The Boiling Frog: England's National Anthem

Tuesday 12 October 2010

England's National Anthem

I'm currently watching the football, and the singing of 'God Save The Queen', whilst earlier England sung the WI hymn Jerusalem in the Commonwealth Games and became intrigued enough (because I'm too lazy to blog about anything else tonight) to do a fun online poll as to what England's national anthem should be.

Vote in the right hand column.

12 comments:

Richard12 October 2010 at 20:50
GSTQ - dreary, although it was originally an Elizabethan dance tune, and played at three times the speed is quite catchy.

I've gone for Land Of Hope And Glory, although I wouldn't mind Rule Britannia just to get up people's noses. But I'd be happy with any (except perhaps Ode To Joy, because of its EU connections now, even though it is a fantastic bit of music) as long as England had her own.
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Kitto12 October 2010 at 20:52
Jerusalem was chosen as our national anthem at the Commonwealth Games thanks to an online poll, and its definitely my choice.
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TheBoilingFrog12 October 2010 at 20:56
@Richard, ahh Rule Britannia I forgot about that one doh! I included ode to joy as a tongue in cheek option as this is an anti-EU blog ;-)
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Quiet_Man12 October 2010 at 20:56
Definitely Jerusalem. Land of hope and glory is an Edwardian imperialist hymn.
Rule Brittania, since when has Britain been England?
I vow to thee my country, not too bad, but not Jerusalem either.
Ode to Joy? You have to be kidding me...
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Richard12 October 2010 at 21:01
QM - definitely right, I had mixed up Britannia and England. I still like the way it upsets the lefties, though.

Ode to Joy is in fact one of the reasons I hate the EU. It is a stunning bit of composition, Beethoven at the height of his powers, brilliant to sing in concert, and all-round good, life-enhancing stuff. And then the EU stole it ...
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Richard12 October 2010 at 21:03
End also, what's wrong with Edwardian imperialism? It served us and the world well in the past. Maybe a bit over-sentimental, though, I give you that.
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TheBoilingFrog12 October 2010 at 21:08
@QM re Hope and Glory, it's still a cracking tune though as Edgar himself said at the time; "I've written a tune to knock 'em flat".

@Richard, Agree completely, and the EU nicked 'Land of Hope and Glory for the launch of the Euro on 1st Jan 1999. They have no shame.
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Jonathan Miller12 October 2010 at 21:48
No no no! The English are best! Flanders and Swan's song of patriotic prejudice.
Failing that, "I vow to thee".
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Richard12 October 2010 at 22:00
Of course! *slaps forehead*

Can you imagine F&S at an England Rugby match?

The English are noble, the English are nice,
And worth any other at double the price!
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Trooper Thompson13 October 2010 at 01:05
It has to be Jerusalem, in fact I'd say it already is Jerusalem.
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Will Jones13 October 2010 at 03:26
'Jerusalem' would be great - the title alone would piss off the left as they'd think it's about Israel.

If 'I Vow to Thee my Country', the second verse has to be included as it will cause the lefty luvvies to have fit, though the words and sentiment will probably mean nothing to them.

'Land of H&G', great tune but the lyrics are dated, England/UK has been neither for many years. (As an aside, Elgar was most unhappy when part of his Pomp and Circumstance March No1 was used for the song.) As for 'Rule Britannia!', not a good choice considering the current farce in the RN and MoD.
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Pete13 October 2010 at 10:41
Billy Connolly suggested "The Archers" theme tune many years ago.

Sounds good to me - very rousing.
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"[There's no way Britain could accept that] the most vital economic forces of this country should be handed over to an authority that is utterly undemocratic and is responsible to nobody"
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"The single market was the theme of the Eighties; the single currency was the theme of the Nineties; we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity".
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"Let's imagine Europe is a football club and you join, but once you're in it you can't say let's play rugby". (French foreign minister Laurent Fabius)

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"The [Lisbon Treaty] is indeed a tidying -up exercise, it sweeps the rest of our sovereignty under the Brussels carpet".
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"The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes"
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(Mark Leonard co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think tank)

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the [EU] Commission as government".
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(Wikipedia)

“A coup d’état by a political class who did not believe in popular sovereignty”.
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(Treaty of Rome 1957)

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(Maastricht Treaty 1992)

"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".
(Lisbon Treaty 2007)

"Never out on principle; never in on principle [regarding EEC membership]. It depends on the terms and whether it is best for Britain".
(Labour leader Harold Wilson, May 1975)

