Guardian damns Britannia
NewsAn editorial in the organ of the Left has called for the anthem Rule, Britannia to be dropped by Last Night of the Proms:
The history of the BBC’s handling of the issue is unedifying. Back in 2020 it resolved to play the song without words, then U-turned to run it in full after the then prime minister Boris Johnson intervened. So there are lots of reasons why it is easier to stick with the status quo. The long-running quarrel over Rule, Britannia! is a sideshow in the much bigger crisis facing the BBC in the runup to the renegotiation of its licence, and the corporation does not want to get dragged into culture wars.
These are pragmatic reasons. The moral issue is not who to please but what is the right thing to do. At a time when desperate migrants are drowning amid a new mission to control the waves, Rule, Britannia! seems more inappropriate than ever as a statement of collective identity. The row has rumbled on for so long that it has become overfreighted with significance. There are other, and better, pieces that fit the bill, some of them played at the Proms already. Sooner or later, someone will have to step up, consign Arne’s work to history – and face the music.
There are several flaws in this proposition.
First, the issue is not ‘long-running’. It was drummed up by agitators during Covid and appears now to be dying down, overtaken by more pressing political issues. Decolonisation has destabilised many universities. It should not be allowed to overturn a celebratory moment at the BBC Proms.
Second, why does the Left always vote against fun?
Third, is the Guardian calling for mutiny in the armed forces, as prescribed by the Labour Party’s conference hymn, the Internationale?
No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we’ll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They’ll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We’ll shoot the generals on our own side.
These words are far more divisive and inflammatory than anything in poor, old Rule, Britannia.
It’s an anachronism, which gives flaghuggers the chance to delude themselves that the UK is still a world force. The reality of our current standing was best summed up by the former Aussie Premier, Paul (Lizard of Oz) Keating, a few years ago.
He said that Britain is a fading theme park, sinking slowly into the Atlantic.
The current Last Night traditions go back to Sargent. A few years after he died, the BBC tried to change things. It did not go down well with Little England.
I used to enjoy the Last Night of the Proms and even attended it once. Now, I might watch the first half, but would rather walk a mile in tight shoes than be subjected to the gruesome circus of the second half.
“but would rather walk a mile in tight shoes than be subjected to the gruesome circus of the second half.”
In that case, that is what you should do instead of sneering at people who simply regard it as a bit of fun at the end of a (mostly) serious festival. There is no delusion.
Some people regard ‘blackface’ as just a bit of fun too. I happily sneer at them also.
Rule Britannia is a terrible imperialist joke. Britannia can barely rule herself any more let alone the waves.
Somehow it always ends in tears when people don’t know their place.
‘Somehow it always ends in tears when people don’t know their place.’
Good job we have little tyrants like you to marshal everyone with the correct way of thinking.
Your sinister “some people” do all sorts of un-nice things, but identifying them with Last Night prommers is a nasty little smear.
Yes, and some people criticise what they call “blackface” when there’s no racial connection whatsoever. Why? Because, as is the case here, they’re obsessed with their own moral superiority and have no concept of context.
Interestingly, a significant number of comments below the line in The Guardian do not support the article. This annual whine is predictable and tiresome.
Oh, I thought the BBC, Guardian/any mass media are already part of the culture war, fighting the Woke war, especially on behalf of the stately religion of Pride. Waving flags, arresting dissenters. Literally.
“At a time when desperate migrants are drowning amid a new mission to control the waves, Rule, Britannia! seems more inappropriate than ever as a statement of collective identity.”
Let me guess. These “desperate migrants” happen to be mostly young males from Africa/the Middle East, suffering in France, yearning to find a hotel room paid by the government – “Labor ” or “Conservative”.
Britain is a slave.
The British left takes themselves and their country too seriously. People outside of Britain don’t care if you are singing some cringe lyrics. No one will regard you as a paragon of high morals, ever, not even if you stop singing a song. I honestly don’t see what is the point of expending political capital and risking deeper divisions on such a trivial topic.
Quite right as Woke investigator in chief it is my right to stamp out the odious leftist view of fun.
Bring back standing for the National Anthem in the cinema- it will cut obesity.
Bring back being able to say “ I am not prejudiced but..”
Bring back lovely Lizz Truss and Denise Coffey/ who can forget the sight of Denise , cigar in hand partying at Conference.
