Member of Parliament for Leeds North West and long time campaigner for and English national anthem, Greg Mulholland, has today tabled a Parliamentary motion welcoming calls and campaigns for an English national anthem from a number of groups including British Future and Anthem4England.

The motion (EDM 2992) praises the campaigns from groups such as British Future and Anthem4England, as well as supporting a letter signed by Members from across the House, calling for England to have its own national anthem, just as Scotland and Wales do when they compete as individual nations. It calls on the Government, in light of St Georges Day and ahead of Euro 2012, to get behind the campaign for an English national anthem.

Greg commented:

“God Save the Queen is the UK national anthem it is absolutely right that this should be played when teams are competing as the United Kingdom.
“It is quite wrong that England use the British national anthem when competing as England rather than as Great Britain, particularly when playing the other home nations who also have God Save the Queen as their British national anthem”
“It is time that England had an anthem it could call its own that we could celebrate whenever an English team or athlete takes to the sporting arena. The run up to Euro 2012 is the ideal opportunity for the Government to speak up for our English identity and get behind the campaign for an English national anthem”

END

The EDM

That this House welcomes the calls and campaign for an English national anthem including by British Future and by Anthem4England; supports the letter signed by hon. Members from across the House calling for England to have its own national anthem, just as Scotland and Wales do when they compete as individual nations; believes it quite wrong that England uses the UK national anthem when competing as England rather than as Great Britain or the UK and that this confuses England and Britain/the UK and is damaging to the unity of the UK; notes that an English anthem for the talented and diverse teams that represent us on the sporting field would help modern patriotic pride to defeat prejudice; applauds the British Future campaign and Anthem4England for their work on this issue; adds that St George’s Day, ahead of Euro 2012, is an ideal moment for the Government to speak up for English identity and an English national anthem; and therefore calls on the Government to get behind the campaign for an English national anthem calling on all English sporting associations to adopt an appropriate song that English sportsmen and women and the English public would favour when competing as England.

Please email your MP and ask them to support this EDM.

At anthem4england we’re delighted that the think-tank British Future has begun campaigning for an English anthem.

And we’d be doubly delighted if, as indicated by this letter, The Royal Society of St George are also supportive of the campaign for an English anthem.

We need to have an anthem for England

I WRITE with reference to the article ‘England’s own anthem?’ (The Citizen, April 24).

In a couple of month’s time English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland athletes will form Team Great Britain and compete under the Union Jack in the Olympics. Hopefully, many of these athletes will be successful and stand on the rostrum to receive medals to the strain of God Save the Queen. Following that sporting event, early in the New Year of 2013 English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish rugby players will represent their respective countries in The Six Nations rugby tournament. Before each game the national anthems for each country will be played. It makes little sense that God Save the Queen should be the anthem of choice for England at this tournament, as the Olympics has clearly indicated it is the anthem of Great Britain.

The time has come for England to have a patriotic anthem like the other countries that form the union of Great Britain.

The Royal Society of St George should be supported in their aim to promote an English National Anthem and more importance should be attached to St George’s Day to celebrate all things English.

Name and address supplied

There is nothing on the The Royal Society of St George website about an English anthem so we will write to them for an official statement.

The Sunday Telegraph letters page carries some reaction to last weekend’s call for an English anthem, the most irritating of which was this reactionary letter:

The English have a perfectly good anthem in God Save the Queen and a fine flag in the Union flag. There is simply no need or demand for the English to adopt the flag of St George or a new song.

What is more, there is definitely no reason for this motley assortment of think tankers, academics and lawmakers even to consider how to give the English a chance to “help modern patriotic pride to defeat prejudice” by proposing an anthem and a flag.

The further thoughts of this ‘motley assortment of think tankers, academics and lawmakers’ can be read here.

Today’s Sunday Telegraph carries the following letter:

An English anthem would give us pride without prejudice

SIR – When British athletes win Gold for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics, God Save the Queen will play to celebrate. However, when it is England who take to the sporting field to play rugby or football, they should be heralded by an English anthem for an English team, just as Flower of Scotland and Land of My Fathers are sung as Scottish and Welsh anthems.

The lack of an English national anthem can lead to complaints about a lack of fair play, while treating the British national anthem as if it belongs to England undermines an equal claim to British identity and the allegiance of other nations within the United Kingdom.

