morning that words could be written and sung to the Archer's theme. What do others think?

How about I Vow to Thee my Country? Nicely jingoistic, nice tune.

Jerusalem is very Christian and England is therefore excludes the majority of the population - only a minority are churchgoers. Weren't the dark satanic mills the industrial revolution ones. Poetic licence.
I agree Land is about conquering other nations! "wider still and wider shall her bounds be set".
Thinking about the anthems I am familiar with - some of them are dirges, some of them are un-singable (USA!!! and all those operatic sounding ones -and the ones that go on an on and on in the Olympic ceremonies...).
My favourites are the African part of SA anthem and of course NZ.
Advantage of both of these is that they both have a good, singable tunes and you can sing them fairly slowly in a stadium but also play it as an instrumental piece at a reasonable pace.
How about All You Need is Love.
Or actually what about I Vow to Thee My Country. First Verse only. That would keep the military types happy and has a fairly good rousing tune.

Hmmmn, the Archers Theme...... A possibility!

Sorry Merlotgran, the Roger Miller song does not ring true nowadays. I never see any bobbies around, let alone two of 'em on bikes. Don't you see, this could be our chance to shine? Surely with all our experience we could knock up some appropriate anthem for England? Something rousing, relevant and a darn sight more enjoyable than GSTQ. Shall we give it a go?