Bring back hanging because its so entertaining
> singing some cringe lyrics
> Bring back hanging
Well that escalated quickly.
… and so typically.
Therese Coffey, not Denise! Denise Coffey somewhat different…
‘Rule Brittannia’ is a silly song anyway and embarrassingly chauvinist and thus, outdated for a modern European country, with or without brexit.
The same goes for the ‘Internationale’.
And then, ‘the left’ is in the world not for fun but for correcting all the injustice the world has ever produced, in one go.
In one go? The Internationale itself was composed in 1871 – I think it’s starting to be a rather long “one go”.
Indeed, it seems to be a little bit more difficult than envisaged. Maybe because of the ills of the world are structural.
European really?? Loners more likely.Thought you went backwards with your Brexit vote didn’t you?
Embarrassing jingoistic, anachronistic rubbish enjoyed by the deluded who think that the Great in Great Britain is an adjective that ever described quality rather than size. The worst night of the proms is a ridiculous spectacle. Rule Britannia belongs on the same scrapheap as Edward Colston.
Another woke bandwaggoner. Bet you never even ‘thought’ about it until the lobotomised American Left instructed you how to behave.
“Embarrassing jingoistic, anachronistic rubbish enjoyed by the deluded who think that the Great in Great Britain is an adjective that ever described quality rather than size.”
Please cite reliable research that shows that those who enjoy it think that “Great” stands for quality.
Oh, I see, you don’t have any–it’s just ever such a cutting thing to say!
Well said, Norman!
Dismal, thin gruel from the Guardian.
Rule, Britannia’s being denigrated by The Guardian is the most powerful argument to retain it and also the most powerful argument not to waste any time or money on this travesty of a newspaper.
It’s always funny to hear that ‘the Left make too much of identitarian symbols’ and then read something like this. As a defence of Rule Britannia, I’m afraid ‘some people I don’t like don’t like it’ says more about you than ‘The Left’.
If that repulsive, anti-British, ‘rag’ is against it then I am for it. These whingeing Grauniad-reading lefties should leave things as they are and the world would be a better place if they tried becoming better informed notably by reading a paper that supports our country.
Most people sing “Rule Britannia” for the arch self-mocking fun of it, not because they want to send a gunboat anywhere. Just as they may well like singing “Away in a Manger” without being Christians. Beware of peiople who focus on words irrespective of context. These are the people who think a policeman is swearing if he says, giving evidence in court, “And I heard the defendant say, ‘I’ll fucking kill you’.”
Ah…. British irony.
You don’t make much of a case. Essentially “we’ve done it for a long time”, and “it’s fun”. They’re not good argument, barely arguments at all.
Exactly, Andy. As Mahler said, “Tradition ist Schlamperei”.
Out of context.
Let’s take those in turn:
1- The strident defences of Rule Britannia are equally new and anachronistic. Thomas Hampson sang it dressed in a US-UK composite suit. Renee Fleming sang it waving a US flag. To pretend that it’s some kind of sacred monument to Britain is reactionary nonsense. Also, the program still has Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem, and God Save the King. It’s not exactly…muted.
2- It’s maybe fun for you. You’re not alone. There’s many people in Britain for whom it is not, and failing to recognise that is part of the broader erasure of British history (Britannia ruled the waves to do…what, exactly?). There’s a reason the additional verse about “rebellious Scots to crush” is not part of the standard God save the King, however “fun” it might be.
3- Yes, there is a difference between a political party and an official state organ. Labour represents Labour (and whoever decides to be a member); the BBC represents the United Kingdom. And by the way, just like that, the Internationale is not the Labour Party’s Anthem; The Red Flag is (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-red-flag-labour-anthem-jeremy-corbyn-tony-blair-john-mcdonnell-a8555546.html).
Oh, and by the way, it is not “decolonisation” that’s destabilizing UK universities – it’s funding starvation and government ideology. Home fees have gone up by 250£ since 2011 (2.8%; inflation in that time: 42,4%) and now the government wants to cut off the only other source of funding, international students, while meddling in what is taught, how it is taught, and who gets to teach and research. Michelle Donelan didn’t cost taxpayers 60 000£ for defaming academics because of “decolonisation”. It’s not “decolonisation”. It’s basic economics and government policy.
