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| Do the English need an anthem? | Do the English need an anthem? |
| (21 days later) | |
| I'm with Sunder Katwala, the boss of integration thinktank British Future and we're talking anthems. I can't buy into the national anthem, I tell him. We agree it's a bit of a dirge but there's more than that, in my view. I just can't get moved singing about the welfare of the monarch. A tune more explicitly about the country or its people: that might bring a lump to the throat. And I have nothing against the monarch personally. It's just not the symbol for me. If you were choosing an anthem for 21st-century Britain, I can't believe that you would start from here. | I'm with Sunder Katwala, the boss of integration thinktank British Future and we're talking anthems. I can't buy into the national anthem, I tell him. We agree it's a bit of a dirge but there's more than that, in my view. I just can't get moved singing about the welfare of the monarch. A tune more explicitly about the country or its people: that might bring a lump to the throat. And I have nothing against the monarch personally. It's just not the symbol for me. If you were choosing an anthem for 21st-century Britain, I can't believe that you would start from here. |
| Sunder's less hostile. The national anthem, Windsor-based, with all its tradition, sort of works for him. "Minorities quite like the monarchy," he says – and he has polls to back it up. | Sunder's less hostile. The national anthem, Windsor-based, with all its tradition, sort of works for him. "Minorities quite like the monarchy," he says – and he has polls to back it up. |
| Particularly those who hail from the Commonwealth, it turns out. "It explains their journey and their story," he says. It extends the connection to the days before postwar immigration. "It explains that their story doesn't start in 1948." | Particularly those who hail from the Commonwealth, it turns out. "It explains their journey and their story," he says. It extends the connection to the days before postwar immigration. "It explains that their story doesn't start in 1948." |
| So the dirge is safe, as far as he is concerned. But, before St George's Day, here's that other hardy perennial: in a UK of complementary nationalisms, should there not be an anthem for England? Sunder says there should be. Think of the strange anomaly, he tells me: if the home nations meet at sport Scotland, for example, prepares to rumble with Flower of Scotland. But the English gird their loins to an anthem that also applies to their opponents. A slight example perhaps, but just another of those occasions when the disgruntled English might complain that they have little scope to be themselves. He is sympathetic. "The English want the right to be English." | So the dirge is safe, as far as he is concerned. But, before St George's Day, here's that other hardy perennial: in a UK of complementary nationalisms, should there not be an anthem for England? Sunder says there should be. Think of the strange anomaly, he tells me: if the home nations meet at sport Scotland, for example, prepares to rumble with Flower of Scotland. But the English gird their loins to an anthem that also applies to their opponents. A slight example perhaps, but just another of those occasions when the disgruntled English might complain that they have little scope to be themselves. He is sympathetic. "The English want the right to be English." |
| This need not be exclusionary. The Scots, he says, have worked hard to include minorities in their new definition of Scottishness. "Think of Asians in kilts. It has been important to the Scottish project to show that it can work." And the days have largely passed when a show of Englishness, a song or a flag, should automatically summon thoughts of the far right. | This need not be exclusionary. The Scots, he says, have worked hard to include minorities in their new definition of Scottishness. "Think of Asians in kilts. It has been important to the Scottish project to show that it can work." And the days have largely passed when a show of Englishness, a song or a flag, should automatically summon thoughts of the far right. |
| And so, to the options for an English anthem? Jerusalem, always the hot favourite. Elgar's Nimrod? Maybe, I Vow To Thee My Country? "Some say The Great Escape," says Sunder. It's OK. He's joking. | And so, to the options for an English anthem? Jerusalem, always the hot favourite. Elgar's Nimrod? Maybe, I Vow To Thee My Country? "Some say The Great Escape," says Sunder. It's OK. He's joking. |
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