So, now they want to comp9se some crxxpy lyrics to replace..........

Joan, Advance Australia Fair is definitely dodgy isn't it? Adam Hills does a great version using the words to the song but singing it to the tune of Jimmy Barnes "Working Class Man". It's become a staple every time someone gets a guitar out at a party for us!

Were you in Australia when they did the poll to choose a replacement for God Save The Queen ("The Gawsave")? Most of us wanted Waltzing Matilda but it would have cost a fortune in royalties to A.B.Paterson's beneficiaries and copyright on the most common tune was owned by an American publishing company... plus the silvertails and wowsers were a bit put off by a song about a suicidal sheep stealer. It would have won by a mile, and at least everyone knows the words!

If I had to choose I'd go with "I Am Australian". It evokes patriotic thoughts of Australia, Telstra and Qantas! :-)

I am not a patriot. I am deeply disappointed by the UK and even more disappointed by its politicians with their very own knavish tricks.

Yes Absent that's how I feel, very disappointed by my country of birth. I would like to be a patriot but I'm embarrassed by the way things are going.

Did you see the bit of Chesterton's poem I posted elsewhere? Will find it, and be back!

Here it is! From "the Secret People"

They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.
That we are the people of England, who have not spoken yet.

Rings a few bells, eh?

Being a bit pedantic, but in the World Cup football, all the players are English, that's the rule. Like with most men some will be able to sing and others won't.
I suppose they are asked to move their lips but some are too tense to do so.

The Nat Anthem is Ok by me but what upsets me is the Last Night of the Proms and 'Rule Brittania' All that boasting and 'ruling the waves' sort of thing. That was our Hey Day but ruling the waves was piracy and villiany and is something we should be ashamed of, not proud of.

The Austrailian Nat Anthem is an example of what a Nat Anthem should not be from a singer's point of view Better short and sweet.
Walzing Mathilda would have been worth the money. I imagine most Aussies can identify with it which is the point.

English, Charlotta? Or British?

Bit of googling. Seems it is and English team, not GB. Hey ho. Shows how much I know about soccer.

I am patriotic. I love England. (and Wales and Scotland too actually (but England lbest of all)).

I am proud of the fact that the UK government gives help to the needy countries, and that the British public are the most generous in the way of private giving. And we have the most sensible laws on the whole, in the world.

But quite apart from that, there's the countryside. And the cows.

Oh, and the shopping centres!

Actually, I'm not too sure about the cows.

"We are the people of England, who have not spoken yet"

I think it's time we started shouting.

Ariadne thank you - how true that is.