Boris Johnson looks at the big picture
Good to know they’re focused on the important stuff.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is opposed to the BBC’s decision to play instrumental versions of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms next month.
“I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history,” he told reporters.
Which cringing embarrassment? About which history? Does the UK have nothing at all in its history to cringe about? Bragging about “ruling the waves” seems a tad grandiose and pushy to me, seeing as how the oceans don’t belong to any one country.
Media reports have suggested the lyrics are being dropped due to associations with colonialism and slavery.
But the BBC says the decision was prompted by Covid-19 restrictions.
Oh. Well let’s fume about political correctness anyway!
Responding to the news of this year’s changes, Mr Johnson told reporters: “I cannot believe… that the BBC is saying that they will not sing the words of Land Of Hope And Glory or Rule Britannia! as they traditionally do at the end of The Last Night of The Proms.
“I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, and about our culture, and we stopped this general fight of self-recrimination and wetness.”
Yas, it’s so much drier to brag about every single element of our traditions and culture and never admit there was a single thing wrong with it. That’s a nice quality in people, too – “I am perfect so there is no need for me ever to apologize for anything or think about my faults or try to be less of an asshole. That would be wet.”
So BoJo shouldn’t do any reflecting at all on this:
Updating to add:
That poor woman. What an horrific culture the Brexshitters have created. Johnson is basically crowing about taking Britain backwards a century and a half.
And how many people are going to die if there will be singing after all, who would have lived had no-one sung?
There’s no audience this year, and the impression I got is that they have no intention of changing the plan. With any luck no one will die for the sake of a militaristic sing-song.
The treatment of refugees, ‘immigrants’ and people who are not even immigrants but have lived in Britain for years and maybe were born here (The ‘Windrush Generation’) is appalling, and what one realises is that white people who vote Tory do not give a damn.
As for ‘Rule Britannia’ & ‘Land of Hope & Glory’, I can bear the former because of its splendid 18th-century panache (at least that of the music), but the words, by A.C. Benson, of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ are so disgustingly sentimental and self-aggrandising in that unctuous Victorian, or, rather, Edwardian, manner that they have ruined the original instrumental piece (which is actually rather good) for me – it is one of the ‘Pomp & Circumstance’ marches, originally. Ken Russell used the original march to horrible and brilliant effect in his television film about Elgar, using it over (genuine) footage of gassed, blinded and wounded British soldiers in World War I. I seem to recall hearing that Elgar himself was finally unhappy about setting such words to his march – but he, oddly, seemed to have no real sense of the difference between good and bad verse: the verse he set in ‘Sea Songs’ is almost all dreadfully poor stuff, written by amateurs, but the music is so wonderful, that he redeems it.
The other unofficial ‘English’ anthem is William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’, which was set by Parry (and orchestrated by Elgar). It was originally intended for a chauvinistic group called ‘Fight for Right’, but Parry, disliking them, withdrew permission, and it was first performed at a Suffragette meeting; Parry subsequently gave them permission to use it as the hymn for their movement.
The best performance of ‘God Save the Queen’ that I know of is by the Sex Pistols.
Britannia makes me think of “Dancing With The Moonlit Knight” (I’ve been listening to a lot of Genesis bootlegs). The best version of Jerusalem is of course Emerson Lake & Palmer.
Sorry for the derail, carry on! :^)
Tony Richardson used “Jerusalem” to brilliant effect in The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner. (I sing it every now and then when no one is around.)
That woman looks like someone I once knew. It’s eerie. I may hate the Tories almost as much as I do the Republicans, though I will say my hatred for Republicans is probably more visceral. As far as I know, my town and state are not run by Tories, which makes the Republicans more immediate.
Johnson is as ugly a human being as Trump.
Humans are messy, inconsistant creatures capable of great things and great horrors. It shouldn’t surprise us that our histories are going to reflect this. This applies to everyone. The more people whose stories are included in the stories we tell about ourselves (at whatever level of political organization you care to look at), the harder it is to put across any shiny, heroic mythology that requires the experiences of most people to be truncated, ignored, or excised altogether. The fewer whose voices are included, the less likely they are going to accept the “official” story from the top of the food chain, that doesn’t acknowledge their role. The wealth and spleandour and power that the self-appointed guardians of the “official” story are sp eager to promote and glorify would not exist at all without the toil of billions of people, and the outright theft of vast amounts of land and wealth from billions more. Some gratitude, appreciation, and yes, not a little actual remorse from those of us who have benefitted from this, even unwillingly and unwillingly, is not out of order.
It seems to me that if anyone is “embarrassed” of their history, it’s the promulgaters of national mythologies who are afraid to admit the true cost of the univocal, top-down “traditions” and “culture” they are trying to shore up.
Ah, I remember in high school (late 70’s) when a friend of mine turned me onto Genesis, lending me his copy of Selling England By the Pound. The first thing I heard? Peter Gabriel’s plaintive vocal introduction to “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight.” Bloody brilliant! And Tony Bank’s solo piano introduction to “Firth of Fifth” is a little masterpiece in itself.
Thank you, Mike#4, for the introduction to ‘Dancing with the Moonlit Knight’ & Emerson Lake & Palmer’s ‘Jerusalem’. I had heard of neither of these (nor even of the performers before – I’m very ignorant where popular music is concerned), and both are very good. Malcolm Sargent, a mediocre conductor, was chiefly responsible for installing the patriotic ‘uplift’ of the Last Night – it began in 1947, when he wanted to introduce a more ‘boisterous’ atmosphere, and there we are, still stuck in the groove of a cracked record..
“Rule, Britannia” is an exhortation rather than a boast and it predates Imperialism. The rather florid words refer to events in the 1730s – the Battle of Portobello, the War of Jenkins’ Ear. In the 19th century, when Britain was the dominant naval power, the Royal Navy made significant efforts to suppress the Slave Trade(s). See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/royal_navy_article_01.shtml As for the song, Suzi Pinns offered a revisionist interpretation in Derek Jarman’s ‘Jubilee’ (easily located on YouTube).
The words for Land of Hope and Glory are an embarrassment. But it is a very fine tune and perhaps it’s time to find something better to sing to it.
This is exactly the sort of thing we British always do when we have an opportunity to improve ourselves; we find reasons – such as ‘tradition’ – not to bother.
It’s practically traditional.
Porto Bello. In Panama. long way from the Thames innit? Sure suggestive of the building of a nascent empire to me, especially in the context of known history.
Traditions it has to be said can be great. They can give a sense of security and commonality. When traditions outlive their time though, and as Latsot says, be come tradition for traditions sake, they just become and ossified yoke around societies neck. In the American South, think ‘southern culture and tradition’.
@YNNBruce
Selling England is my personal favorite, only because The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is in a world of its own. There’s a surprising number of full-show bootlegs I initially found on Youtube before hunting down the CD sources. Apparently a lot of shows were “re-mastered” in the last decade from really crappy cassette tape sources. What I discovered was that the real decline of Genesis after Peter left was that Phil stopped drumming for the live shows. That said I am a fan of all their music and solo work too (Ant, Steve, Pete, Mike, Tony, and Phil).
@Tim
You’re welcome, I am always delighted to introduce people to my favorite music. :^)