to be embarrassed about our national anthem?

[TrinityMotherOfRhinos]

its a hideous depressing sounding dirge

not meaning to offend anyone but genuinely interested in how others feel

If you would say what the English anthem is, perhaps we'd have a chance to agree or disagree.

Isn't it vindaloo?

Vindaloo vindaloo nah nahhhh....

Well it was for one summer....

[nice one Cyril]

No way is Flower of Scotland shit, although I would quite like the national anthem to be Caledonia!

Onimolap- as i said already that might be technically true but anthems are about the heart and soul of a nation.The anthem England sings does not represent Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland so you can call it British until the end of time and still only the English will sing it.
And besides all that it's a shit song.

God Save the Queen does drag.

I think it's a shame there isn't an separate English one. Apart from the English being able to celebrate their national identity, the words British & English are sometimes used interchangably by the uninformed and having God Saves the Queen for both does reinforce the misconception.

Can't speak for the Welsh, but I'm not keen on the Scottish one either! I'm embarassed by Flower of Scotland being the our anthem as it celebrates the victory of the Scots over the English in 1314. Totally inappropriate. I'd rather we had Scotland The Brave because of the sentiment in the lyrics. Land of my heart forever!

I'm not keen on FOS either. It's so sentimental and a bit dirge-like.

I agree BeautifulBlonde Scotland The Brave would be good.

I'm not keen on Scotland the brave. I quite like Highland cathedral. My DD's choir ended a concert with it once and it was amazing! (I realise that it's not quite a sporting event!)

Interesting that everyone seems agreed that Hen wlad fy nhadau is fine.

I want Jerusalem too, it's so much nicer than shitty god save the queen.

The England team have just sung it as their anthem, so sorry but as well as being the British one it's self-evidently the English one.

If that's not officially the case somebody should sneakily register something else and save us this torment!

Is anyone actually watching the rugby?

I vow to thee would be good as well.

I am gutted!

I love FOS. I grew up with The Corries being played, and my parents dragged my brother and I to every folk festival in Scotland - I will never ever forget when The Corries did FOS!! The crowds went wild!
Fantastic memories. A great great song.

If you say it is shit again I will cry.

Yes. With welsh DH... (I am a Brit/Kiwi mix for full disclosure)

I vow to thee my country - good taste. And the tune is by Holst, so another big point there!

I wouldn't sing it because of the first line though - not my country - but it could solve all problems. I won't sing God save the queen on principle, but having an English national anthem would mean that nobody would expect me (or any Scottish, NIrish people) to do so anyway, and that's great. GSTQ - and having all nations in the UK sing it - is too reminiscent of bringing everyone under the monarch's yoke - or worse, we have conquered you, now be English and pleased about it.
IYKWIM.

The national anthem is marvellous, and it is outrageous to suggest otherwise. What on earth are the Welsh and Scottish "anthems"? Delilah and something by the Proclaimers respectively???

I vow to thee my country...

Tis my vote.

Oh, oh, I vow to thee has no reference to which country it is! In which case it's perfect!
Can we make MadamDeathStare queen now?

Welsh National Anthem

Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau The Land Of My Fathers

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi, The land of my fathers, the land of my choice,
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri; The land in which poets and minstrels rejoice;
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mâd, The land whose stern warriors were true to the core,
Tros ryddid gollasant eu gwaed.
Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau The Land Of My Fathers

So rousing!Come on Wales!

Don't cry Pictish, it is a great song but a bit silly as we will clearly never send them home to think again. Very rousing though and i suppose that's what you want before a game of rugby or whatever.

Gwlad, Gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad. Wales! Wales! fav'rite land of Wales!
Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau, While sea her wall, may naught befall
O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau. To mar the old language of Wales.

Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd, Old mountainous Cambria, the Eden of bards,
Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn i'm golwg sydd hardd; Each hill and each valley, excite my regards;
Trwy deimlad gwladgarol, mor swynol yw si To the ears of her patriots how charming still seems
Ei nentydd, afonydd i mi. The music that flows in her streams.

Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwald tan ei droed, My country tho' crushed by a hostile array,
Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ac erioed, The language of Cambria lives out to this day;
Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad, The muse has eluded the traitors' foul knives,
Na thelyn berseiniol fy ngwlad. The harp of my country survives.

I like God Save the Queen - but for Britain. For England i would go for Jerusalem as it has no obvious - lets bash the celts - about it. Only prob is that it is mildly odd to have as your national anthem, a song about the 'capital city' of another country....

But i love a bit of Elgar me....