An English national anthem may seem like a trivial concern but the use of the British and Royal anthem as the de facto English national anthem conflates England and Britain and reinforces the idea of Britain as a ‘greater England’. England fans singing God Save the King as their anthem is Anglo-centric British nationalism in song, with all its imperial overtones.
When the Rugby Football Union persists with the nonsense of having England sing God Save the King – the British national anthem, which belongs equally to Wales and Scotland – at Six Nations matches, England is denied its own discrete identity and the Scots and Welsh are denied equal ownership of the British national anthem. Indeed, many of them opt to ‘other’ the British (de facto English) anthem by drowning it out with booing.
English Commonwealth believes that “God Save the King” should be reserved for British occasions, for example the Olympics and Paralympics, to be sung as a celebration of Britain or the Monarch, by the individual peoples of Britain in celebration of Britishness, or by the English, Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish when they are gathered together as Brits. When are we representing England, however, let us be unashamedly English and sing as English men and women, players, athletes, and fans. We need a patriotic, English song to sing when England take to the sporting pitch, so we can be proud of representing or supporting England.
The English flag has largely replaced the British flag at English sporting occasions, so now let’s replace the British anthem with an English one. Just as Team England has done for the Commonwealth Games.
English Commonwealth 