feeling proud to be British

I think we need a British national anthem containing no reference to the monarchy.

I like the national anthem. I'm tone deaf so its easy to remember. And I wish the Scots would be independent and then all that dosh (Bennett is that the word)would go to the far more deserving NE. Always remembering that the finest view in Scotland is the road south.
Tongue in cheek emoticon

I agree thatbags

It's a great national anthem - because it is SHORT! Unless HM is present you can get away with just six bars. Compare that with some of the other nations, where their anthems go on on on... Mind you, I've always had a soft spot for the Irish Soldiers Song - I like the way it keeps a straight face, and then kicks up its heels for the last four bars.

The old Hymn of the Soviet Socialist Republics was a real marathon.

Did you know that GSTK/Q turns up in a Rossini opera? In Il viaggio a Rheims people are taking it in turns to sing a song of their homelands, and the English milord only knows one song, so that's what he sings!

Yes, but it's a British anthem! Talking rugby here - if our neighbours can sing about the glories of their bits of Britain (leaving out the Irish because that's a different situation) what would the English sing? "Rule Britannia" - obviously not. "Jerusalem"?? (Please no.) ???

(I am, by the way, very proud to be British)

GSTQ isn't exactly rousing is it - more like a dirge. The words don't bear too much examination either.

thatbags Theseus says to gently remind you that the "British Isles" means the isles of Great Britain and all the other isles surrounding them, including Ireland. [ smile]

Whereas, and I know you know this, the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of GB and Northern Ireland.

Is he a pedant or what? The sun is over the yardarm quite early down here....

I tried to explain all that to some americans once ariadne and how Ireland is divided up, which few of them were aware of.
Yes it is a dirge. As is Happy Birthday to You.

Happy birthday --A dirge I don"t think so , it brings a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people !!

Happy birthday is great!

I am sure it will be sung to me in October !!

Originally written as "Good morning to you" - by a couple of infant teachers, I think.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roast_Beef_of_Old_England

What about this one! Might need a verse for English vegetarains though!

Ariadne Wasn't it Scottish aristocrats who started enclosing the land thus leading to the clearances?

HBTY has the same falling cadences and plodding rhythm as GSTQ . In other words all the notes are the same length and then there is a long and lower note giving an emphasis at the end of each line.
Wales of course have the best one - v stirring. Also rather fond of the NZ one which has a rather nice tune. The only words of the Maori i understand are iwi (people) and of course Aaa-te-ro-o-aaa - the land of the long white cloud.
The US have one that is almost impossible to sing unless you have a voice with a good range and it is in a helpful pitch for that voice.
Short anthem does not give gold medallists long enough to have a really good weep on the podium

HBTY is sung to me in a very cheerful , happy , light hearted way .

Perhaps you should educate your singers to be the same .

ariadne, please thank Theseus for me, but I did know that already. My post merely said that the British Isles include Scotland and Wales because they had been mentioned already alongside complaints about being called British. Other islands, including Ireland, were not mentioned but not excluded. Tut, tut! A mathematical pedant should have realised this!

Tell him I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

England, England is good
Fields, towns, rivers & wood
We love our land.
Diverse but similar
We share one voice to call
Fairness & truth for all
We love our land.

Dug this out from the back of a cupboard. Written by two 10 yr olds some years back as an alternative wording for the National Anthem. I have substituted England for Britain which is what they put.

Can't remember the last time anyone did nonu. Be careful what you assume about people.

Perhaps you also should be careful what you assume about people , jees.

@Penstemmon - bless 'em - but the stresses are in the wrong places...

England, England is good
Fields, towns rivers and wood

Tsk!

Anniebach - I have never objected to people speaking Welsh in Wales - only to the very bad manners when they were obviously speaking English to each other and switched to Welsh when I tried to join in.

Greatnan, I cannot comment on your experience, I wasn't there but setting your experience aside, I have heard the same so many times from people who move/visit Wales . What does puzzle me is these complaints have always been made against the Welsh in North and West Wales, as Welsh is the first language for many in the north, why would they converse in English then switch to Welsh , in my experience two people who speak Welsh converse with each other in Welsh not in English.

Is is not similar to saying I was in France and two French people were holding a conversation in English but when I approached them they started to speak in French, makes no sense sorry

I am not over-impressed with Flower of Scotland which is quite difficult to sing - witness the way the band and the crowd almost always fail to synchronise when they sing it before Rugby internationals. The lyrics hark back to the Battle of Bannockburn and how the Scots sent 'Proud Edward' home to 'think again'. As a Scot I feel a little embarrassed about this emphasis on what was, after all, a rather isolated triumph. The fact that the last verse starts by saying 'Those days are passed now...' are then negated by the lines that follow.

PS Next year, Alex Salmond will celebrate with great triumphalism the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. Is he doing anything to mark the 500th anniversary - this Monday - of Scotland's worst defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field?