The National Anthem

Dyslexia?

No offence caused.

No jing just a comment. I can't spell at all and getting worse as I get older, but sooooo rude of people I wouldn't dream of doing that - so not done!!!!!!

If the hereditary monarch did not exist today, I would vote for one, yes.

Does JC have love and pride for Britain I wonder? Any parts/all parts? He seems to want to change a lot of it.

I do think though that the National Anthem needs rejigging at least.

My spelling is getting bad with age too.

No soon not change the country just the politics which say there is no alternative to austerity. There is no alternative to the old fashion economics adopted by this government. There is no alternative to introducing privatisation to the NHS. There is no alternative to the way we house our poorest. There is no alternative to the way we run our rail system. There is no alternative to going to war. There is no alternative but to buy Trident at sickening cost. There is no alternative to the way we are treating the world's ecological systems. And on and on. The T ory party is not the country, merely a political party in power at this time, and one which will eventually be history like all the others.

I actually -seriously- do wonder though as both my son and grandsons have been diagnosed dyslexic - to a greater or l esser extent and all have had special help - with great success I might add. Son and GS 1 are good at science and maths, gs2 too young to know yet!

I think his want for changes go deeper than that.

Didn't cause me any offence, whitewave. I thought it was funny...

People seem to have forgotten that Corbyn's views on things like nationalisation and progressive taxation were mainstream before the 1980s. He's not wanting to turf out the aristos and give everyone an acre and a cow. He just wants a rather more equitable distribution of the wealth that everyone who is working has created. And to stop wasting money on such useless things as Trident.

I liked the questions devorgilla posed. The origins and conduct of the royal family throughout the centuries would probably not make comfortable reading - as she suggested, their power and access to resources, were likely to have been seized by force.

I didn't know much about the functions of the Privy Council but, from what I've read, it is a forum by means of which senior politicians and the leader of the opposition are briefed and allowed sight of important cabinet papers which they would otherwise not have access to. It is necessary to take the oath so as to be part of the Privy Council and it seems to me that, in order to be fully informed, Jeremy Corbyn has no alternative but to take it. The disgrace, I feel, is that he or anyone else would be forced to do so if they wish to carry out their jobs properly.

These forced acts of allegiance have been seen, and continue to be seen, throughout the world in all manner of regimes. They exist in order for those in power to entrench that power and compel others to yield to it - in the same way that Henry VIII made his subjects take an oath of allegiance to him as head of the Church of England. Fortunately, these days we do not have beheadings but we do have the threat of exclusion from the seats of power and influence to enforce conformity.

jingle I think to refer to Jeremy Corbyn - 66 years old and a much respected MP with 30 years' committed political service and an impeccable expenses record - as "this little upstart" is I think unnecessarily unpleasant.

He's a little upstart when you consider how long the UK Parliament has been in operation (which he seems to think he can change )

#donttakeondear

I agree, it is a dirge.
However, it is supposed to be the National Anthem which unites the country in singing an anthem to our Head of State. It's all we have at the moment for the whole of the United Kingdom.

I think England should have an anthem, Scotland should have an official one (Wales has a very good one), has NI? {not sure, please excuse me on that one}.

Perhaps we need a new anthem for Great Britain that encompasses all that is great - the country, the land, its people - and HM.

Should he sing it?

I think so, then perhaps agitate for a new anthem on the lines I suggested above.

ps I haven't read all the thread, so I may be repeating what someone else has said.
No harm in me reiterating it, though.

ps Gracesgran no-one ever sings all six verses of the National Anthem, and I have only ever known the first two sung. It's a red herring to mention the one about the Scots!

Most of the verses were of their time and not appropriate.

Anyone who doubts whether the National Anthem unites people in singing didn't watch the Last Night of the Proms.

I hope Jeremy Corbyn never gets his hands on that.

This gets funnier and funnier.
So - if he ever becomes PM will he refuse his weekly audience with HM?

Fuel for thought:
If it ever happens and he becomes PM, he could be in dire need of her sage advice.

I am beginning to feel so sorry for him. I do hope he will be OK, poor man.

It's a National Anthem which has more to do with the monarchy than anything else. I dislike it for that reason. I don't give a stuff about the queen - she can call herself what she likes but I don't see why people should be expected to glorify the monarchy if they don't agree with it.
It's rubbish to suggest that those who won't join in with the singing of it are traitors and hate their country.
Maybe it's time for someone to write a new anthem! (I'm not volunteering, btw)

I think we already have one, albeit it needs a bit of tweaking of the words in parts:

Land of Hope and Glory

A pity that cosmetics firm that sells soap has pinched it
(although I do like their shower cream)

I'm with Elgar re the words of Land of Hope and Glory. They suck.

Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set
God who made thee mighty make thee mightier yet

needs a bit more than tweaking.

God didn't make this country mighty ,

you mean Wales?

He certainly had something very much to do with it.

How about the WI anthem? Maybe minus the dark satanic mills?