National Anthems and hypocrisy
I cannot believe in the 21st century that we are questioning a person's right not to sing that sad old, brown-nosing, turd of a song God Save the King.
I was gobsmacked that the new manager of the English football team, Lee Carsley, could be criticised for deciding not to sing the British National Anthem at a match the other day.
I remember as a boy of 12 being taken to the The Royal Opera House or some other stupid place by my school and refusing to stand for that awful dirge - again - like Carsley - being of Irish heritage.
As a child, I was booed by those around me. It probably had a lasting impact. No, not probably. Certainly.
God Save the King or Queen or whoever has not and never has been my anthem. My parents were Irish working people who were forced to come to London. They suffered greatly in their short lives trying to make a living. They lived in atrocious conditions, even by the standards of the 1960s.
I did not understand why anyone would expect me to stand for the anthem.
It is time to get rid of it, in my view. Or at least get rid of the words, as the Spanish did.
Or change it for something more poetic and creative, such as Jerusalem - but this would not work for Scots, Irish or Welsh people I suspect.
The whole concept of national anthems is a bit of a 19th century thing. Along with nationhood.
The world has moved on, theoretically at least.
Yes, it is quite stirring to hear Uber Alles or the Marseillaise - but the words are not the sort of thing we need in the 21st Century.
Generally, they are xenophobic, bloody and imperialist in nature.
The people who migrating these days are focused on where they can raise a family and earn enough money to survive.
Increasingly this means moving to the Ruhr in Germany, the Paris Basin, Barcelona or Madrid’s Metropolis, the Malmo-Copenhagen area or, finally, London, that attraction of last resort.
Educated people no longer have an allegiance to any particular nation, in my view, and that is precisely why national anthems are out of date.