The British national anthem is ponderous rubbish – if a university wants to ditch it, it’s doing us all a favour

‘The first three lines end with the same word, as if no one could be bothered to come up with a rhyme for king.’ The coronation of King Charles III. Photograph: Shutterstock

The University of Bristol has dropped the UK national anthem from its graduation ceremony programme, and will now play it only when a member of the royal family is present. This seems like a polite compromise, with the anthem being the equivalent of a carriage clock that you only put on display when the person who gave it to you comes round for tea. No offence given, and everybody’s happy.

Of course not everybody is happy. The Sun claimed “university bosses have been accused of hating British culture and pandering to wokes”. The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, posted on X, formerly Twitter, to ask: “If Bristol University are too ashamed of their British heritage, presumably they no longer want to be subsidised by [the] British taxpayer?” The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, also weighed in, saying “universities should stand up for our British values and stop giving in to woke ideology”.