“There’s many people in Britain for whom it is not, and failing to recognise that is part of the broader erasure of British history”
There is no failure to recognise that it is not fun for them. But the principle that if X is not fun for everyone, then no-one should do X, is a problematic one.
I don’t like asparagus. It is not for me, and I have no problem with other people eating asparagus.
I find slavery abhorrent, and yes I do find the glorification of an empire built on slavery distasteful as a national symbol. And many Britons come from families and places that bore the brunt of that – not the Britannia, ruler but the Ruled by Britannia. It is their Britain too.
See the difference? It’s not hard.
We colonised India. Many from that country feel they benefitted from our presence.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is tired of lefties patronising the piccaninis by telling them what’s good for them.
But those who singalong in enjoyment don’t think of it as being about “an empire built on slavery”. They sing it for other reasons. I am sure the vast majority of those who enjoy the Last Night find slavery no less abhorrent than you do.
And here’s a little historical info for you. The slavery referred to in the song is the slavery of living under an absolute ruler such as, as Britons of the time thought, was exemplified by France. This is argued in John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, which was pretty well the official ideology of eighteenth-century Britain. The claim was that, with an effective form of parliamentary government resting on the consent of the people, Britons were free in a way those Frenchies weren’t. (And, yes, yes, I know there wasn’t universal suffrage.)
I hope that wasn’t hard. (I think one is supposed to end posts with cutting remarks like that.)
It has got nothing to do with slavery. That is where you are going wrong here.
Oh yes it has. From a letter in the Telegraph, “Rule, Britannia! was inspired by a lad from Penryn, Cornwall. Thomas Pellow was 11 years old and on his first sea voyage with his uncle when they were captured by Barbary pirates and taken into horrific, cruel, brutal slavery under Sultan Moulay Ismail in North Africa.
After 23 years he made his escape and returned to Penryn in 1737. He wrote a book about his enslavement, which helped inspire a poem by James Thomson. This was then set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740.
So, Rule, Britannia! is an exhortation – a command to the Royal Navy to prevent Britons being enslaved by pirates.”
“Britannia ruled the waves to do…what, exactly?” Well, to defend herself against the barbary corsairs who were capturing into slavery the populations of Coventry and Devon, for a start. Until Cromwell established an effective navy, 17th century coastal communities had no defense, and the song celebrates the end of that era. “Erasure”, you say?
I don’t think it’s too hard to recognise that people don’t sing Rule Britannia in acelebration of coastal defence. I mean, now that’s just wilfully obtuse.
As far as I can see, at the Proms they don’t sing it for any other reason than that it’s a jolly good tune, IS patriotic, and it’s traditional. Nobody is thinking evil thoughts about empire or anything else, and nobody should be taking offence at it. Like most national songs, it’s a “how great we are” song. No country is devoid of sins of the past. Leave. It. Alone.
I don’t think it;’s hard to recognise that people don’t sing Rule Britannia in celebration of slavery.
makes you think of “The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, All centuries but this, and every country but his own.” Ooops. The MIkado is surely out too…
Wow, some seriously haughty people around here, clutching their pearls over lyrics which everyone knows were written well over 200 years ago.
Much safer in their high status social circles than questioning the wisdom of ever-so-cool lyrics which glorify violence and extreme narcissism in the present century.
Well said.
Rule, Rwanda! rule the waves (of migrants)
Britain will ever send back slaves (back to Africa, or at least to Ireland where they all seem to be headed now, thank God)
Hold on! Voting against fun is the prerogative of the right and always has been.
Er, no. The right encourages freedom, the left, control.
“Rule Brittania” works on so many levels. To claim that’s it’s merely an anachronistic celebration of colonial might is inccurate, because it’s so much more than that. When I hear it, I hear a song about the triumph of the human spirit. The music is ecstatic. The moment at the Proms when the audience sings along is awesome and unifying; it is something the BBC should be proud of. It makes me wish I were British. (Like a good performance of “The Marseilleise” makes me feel French. We are all members of the same race.) I have not heard what those who want to eliminate it, the party poopers, would replace it with–perhaps because it’s irreplaceable.
It’s Britannia, not Brittania. The likes of De Pfeffel and Farage are amongst its staunchest defenders. Not sure that I’d want them as my champions.
The words were written in a house just a couple of doors down from one of my favourite pubs. I still go to the pub.
