Our national anthem…

Nitefly

Of those I've heard, the Italian one is best by miles - and you get two songs for the price of one.

At the Euros final, I watched Harry Kane & co mumble and stumble thru GSTQ, like they were embarrassed by it. 

Then the Italians sang theirs with such gusto, up to that final climax - it was obvious who was going to win, just from that.

Also, it's the only good thing that happens when Ferrari win a GP.

dazzajl

Emp_Fab said:

My favourite anthem is the Russian one....  much better than all the others!

It’s fabulous isn’t it. And I always imagine it being  conducted by Sean Connery 

“let them shing”

Mattharrier

underdog said:

Mattharrier said:

Wales is not a principality, it's a country, I really don't see why this still causes confusion.

From the point of view of the 16th century, Wales was part of the Kingdom of England. The Union Flag was created from the flag of the Kingdom of England and the flag of the Kingdom of Scotland. At this time, Wales was a principality within the Kingdom of England.

It's not a country - neither is England, Scotland or Northern Ireland - from the point of view of international political recognition. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the official sovereign state, and none of the constituent nations has any real standing outside of that, as far as any other states are concerned. It doesn't make the lack of Welsh representation on the Union Flag any less unfair, but it's the reason behind it.

Once the independence movements reach their logical conclusion, we'll be four globally insignificant nations, all financially worse off than we are together, but maybe some - even all four - of us might just be better off. Who knows?

I don't want to drop a bombshell here, we aren't in the 16th century

Just last week (or maybe the week before) Wales remained on the green travel list with Denmark while the other countries within the UK were put on the red list. That seems like political recognition?

The UK is an economic and political union, nothing more. Wales was officially recognised as a country by ISO a decade or so ago, and was last considered a principality some 500 plus years ago.  
 

Flag from 16th century. What is or isn't a country at this point is irrelevant for the specific purposes of discussing the design of said flag, only the status at the time the flag was designed. The flag hasn't been changed, ergo the state of things in the 16th century is the only valid point when discussing the design of said flag.

Denmark putting Wales on the green list with the rest of us on the red list is evidence of some political recognition, to be fair, although not on a global basis (and is fucking stupid, although that's up to the Danes of course).

And the ISO isn't a political organisation, so not sure how that counts as political recognition. Declarations of war, for example, aren't within it's remit. Wales can't declare war on anyone, the UK would need to do that.

You seem to have a bee in your bonnet about the 16th century status of Wales, to the point that you've ignored my point twice now. I was only talking about a flag, and the reasons for Welsh non-representation on said flag, rather than making a grand political point, so I'm done with this particular part of this thread.

National anthems - are they really relevant for anything other than sporting events? Could we, in fact, do without them altogether, and let organisations like Team GB (which should be team UK, shouldn't it?) pick their own music like they do with the uniforms?

EricTheWeary

Mattharrier said:

underdog said:

Mattharrier said:

Wales is not a principality, it's a country, I really don't see why this still causes confusion.

From the point of view of the 16th century, Wales was part of the Kingdom of England. The Union Flag was created from the flag of the Kingdom of England and the flag of the Kingdom of Scotland. At this time, Wales was a principality within the Kingdom of England.

It's not a country - neither is England, Scotland or Northern Ireland - from the point of view of international political recognition. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the official sovereign state, and none of the constituent nations has any real standing outside of that, as far as any other states are concerned. It doesn't make the lack of Welsh representation on the Union Flag any less unfair, but it's the reason behind it.

Once the independence movements reach their logical conclusion, we'll be four globally insignificant nations, all financially worse off than we are together, but maybe some - even all four - of us might just be better off. Who knows?

I don't want to drop a bombshell here, we aren't in the 16th century

Just last week (or maybe the week before) Wales remained on the green travel list with Denmark while the other countries within the UK were put on the red list. That seems like political recognition?

The UK is an economic and political union, nothing more. Wales was officially recognised as a country by ISO a decade or so ago, and was last considered a principality some 500 plus years ago.  
 

Flag from 16th century. What is or isn't a country at this point is irrelevant for the specific purposes of discussing the design of said flag, only the status at the time the flag was designed. The flag hasn't been changed, ergo the state of things in the 16th century is the only valid point when discussing the design of said flag.

Denmark putting Wales on the green list with the rest of us on the red list is evidence of some political recognition, to be fair, although not on a global basis (and is fucking stupid, although that's up to the Danes of course).

And the ISO isn't a political organisation, so not sure how that counts as political recognition. Declarations of war, for example, aren't within it's remit. Wales can't declare war on anyone, the UK would need to do that.

You seem to have a bee in your bonnet about the 16th century status of Wales, to the point that you've ignored my point twice now. I was only talking about a flag, and the reasons for Welsh non-representation on said flag, rather than making a grand political point, so I'm done with this particular part of this thread.

National anthems - are they really relevant for anything other than sporting events? Could we, in fact, do without them altogether, and let organisations like Team GB (which should be team UK, shouldn't it?) pick their own music like they do with the uniforms?

Some countries have an official national anthem enshrined in their laws; so there is an expectation if not possibly a minor illegal act to represent your country and have anything else played. There is no official UK anthem ( and as has been pointed out there are several versions of the lyrics) so Team GB could have whatever they want played. However, presumably they have other stuff to think about/ probably don't want to be controversial. 
The uniforms will be tied into sponsorship so maybe they could do the same with the anthem? Team GB sponsored by Ed Sheeran and Galway Girl.     

Grangousier

Team GB (which should be team UK, shouldn't it?)

Depends. If there are participants from Northern Ireland, then yes. 

Funkfingers

IMO, the late Humphrey Lyttleton was correct when, upon hearing reference being made to Flower Of Scotland, immediately retorted, McDougall's.

Jerusalem was a poem by William Blake - a who man claimed to see things that were not actually occurring. 

The correct lyrics to Barwick Green are;
Rumpty-tum, ti-tum, ti-tum
Rumpty-tum, ti-tum, tum.
Rumpty-tum, ti-tum, ti-tum
Rumpty-tummity, tum.


For a national anthem that accurately reflects the place of Great Britain in the world, it will probably have to be The Hokey Cokey. Somebody could make a promotional video, rather like the one for "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with royals and former Prime Ministers taking a couplet each. e.g. David Cameron could sing, "in, out, in, out, shake it all about."