Should We Change of National Anthem

[Tyredofallthis1]

Should we still sing God Save the Queen for England? God Save the Queen is rolled out for the monarch and for the UK, but Scotland and Wales have their own anthems. Shouldn't England have its own? It was really obvious when England played Scotland in the Euros. We had Scotland the Brave and then God Save the Queen, which also applies to Scotland (if you only use the first verse).

How about Jerusalem?

I nominate the Peppa Pig theme tune.

It's annoying, I hate it, I can never get it out of my head, the lyrics are;
"dur dur dur dur dur ,
dur dur dur dur dur durr
so everyone can manage to sing along in a droning fashion including drunk people.

it's perfect.

@GleamingHeels but what made me think was that perhaps it should have been GStQ for both teams when England played Scotland as it is both of their national anthems. But I'm sure it was Scotland the Brave then GStQ, and it felt weird.

We should replace it with the intro to shameless, it's a bit more fitting

Yeah l know. And as it was written about a socialist utopia id absolutely support it as a national anthem!

@Tyredofallthis1 No problem, why would you know if you're not a Scot! I was just surprised that you and other posters referred to Scotland the Brave

@Tyredofallthis1 , perhaps it was Scotland the Brave, I didn't hear it, it's not impossible, but I'd be surprised!

@GleamingHeels I'm sure it was Scotland the Brave they played, but I could be wrong. I love Flower of Scotland. It's an amazing anthem.

Of course, they could have played 'Yes sir, I can boogie' which is what came up when I tried a quick check on Google.

Think England should have their name own national anthem.

There should be 5. One for each of the 4 nations, and one for when the nations play as Great Britain.

It's not fair on England when they play as England - as it's always GSTQ. And it's not fair on Scotland, Ireland and Wales when we play as Great Britain as they all have to sing GSTQ.

We need to ditch God Save the Queen. I’m not anti-monarchist, but it is just such a dirge. Dull as ditchwater with nothing to recommend it.

Jerusalem is better. Or maybe something else could be composed.

I've just checked. It was Flower of Scotland, and that was particularly appropriate as it's about beating the English.

I’m jealous of Danny Boy as a national anthem.

I wish we had something as sweet and haunting.

The trouble with all of these three - Land of Hope and Glory, And this I Vow, and Jerusalem is that they’re all pretty godly for an increasingly multi-and-no-faith society.

I like them all and agree England needs its own song - but something with similar impact to Flower of Scotland, Land of My Fathers, the Marseillaise, without baked in imperial overtones and I’m not sure England’s got anything that wouldn’t need to be invented from scratch. It’s the downside of mainly being the winner for the last millennium and the only actual revolution being overturned. You’ve got no good fighting/resistance/get the fuck out of my country songs.

I love all the different interpretations of Jerusalem - I’ve seen Blake’s personal mythology of Satan as grinding the bones of sinners, the churches explanation above and the standard 19th century socialist Actual Mills interpretations at various times.

I also love that it’s a series of questions to which all the answers are ‘no’.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Danny Boy is beautiful. The main drawback for that is that people who can't sing think that they can sing it. At least with GStQ, it's hard to ruin it.

I think the references to Christianity could be changed in Jerusalem. Blake was a forward thinking kind of guy, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind!

@JassyRadlett we've been the cause of resistance/struggle/triumph songs (qv Flower of Scotland). I suppose it's a question of what is sung when the pubs are chucking out.

How about There Always Be An England as sung by Vera Lynn? Or I Vow To Thee My Country?

White Cliffs of Dover?

I Vow to Thee My Country is so beautiful :-) The first verse isn't very god-tastic, so maybe we could just have that? We only sing the first verse of God Save the Queen, after all...

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I suppose it's a question of what is sung when the pubs are chucking out.

Don't say that, we'd end up with 'Football's coming home ... ' as our anthem!

There’ll always be a England talks about an empire though.

Jerusalem was used for England at the last commonwealth games

I've just remembered that farce of BoJo getting kids singing about 'Great Britain'. Not that!

Something a little less nationalistic, perhaps. I know that sounds strange for a national anthem, but perhaps we ought to calm down for a while.

@jay55 I love Jerusalem.

@Tyredofallthis1, Flower of Scotland is, of course, technically about beating the English, but mostly we sing it about our own ability to be victorious, it's also such a good song for crowd-singing, something I think God Save the Queen lacks.

I think the UK needs to look to the likes of La Marseillaise - proper stirring stuff and England should choose something equally stirring, about the country rather than the monarch

Our Flower of Scotland is a very rousing anthem. GSTQ just sounds a bit meh in comparison.