Why doesn't England have a National Anthem?

[itwontletmechoose]

It's frustrating to hear them sing the 'God Save the King' British national anthem. Why doesn't England have its own national anthem instead of singing one which covers all of the union (in theory)?

I suggest Mr Brightside. It’s practically a British anthem it’ll slot in just nicely

Scotland does not have an official national anthem.

It's a hotly debated topic in Scotland without agreement.

Whilst Flower of Scotland is often sung it's not official.

Ideal for sporting events. Especially with football, it’s lots of hope and not very much glory.

😂

I suppose at least it's rousing, which is not a descriptive that can be applied to the current dirge and its servility to elitist rulers, whether religious or secular. The colonial context might be offputting, as it is with so much of British history that's charged with the taint of this. That said, 'Les Marseilles' is full of gruesome bloodshed ...

But I agree that's a far better option than 'Jerusalem'. There would be an irony implied in adopting this as a British anthem that doesn't even need pointing out.

I think people are being a bit hard on GSTK. It sounded great being roared out across a stadium, back in the days when the average person could sing. On the other hand, those were the days then the stadium was liable to be ripped up by said fans.

But compare it to other countries' anthems: generally territorial pissings or about putting a sword up their neighbours' collective groin. It's not that bad.

@Livelovebehappy if you think that football fans from other parts of the UK felt England were playing on their behalf, you are mistaken

And, TBH, this attitude of "England = UK" does not go down well

My Facebook feed was full of people cooking paella, hosting tapas parties etc. I don't like the "I'll support whoever's playing against England" mentality, but it's definitely a thing

All true but not the doing of “the English “ as a whole. The clue is in your post- English landowners, the aristocracy and ruling classes In Victorian times there were plenty of oppressed English people. More recently not all English people agree with the government. I don’t like the Twll dyn bob Sais attitude.

The previous alternative, Scotland The Brave, does have a rousing melody - but no one knows the words, and when you look them up they lack the nostalgic reflection and call-to-action that Flower Of Scotland has.

But he was always being pushed on us as being English because he had lived in England for a number of years. Scotland dont have many successful sports achieved, so guess most of us just thought "let them have him" because the Scottish were making such a big deal of it.

This hasn't been my experience. I've always heard Murray talked about as Scottish and proudly so. I've never heard him described as English.

It’s used as a metaphor, though. For a place of love and peace. Ironic.

We have There'll Always be an England and Rule Britannia. We also have Jerusalem of course although I prefer the Spitting Image version that ends "until we have built Jerusalem and made it look like Milton Keynes".

Flanders and Swann wrote a very tongue in cheek National Anthem about sixty years ago.

It's called "The English, The English, The English are Best, I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the Rest".

It's extremely offensive by modern standards though 😂🤭

I think that half of the problem is that being English is seen as something to be ashamed of rather than something to be proud of, particularly because most people hate us, and often with good reason. So having any sort of national anthem just seems embarrassing.

I think this thread part-way illustrates why some of us don't exactly help ourselves.

I can't see why being English (or anything else) is a matter for either shame or pride. It's an accident of birth, like eye colour.

The British national anthem is mercifully short, so that's something.

I like Land of Hope and Glory - again it wouldn't be hard to write up to date lyrics for it.

Also, what is Englishness? If I go to Scotland the only thing that will mark me out as English is my accent. But I could eg have French parents, but have lived in England all my life, so I have an English accent (edited - accent from an area of England, as there isn't an "English" accent).

It is pretty stupid to dislike people on the basis of their accent!

I've never once heard of Murray being described as English. Are you getting him confused with Tim Henman

We had fireworks going off locally at 10:15pm.

I've met quite a few English people over the years, always southerners, who almost seemed ashamed or apologetic for being English. One was a 20-something lad in a bar in Dublin who had an Australian accent. I was asking him where he was from because I have family in Oz. Turned out he'd backpacked around it for about 6 months! He was from the home counties! He went on to say he thought identity / nationality shouldn't matter. As a proud-to-be Irish woman I found it baffling. Maybe he was just trying to cover up being English in Ireland, who knows? But I've come across it many times since. Its almost as though being proud to be English means you're aligned with Reform types.

Had the drugs arrived? That's how they let everyone know round us.

Nowhere have I said “all English”.

Nor would I given my parents and my husband are English.

We don’t need an anthem.
We are comfortable in our superiority.
😉😁😁

its because people of a certain type are falling over themselves to be so inclusive to people coming into the country they think the best way is to try and stop anything English being celebrated and telling everyone how terrible England is and we must adapt to incomers rather than them adapting to the country they have left there’s for.

And what “good reason” would that be?