An English anthem would show symbolically that pride in our national identities is no barrier to being proud to be British too. We would like to see an English anthem used when England play France in their first game in this summer’s Euro 2012 football tournament.

This St George’s Day is an ideal moment for the proud and inclusive majority in our country to speak up. It would strengthen the case that the fringe extremists of the English Defence League, who would tear England apart, have no real claim to St George’s flag.

An English anthem for the talented, diverse teams that represent us on the sporting field would help modern patriotic pride to defeat prejudice.

Sunder Katwala Director, British Future
Robert Halfon MP (Con)
David Lammy MP (Labour)
Greg Mulholland MP (Lib Dem)
Rob Berkeley Director, Runnymede Trust
Baroness Berridge (Con)
Phillip Blond Director, ResPublica
Mihir Bose
Jon Cruddas MP (Lab)
Iain Dale
David Goodhart Director, Demos
Paul Goodman Co-editor, ConservativeHome
Sunny Hundal Editor, Liberal Conspiracy
Guy Lodge Associate Director, IPPR
Rachael Jolley Editorial director, British Future
Dr Andrew Mycock Huddersfield University
Prof Tariq Modood Bristol University
Max Wind-Cowie Head of Progressive Conservatism Project, Demos
Gareth Young OurKingdom

The letter is referenced in Jasper Copping’s Telegraph article ‘St George’s flag is a racist symbol says a quarter of the English‘.

The letter is the initiative of the British Future think tank, whose report This Sceptred Isle is released tomorrow, St George’s Day. British Future have created a Facebook page to drive their anthem campaign; you can join it here, but don’t forget to join the anthem4england Facebook page too!

Oliver Wates’ letter in today’s Independent backs up Anthem4England’s view that the use of God Save the Queen as an English anthem undermines Britishness.

Scottish nationalism would not be the force it is today without the perverse decision by the (England) Rugby Football Union to use the British national anthem for the England team (letters, 11, 12, 13, 14 January).

In the 1960s, to be a Scottish Nationalist was the equivalent of declaring your religion as Jedi Knight. No one took them seriously. Scots would be desperate for their team to thrash England at Murrayfield, but at the end of the match they were still as British as the men in white.

Several decades of rugby as a televised spectator sport have changed all that. How can a young Scot who grows up seeing the British national anthem being used to represent the “enemy” team feel fully British? You could not devise a better way to alienate an entire people. It screams, “You are second-class citizens”.

Why on earth did the RFU allow this damaging and illegitimate use of the British anthem? A simple phone call to the effect that HM did not approve of her British anthem being appropriated by just one of the four UK constituents would have settled the matter and we’d all be singing “Jerusalem” instead.

A whole generation of Scots has grown up to think of “Britain” as no more than a vehicle for English arrogance. It didn’t have to be like that.

The irony being that the RFU persist with God Save the Queen out of respect for the Monarchy.

According to the Express, English rose Kate Middleton has defected to Wales:

“William takes a very active interest in Welsh rugby and Kate ended up closely following their fortunes with him during the recent World Cup. She has pretty much been converted into a Wales fan when it comes to rugby.”

Prince Harry is a passionate England fan and Princess Anne follows Scotland. Her daughter Zara Phillips is married to former England captain Mike Tindall.

It’s funny how Scottish Rugby have a Scottish anthem, despite Princess Anne being the Patron of the SRU; Welsh Rugby have a Welsh anthem, even though Queen Elizabeth II is the Patron of the WRU and Prince William is the Vice Royal Patron of the WRU, but; English rugby sings God Save the Queen because “Prince Harry is our vice patron and we think that is the appropriate anthem to use and our member clubs agree“.

That doesn’t explain why the British anthem appropriate for England but not for Scotland and Wales?

Royal Wedding: Jerusalem triumphant at Kate and Will’s wedding

The readers of This England Magazine have chosen Land of Hope and Glory as their favourite anthem for England.

