The national anthem is not inclusive and should perhaps be changed, Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general now leading a citizenship review for Gordon Brown, has suggested.
He said that there were problems with some of the later verses of the anthem, which refer to "rebellious Scots" being crushed.
The (Scottish)PM Gordon Brown was apparently too busy attempting to crush rebellious Scots to comment.
Lord Goldsmith said: "Part of it is not actually that inclusive, but that's if you go on to the later verses."
There are later verses? I was always happy enough to finish just after the "Long to reign over us";)
So, hands up, who knows (without googling), the lyrics of the second, third, fourth (?) verses?
It's only "not actually that inclusive", if you actually know you're being excluded, surely?
3 comments:
That verse was dumped about 100 years ago, and anyway, its about 'rebellious' Scots, not the majority loyal brand.
You're of course right, I should have checked before just accepting what the article said as gospel, for the record this is the present version:
God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.
O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter thine enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.
Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen
We only ever sang the first verse you list there and the last.
Anyway, this whole thing's a big non-story and the government should come out and say so instead of allowing these inaccurate statements to go unchallenged.
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