Even nasty people can sometimes approve of something good. Do try not to be Manichaean.
Sorry. You probably spelt it that way because the English word for Bretagne is Brittany! As ever, English does its best to confuse.
La Marseillaise is comfortably the best national anthem in the world. Ours is too dreary for a funeral.
“La Marseillaise” is indeed a splendid anthem for a modern nation — especially the bit about watering the fields with the impure blood of our enemies.
“La Marseillaise” is indeed a splendid anthem — especially the bit about watering the fields with the impure blood of our enemies.
The “triumph of the human spirit”…over whom? That’s the question. And we all know the answer, and why some of its advocates are in favour of that.
The triumph of the human spirit is a comprehensive thought.
Do we all know the answer? It is actually false to say we all know the answer, because I, for one, don’t. (Though possibly you know better than I do what I know?)
And what the human spirit triumphs over can be a what, not a whom.
Hope that wasn’t hard.
Are there any statistics on the number of white faces and black ones amongst the prommers on the last night and in the hall in general?
I absolutely refuse to believe that ANYONE singing Rule Britannia at the Proms is thinking about race. I imagine very few are even thinking about “Britain” as a topic. They are simply celebrating a great evening.
Who cares?
I wish people would realise that the song is originally the final musical number in Thomas Arne’s Alfred, a masque about Alfred the Great, co-written by James Thomson and David Mallet and first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, on 1 August 1740. It is therefore about ancient Britons and has therefore nothing to do with slavery as sometimes thought. It is a rattling good tune and when sung at the Proms just sung tongue in cheek anyway. If the woke would get a sense of humour they might see it in this light. I certainly don’t think there are many there who are so deluded to think that singing it makes Britain the possessor of an Empire again .
Oh, if only people could see that.
The woke don’t want a sense of humour. They don’t understand its humanity.
Thank you, Marlow. I will read up on the song. How about not just a sense of humor, but a sense of history? One can interpret the “shall be slaves” line metaphorically, and I think one should. But during the Blitz, when Londoners were cringing for dear life, this metaphor came a little too close for comfort.
Yes, exactly, because no composer has ever used ancient historical stories as thin veils for their contemporary political situations. You must be utterly confused how it could possibly be that Charpentier’s Médée opens with a choir literally praising Louis XIV of France, given Médée is from ancient Greece and therefore could not possibly have anything whatsoever to do with Charpentier’s present.
I mean, come on, seriously.
For heavens sake with all this Rule Britannia nonesense, the piece and song was nothing to do with advocating slavery, it was simply a national cry because, at that time we were at war with the Spanish..
You mean, The War of Jenkins’ Ear? I hope you won’t claim that in this war you were defending democracy, rather than trying to grab Spanish colonies in the Caribbean?
Whoever downvoted that comment: what is your issue? The song never advocated slavery.
But apparently some here do: they would enslave the freedom of people simply having a good time to the whims of the “woke.” Oversramatising every word spoken in English, seeking offence at every turn. I wish they would get over themselves and just learn to live and let live. Don’t like it? Don’t go, or switch off, but stop with the eternal victim creation project and let people who choose that event enjoy it.
If it hadn’t been Spain, it would have been somebody. We have invaded, had some control of, or fought wars in 171 of the 193 countries of the world. Not a record which makes me proud.
At that time we were always at war with somebody. It was the national sport. We’ve been at some form of war with over 90% of the countries in the world. No wonder Will S wrote:
“Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.”
I don’t regard imperialist warmongering as something to celebrate and it certainly shouldn’t be seen as a bit of fun. How many millions of lives have been wasted in wars?
I prefer Schiller’s view. Alle Menschen werden Brüder. Nowadays, he’d have to say Alle Menschen werden Brüder und Schwester. That might have been a bit tricky for Ludwig, but he could have got away with Alle Menschen sind Geschwister.
A further postscript. When Rule B was written, not only were we at war with Spain. We were also fighting France, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Naples and Sicily, Genoa, Sweden and the French East India Company. Not long afterwards, we also found time for Wade to crush the ‘rebellious Scots’.
There is a flaw in your third point! The Internationale is not sung at the Labour Party conferences, they sing the Red Flag!
