‘God Save the King’ – But Only in England?
Hannah looks at the problematic nature of the English football team singing the UK’s national anthem God Save the King as their national anthem ahead of the clash between England and Wales in the World Cup.
Wales and England are set to face each other in the final group game of the Football World Cup on Tuesday with kick off at 19.00. As usual, before the whistle goes, the two nations will proudly sing their national anthems.
Now this is where it gets very sticky. A national anthem? The United Kingdom has a national anthem, ‘God Save the King’ but this is not the Welsh or English national anthem. Gareth Southgate’s team, however, have been singing ‘God Save the King’, prior to each match at the World Cup even though this is not the English national anthem. There is no agreed national anthem of England, so it is usually taken to be the same as for the United Kingdom as a whole. The Welsh team will sing ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ also known as ‘Land of My Fathers’, as they have done in their previous two matches against USA and Iran.
‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ is the unofficial but universally recognised national anthem of Wales and it is the first year that the anthem has been sung at the tournament as the last time Wales were at a World Cup, they sang the UK’s national anthem.
Welsh sports historian, Huw Richards, believes that 116 years of history means that Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau now “represents who we are” in a way ‘God Save the King’ simply cannot. In that sense, for many players, history also means that ‘God Save the King’ has come to represent Wales’ greatest rivals and much oppression.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Team GB played football matches in Cardiff, and despite wearing the jersey, Welsh footballers Craig Bellamy, Ryan Giggs, Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey and Neil Taylor all decided not to sing the national anthem.
It is no surprise that the national anthem of the UK is seen as being associated with England because English sporting associations and bodies make no legitimate or continuous effort to sing any other song such as ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, both of which are familiar to the majority in England.
It is only since the Commonwealth Games in 2010, that Team England has used ‘Jerusalem’ as the victory anthem. The Commonwealth Games Council for England conducted a poll of members of the public which decided the anthem for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. ‘Jerusalem’ was the clear winner with 52% of the vote, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ received 32% of the vote and ‘God Save the Queen’ received only 12%.
This clearly indicates that much of the English population also do not want to sing the national anthem of the UK as the English anthem and they would rather associate their Englishness with a different song.
In 2000, a rendition of ‘Jerusalem’ was adopted by the English Football Association as the England football team’s official song for the UEFA Euros in 2000 that was co hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The FA, however did not keep this up and in the following international matches, there was a return to ‘God Save the King’. ‘Jerusalem’ has been the English Cricket Board’s official hymn since 2003, being played before the start of play each day of home test matches, although ‘God Save the King’ was the anthem sung by England players before the T20 World Cup Final in Australia a couple of weeks ago illustrating the inconsistencies.
Similarly to football, in international rugby union matches, England uses ‘God Save the King’ as the national anthem where its problematic nature is emphasised especially when playing other teams in the United Kingdom.
At international rugby league matches, England used to sing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ as their national anthem but since 2005 they switched to ‘God Save the King’. At international darts matches, England uses “Land of Hope and Glory” as the national anthem.
Surely England should have their own national anthem, something that it appears many would desire. Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland should have the space to identify with the national anthem of the UK if they so desire. Currently there is not a space for this as federations and associations in England are not recognising how they are projecting Englishness onto the identity of singing the national anthem of the UK.
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, and I’m shocked why this accident did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.
I am extremely impressed together with your writing skills and also with the format to your blog. Is that this a paid subject or did you modify it your self? Either way stay up the excellent quality writing, it?s uncommon to peer a great weblog like this one these days..
An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
medrol 16mg without prescription – buy depo-medrol usa astelin 10ml without prescription
The following time I read a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I imply, I know it was my choice to learn, but I really thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you possibly can fix in the event you werent too busy searching for attention.
What?s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered It absolutely useful and it has aided me out loads. I am hoping to contribute & assist other customers like its helped me. Good job.
Together with the whole thing which seems to be developing throughout this subject material, many of your points of view are actually quite exciting. Even so, I am sorry, because I do not subscribe to your entire suggestion, all be it exhilarating none the less. It looks to everybody that your remarks are generally not completely validated and in reality you are your self not even completely convinced of the argument. In any case I did enjoy looking at it.
micronase price – dapagliflozin 10 mg canada buy forxiga 10mg without prescription
Some genuinely wondrous work on behalf of the owner of this website , perfectly outstanding content material.
Hiya very cool website!! Man .. Excellent .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds additionally…I’m glad to search out a lot of useful information here within the publish, we need work out extra techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Excellent goods from you, man. I have bear in mind your stuff previous to and you are simply too wonderful. I really like what you’ve obtained right here, certainly like what you’re stating and the way in which you assert it. You are making it enjoyable and you still care for to keep it wise. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is really a terrific website.
Hi! I simply wish to offer you a huge thumbs up for the excellent information you’ve got here
on this post. I will be returning to your website for more soon.
repaglinide online buy – buy jardiance 10mg online cheap buy empagliflozin pills
I think that a property foreclosure can have a important effect on the borrower’s life. House foreclosures can have a Several to few years negative influence on a client’s credit report. The borrower who may have applied for a mortgage or any kind of loans as an example, knows that the actual worse credit rating is definitely, the more complicated it is to obtain a decent mortgage. In addition, it might affect a new borrower’s capability to find a really good place to let or rent, if that results in being the alternative property solution. Interesting blog post.
This web page doesn’t show up appropriately on my android – you might wanna try and repair that
Thank you for sharing indeed great looking !
Hey I am so delighted I found your website, I really found you by accident, while I was searching on Digg for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a fantastic post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the moment but I have saved it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the fantastic job.
glycomet sale – buy sitagliptin generic where can i buy precose
En iyi medyum olarak bir danışman için medyum haluk hocayı seçin en iyi medyum hocalardan bir tanesidir.
purchase lamisil online – lamisil without prescription griseofulvin cheap
Yet another thing I would like to talk about is that instead of trying to match all your online degree lessons on days that you finish work (since most people are drained when they get home), try to find most of your sessions on the weekends and only a few courses for weekdays, even if it means a little time off your weekend break. This is beneficial because on the saturdays and sundays, you will be a lot more rested plus concentrated on school work. Thanks a lot for the different ideas I have mastered from your site.
Hey there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!
As I site possessor I believe the content matter here is rattling fantastic , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Good Luck.
Only wanna input that you have a very decent web site, I enjoy the layout it actually stands out.
Do you have a spam issue on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; we have created some nice methods and we are looking to trade strategies with other folks, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.
You actually make it seem so easy along with your presentation but I to find this topic to be really one thing that I believe I’d by no means understand. It kind of feels too complicated and very vast for me. I’m taking a look forward in your subsequent publish, I will try to get the cling of it!
You have observed very interesting details! ps nice website . “Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.” by Confucius.
nizoral 200mg sale – butenafine for sale online order sporanox online
buy lanoxin 250 mg for sale – order dipyridamole 25mg online cheap furosemide 100mg over the counter
I conceive this web site holds some very great information for everyone :D. “We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.” by Francois de La Rochefoucauld.
Hey There. I discovered your weblog the use of msn. That is an extremely smartly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and return to read extra of your useful information. Thank you for the post. I’ll certainly comeback.
buy cheap generic famciclovir – valcivir cheap valcivir 1000mg price
Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the net the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
This was such a helpful read. I’ll definitely be referring back to it in the future
hi!,I really like your writing very much! proportion we keep up a correspondence more about your post on AOL? I require an expert on this space to unravel my problem. Maybe that is you! Taking a look ahead to peer you.
buy cheap hydrochlorothiazide – felodipine 10mg drug order bisoprolol 5mg generic