"Now we've signed it - we had better read it"
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"[Norway] held a referendum [on the EU] that went the wrong way"
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"It means the end of a thousand years of history."
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'If it's a Yes we will say "on we go", and if it's a No we will say "we continue".'
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"I have read some of [the Lisbon Treaty] but not all of it."
(Caroline Flint, former Minister for Europe)

"The primary reason why Britain entered into [EEC] negotiations was political, political in its widest sense."
(Edward Heath, lecture at Harvard, 1967)

“They must go on voting until they get it right.”
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"If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union."
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“I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account at all,”
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(Mary Ellen Synon, Bruges Group Annual Conference 2013)

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"[Bailouts are] expressly forbidden in the treaties by the famous no-bailout clause. De facto, we have changed the treaty."
(French Europe minister Pierre Lelouche)

"The transfer by the States from their domestic legal system to the Community legal system of the rights and obligations arising under the Treaty carries with it a permanent limitation of their sovereign rights... against which a subsequent act incompatible with the concept of the Community cannot prevail"
(ECJ Case 6/64)

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"European integration is fortunately a train moving too fast for anyone to stop it."
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"The European Parliament is a caucusing body that is incredibly responsive to lobbying institutions, but it is completely unresponsive to public opinion."
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"...within ten years 80% of our economic legislation, perhaps even fiscal and social as well’ would come from the EU."
(Jacques Delors, President of EU Commission 1988)

"The huge cost of the Common Agricultural Policy to taxpayers and consumers far outweighs any benefit to them..."
(Memo by MAFF to House of Lords European Communities Committee 1995)

"...we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity."
(Romano Prodi, President of EU Commission 1999)

"The day of the nation state is over."
(Roman Herzog, German president, 1996)

"The European system of supranationality comes at the cost of democracy."
(Lord Leach of Fairford)

"The [EU] Council of Ministers will have far more power over the budgets of member states than the federal government in the United States has over the budget of Texas."
(Jean-Claude Trichet, current head of the European Central Bank)

"One must never forget that monetary union, which the two of us were the first to propose more than a decade ago, is ultimately a political project. It aims to give a new impulse to the historic movement toward union of the European states"
(Giscard d’Estaing, who drafted the EU Constitution 1997)

"The process of monetary union goes hand in hand, must go hand in hand, with political integration and ultimately political union. EMU [economic and monetary union] is, and always was meant to be, a stepping stone on the way to a united Europe"
(Wim Duisenberg, first president of the EU Central Bank)

"Once the interlude of [WWI] was over, [countries] all went back to the rules and customs of traditional parliamentary democracies. I felt out of my depth."
(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the [EU] Commission as government."
(Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner 2014)

"We had imagined a political 'grand design', a new international order..."
(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"I like the English style of life. I feel more at home here in London"
(Tintin creator, Belgian born Herge)

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(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

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(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

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(Lady Thatcher, Statecraft)

"There is no question of Britain losing essential national sovereignty”
(Ted Heath)

Euro quotes

"Euro has done more to enforce budgetary discipline in rest of Europe than any number of exhortations from IMF or OECD".
(Nick Clegg, 2002)

"We're happy to give the Greeks anything, just not money".
(German MEP Markus Ferber 2010)

"The Euro has been a rock of stability... Joining the single currency would be a major step".
(Labour MEP, Richard Corbett, 2009)

"The single currency... marks stability and growth and is crucial to high levels of growth and employment".
(Tony Blair 1998)

"Britons will come round to the idea [joining the euro] once they’ve handled euro money".
(Adam Boulton Sunday Times, 2001)

"Staying out of the Euro will mean progressive economic isolation for Britain".
(Peter Mandelson, 2003)

"The European Union must take a decisive step towards a federal economic government, with common fiscal policies and a larger budget, if it is to save the euro".
(Andrew Duff Lib Dem MEP 2011)

"A European currency will lead to member nations transferring their sovereignty over financial and wage policy as well as monetary affairs".
(Hans Tietmeyer, head of the Bundesbank, 1991)

The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since the foundation of the European Community: the decision is of an essentially political nature".
(Felipe Gonzalez, a Spanish former PM, 1998)

"The euro area now represents a pole of stability for those countries participating in it by protecting them from speculation and financial turmoil. It is strengthening the internal market and contributing to the maintenance of healthy fundamental figures, fostering sustainable growth".
(European Council conclusions, 2001)

"We must enter the euro with a clean sheet on all the criteria".
(Then Greek Finance Minister, Yannis Papantoniou, 1999)

