Sunday 19 August 2012

God Save The Queen (But What About The Rest Of Us?)


A thought struck me half way through the Olympics and it is this.

Our national anthem is a bit shit, isn't it?

And what with the unexpected flurry of gold medals Team GB won, we heard it more and more every single day - and with each time it seemed to me more incongruous.

My point is that it doesn't celebrate Britain, it celebrates one person.

For the record, I am not anti-Queen. I think the monarchy is pretty outdated, yes, but I respect the way she has done her job - such as it is - for many years, and without feeling the need to pour her heart out to Piers Morgan.

I'd just like an anthem that doesn't ignore the 62,261,999 of us who aren't Queen.

And what's more, it's the sort of behaviour we take the piss out of when we see other countries doing it. It does rather smack of the 'cult of personality'.

Other countries with the Queen as their head of state have got round this.

If you look at Australia's national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, it talks about the land abounding "in nature's gifts, of beauty rich and rare". It's an anthem about the COUNTRY and the sort of anthem we deserve.

So in this new post-Olympic legacy Britain, can we not grow up a bit and celebrate the WHOLE country and its people?

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