Tim Dowling kvetches nicely about the turgidness of God Save the King (The British national anthem is ponderous rubbish – if a university wants to ditch it, it’s doing us all a favour, 11 December). But all national anthems are terrible – if not from the musical point of view (which I don’t feel qualified to judge) then from the moral one.
They can be divided into three groups. First are the “Hooray For Us” songs which are the epitome of smug national vanity and conceit. Next there are the “Down With Everyone Else” songs which are full of aggression and hate, and are little better than warnings to any nations that haven’t been conquered yet to watch out. Finally there are the “God Bless Whoever Happens to Be in Power” ditties, full of flattery and toad-eating. We British, being a nation of born forelock-tuggers, have chosen the third category, perhaps because it’s simple and nobody (least of all the poor monarch) believes we mean a word of it. It would be a much worse world in which people habitually sang their national anthems sincerely.
J Michael Cule
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