This England’s National Anthem Survey

Many thanks to all of you who voted either through the website or by post. Thank you also for your many interesting comments, a selection of which will be published in the summer edition of This England, together with details of the “Other” suggestions. The results of the vote are as follows:

Should England have its own National Anthem?
Yes 93%
No 7%

What would your choice of National Anthem be?
Jerusalem 17%
Land of Hope and Glory 40%
I Vow to Thee, My Country 32%
Rule Britannia 3%
Other 8%

Daily Express: English Want to Sing Own Anthem

Canon Donald Gray, former Chaplain to the Queen, speaking on the Channel 4 programme 4thought on 16 October 2010, opposed the introduction of “Jerusalem” as our national anthem instead of “God Save the Queen”. He believes it is divisive, suggesting that the industrial working classes are less fortunate than those who live in the countryside, and it also gives credibility to the notion that Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury. He supported the continuing use of “God Save the Queen” because it was a simple prayer for the Queen and she values our prayers.

He was actually setting up a straw-man and knocking it down again, because nobody actually believes that “God Save the Queen” should be replaced by anything. As far as I am aware, it is and always will be the national anthem of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He didn’t make any reference to the need for a separate anthem for England, or the questions that inevitably arise when the same anthem is used to represent both the UK and England at international sporting events.

Turning to his specific criticism of “Jerusalem”, the “dark satanic mills” could mean the smoke-stacks of the industrial revolution, or they could symbolise the boring monotony of an office job, pushing papers across a desk. Most people, when they go on holiday, travel from towns and cities to the seaside or countryside, or they go to places of historic or cultural interest. They know what they want to get away from and where they want to go, and the question of social division is really a non-issue.

As for the question of Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea going to Glastonbury, it’s a possibility but it cannot be proved. More likely, I think, is the suggestion made by some, that Joseph came with other followers of Jesus after his death and resurrection. Jesus told them to go to the uttermost parts of the earth and preach the gospel, and that includes here. So it’s possible that Simon Zelotes, Aristobulus and the Apostle Paul all came to Britain, and I have discussed some of the evidence for this in my book “Forgotten History of the Western People“. William Blake wasn’t promoting the idea that Jesus came to Britain, he was merely asking whether or not it was possible, and he might have been poking fun at the British Israelites who believed it. The important thing is that, after centuries of struggle when it was dangerous to have the wrong views, we have emerged as a society where you can believe whatever you like as long as you are peaceful and law-abiding. This is what makes us great, and this is why Jerusalem is a great hymn for England, because you can believe whatever you like about what it means.

Mike Gascoigne

Channel4′s 4thought.tv has several short films discussing Jerusalem.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Pianist and composer Guy Pearson believes that, 200 years after it was written, Jerusalem is still totally relevant because it speaks about the liberation of the human soul, and that it would make a great anthem for planet earth.

Watch Guy Pearson here.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Canon Donald Gray was chaplain to the Queen for 20 years. He thinks that Jerusalem is patronising to people who live in cities and believes that the Queen appreciates when the people sing their prayer to her: God Save the Queen.

Watch Canon Donald Gray here.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Radio presenter Juanne Fuller ‘detests’ God Save the Queen because it excludes people who do not believe in God or the monarchy, and thinks that Jerusalem would make a brilliant anthem as it speaks about fighting for a better society for all.

Watch Juanne Fuller here.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Broadcaster Henry Bonsu would not feel comfortable with Jerusalem as the national anthem: for him, the ‘green and pleasant land’ of the hymn reminds him of the hostility he has faced when visiting the English countryside.

Watch Henry Bonsu here.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Ollie Baines of the classical group Blake remembers singing Jerusalem for the Queen and at the funeral of a close friend, and believes it is a stirring anthem that everyone can get behind.

Watch Ollie Baines here.

Should Jerusalem be adopted as the English national anthem? Comedian and actress Francesca Martinez doesn’t believe a Christian song should be used as an anthem for a country that is so strongly multicultural: in fact, she questions whether we should have a national anthem at all.

Watch Francesca Martinez here.

English athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi are using the hymn Jerusalem as their official anthem for the first time. For some people it is a proud, patriotic song, for others an uncomfortable reminder of Empire, but should Jerusalem replace the national anthem?

Twenty-six-year-old WI member Gemma Waznicki is proud that Jerusalem has been the anthem of the Women’s Institute for almost 100 years, inspiring generations of women to fight for equality.

Watch Gemma Waznicki here.