"The reality of the euro has exposed the absurdity of many anti-European scares while increasing the public thirst for information. Public opinion is already changing…as people can see the success of the new currency on the mainland".
(Kenneth Clarke MP, 2002)

"The euro is a great success, and in today’s global economy, the pound is no longer an important currency. If we are not careful, we could become like Iceland in the next financial crisis".
(BT Group Chairman, Sir Michael Rake, 2009)

"I think the eurozone has turned the corner".
(Then French Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, 29 January 2011)

"I believe that, within the next twelve months, we will have averted contagion and stabilised the eurozone".
(German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, 30 December 2011)

"We cannot be members of the single market without being part of the single currency, the euro...In life, fighting for a minority view is sometimes dangerous and painful. But when you know you are right, and when so much of our national prosperity depends on it, we should expect our political leaders to act".
(Virgin Group Chairman, Richard Branson, 2000)

"We are writing to make clear our concerns about the implications for business if the Government rules out membership of the euro for the lifetime of this Parliament. Such a decision would be damaging for British-based businesses, British employees and the British economy as a whole".
(WPP Group CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, et al., 2003)

"A single currency, introduced at the appropriate time, will reduce costs for businesses that trade or invest across Europe...More investment in growing
businesses means more employment".
(Then BP Chairman, Lord David Simon, 1997)

"Joining the euro would increase our incomes and thus our standard of living...Now the countries of Europe have taken one more step towards making a truly unified market, using only one currency. If again we delay joining, we again risk falling further behind".
(Former Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, former CBI Director General, Lord Adair Turner, et al., 2002)

"Staying out of the euro will mean progressive economic isolation for Britain. It will mean fewer foreign businesses investing here, fewer good jobs being created and less trade being done with our European partners".
(Former Business Secretary, Lord Peter Mandelson, 2003)

"Britain should join the euro within the next few years in order to enhance British power and influence".
(Centre for European Reform Director, Charles Grant, 2001)

"Joining EMU would offer multiple benefits...The euro would be good for jobs".
(Then TUC Secretary General, John Monks, 2003)

"As time goes on, people will increasingly see that there is a price to be paid for remaining outside the euro".
(Former Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock, 2002)

"The euro may well come to be regarded in the coming years as part of the answer to saving the City from permanent decline. It was easy to dismiss the fledgling euro as a ‘toilet currency’ before we realised our own economic growth was built on sand".
(Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, 2009)

"Obviously joining a currency that everybody in Europe - including soon all the new European Union members - are using, a currency that American and Japanese and overseas businesses understand, has to make sense".
(Then UK Europe Minister, Denis MacShane, 2003)

"The euro, despite gloomy predictions from anti-Europeans, has proved to be a success".
(Former Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, 2002)

"In reality the economic integration between Britain and the Continent is so close, and we have confirmed this because we all belong to the common market, that it can't be good in the long run to stay out of such a cardinal element as the currency union".
(Then German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, 2002)

"There are no real benefits and some real costs to the UK of monetary independence... it makes sense from a financial stability perspective for the UK to contract out monetary policy to the ECB".
(Citigroup Chief Economist, Willem Buiter, 2007)

"Taking part in EMU would improve policy and performance enough to eliminate many of the strains that sceptics predict would emerge without the safety valve of devaluation".
(BBC Trust Vice Chairman, Diane Coyle OBE, 1997)

"The euro is like a breastplate that will become more and more resistant. The stability of the currencies within its area is without question".
(Then EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Yves Thibault de Silguy, 1998)

"The strict rules attached to the euro could emerge as one of the best ways to persuade the markets that we will put Humpty Dumpty back together again, put the public finances in order".
(Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, 2009)

"The question of entering the euro is worth a lot more to Britain than the wild anti-federalist fantasies peddled by those who think Britain should have nothing to do with Europe. Nobody of any consequence in Europe wants to create a federal super-state".
(Former Business Secretary, Lord Peter Mandelson, 2003)

The British Government Knew The Consequences In 1971

Foreign and Commonwealth Office 30/1048 - 1971

...the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.

Parliamentary sovereignty will be affected as we have seen. But the need for Parliament to play an increasing (if perhaps more specialised) role may develop. Firstly, although a European Parliament might in the longest term become an effective, directly elected democratic check upon the bureaucracy, this will not be for a long time, and certainly not in the decade to come. In the interval, to minimise the loss of democratic control it will be important that the British Parliamentarians should play an effective role both through the British membership in the European Parliament and through the processes of the British Parliament itself.

Test

Tuesday 12 October 2010

England's National Anthem

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