As a non-Brit, I’m surprised that anyone would say that Britain isn’t Great. Nowadays, the UK doesn’t rule the waves as a sea power, but British culture in general is peerless worldwide–great writers, musicians, artists of all kind, the land of Shakespeare, the Beatles, Turner, Jeremy Irons. Sadly, the powers that be in the government don’t seem to see the value of the arts for the soul of the nation. In a sense, BBC radio and television, towering in importance, allow Britain to “rule the waves” today. I don’t think it’s necessary (or even true) to say that “Rule, Britannia!” is sung tongue-in-cheek; it’s a stirring hymn to freedom from tyranny, ignorance, and despair.
It’s a good song, it’s fun to play and I never really listened to its words. Did you ever read the words of French national anthem? Terrible. Are we going to cancel it? Please, stop the PC bullshit. Pushing this nonsense is what made Trump president…and similar bullshit to happen…because of the pendulum effect.
“Britons never, ever shall be enslaved persons.”
(Rewrite for acceptability).
In an earlier posting, I asked how many millions of lives have been wasted in wars. A quick Google search established that, since 1800, more than 37 million people have died while fighting in wars. Over the last century, civilian casualties have entered the equation. UN figures show that up to 87% of deaths in modern warfare are civilians.
I also erroneously said that Britain had been in some form of conflict with over 90% of the countries in the world. It’s actually just under 90%. Since the Act of Union, UK forces (or forces with a British mandate) have invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in 171 of the world’s 193 countries that are currently UN member states.
Putting aside for a moment Sam Jackson’s extraordinary declamation that the Last Night in its current form is “morally right”, we @EUFlagsTeam would rue the day the pompastic nonsense of the second half was abolished.
There’s nothing more delicious than filling the Albert Hall with EU flags and bEUrets to the accompaniment of Rule Britannia as ironic counterpoint for live broadcast to the world.
In Brexit Britain, the grotesque cabaret must continue.
See you there.
One wonders whether you have any kind of life at all. Not since 2016, perhaps?
I well remember before the horrendous, ugly and fascistic EU flag made its unwanted and unwarranted intrusion. You would see standards from every country in the world at the Last Night of the Proms, no one minded, tolerance ruled the waves of flags. Who can forget Juan Diego Flórez, the Peruvian tenor, who came on for Rule Britannia dressed as an Inca warrior wearing a blue and orange feathered headdress, rather touching large gold earrings, and brandishing an halberd. But, oh no, the big supranational state can’t have a nation actually expressing democracy, we shall have to keep bashing them, bashing, bashing them until they come back into the fold.
Progressives just love to make a lot of noise and show us all how important they are in telling us what to think.
They never seem to notice that people just nod and just carry on as usual.
I wouldn’t call the Guardian an organ of anything other than the corporate sector like all US, UK and western media.
Left and right are the games that they through the media play on us to keep us from looking at them and their contribution to the mess we all live in.
The sooner we all realise this the sooner we can start working to negate the games being played with us.
They are making these noises right now because they need to create outrage so that we are distracted and not paying attention to and voting on what is real.
Let’s face it.
The Loony Left loathe the UK and the vast majority of the people in it. They will be only be happy when Sharia Law has been imposed on the entire population.
The headlines of most British Newspapers do more harm to people than singing “Rule Britannia” once a year in a “carnival” athmosphere.
I would always turn to British papers when keeping up moral standards is concerned.
I trying to recall the last event when I heard a rousing rendition of the Internationale? Hmm… nothing springs to mind.
Britain doesn’t rule ANY seas anymore, not even those of the English channel. It’s just a lot of flagwaving for deluded reactionaries.
Agreed, that most people don’t know or understand the original context of Rule, Britannia ! They like the tune, the words sort-of-make-sense as long as you don’t think about it, and it’s all good and jolly.
What do they think Jerusalem is about ?
One group of people objecting to a song that they don’t understand, when sung by another group of people who don’t understand what they’re singing. Perhaps you can take the song out of the picture. Its really just a vehicle for one group of people to object to another group of people.
I guess if “Rule, Britannia” is an anachronism, then the idea of the UK’s capital city, London, as somehow so big-time, so great, is somewhat of an anachronism too. Chauvinism about cities is not too different from chauvinism about nations.
The problem is Brittania hasn’t ruled the waves since 1776. The song is well outdated. Now it is a catchy tune and with some lyrical changes to suit the situation in 2024, why not let it roar.