Just noticed my blog photo has disappeared. Is there a photo thief out there? I know I'm handsome but this is ridiculous. I would happily have sent a signed photo to anybody who wanted one. Anyway, now that I'm here I might as well explain that one reason for the reduced number of blog entries recently is that I am now signed up to myspace. I don't promote my writing much on here but I am now doing so over there. I write poems, articles and essays, reviews and the odd story so if you are interested in reading any of this go to:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=175666662

PS. Please leave the photo alone.

I came across this on a website the other day:

“However, the British anthem should not be sung by the English as an English anthem. It may be politically convenient for the UK Government to encourage Scottishness and Welshness whilst keeping Britishness to the fore in England but it serves neither Britain nor the monarchy to do so. Not only that but it is disrespectful to England, Scotland and Wales to conflate England with Britain in this way; for England is a nation every bit as much as Scotland and Wales, and those Scots and Welsh that still consider themselves British are now obliged to boo their own anthem for fear of being regarded as traitors by an increasingly nationalistic tendency.”

I agree with most of this. Using the British national anthem to rally England’s sporting teams shows the most basic lack of understanding of the difference(s) between England/Britain/UK. And, yes, England is just as much a nation as Scotland or Wales. I’m not sure what they mean by the political convenience but I would more or less go along with those comments right up until the last point. Does the author of this really believe that pro-union Scots or Welsh are forced to join in with booing God Save the Queen at sports events? Is there some sort of Big Brother there who monitors those who don’t join in? Maybe these poor Scots were the same ones who were dragged kicking and screaming to the polls the other day to vote for the SNP.

I do think England deserves a new anthem though. GSTQ is a relic of the empire and an irrelevance to English republicans and atheists as well as many Scots or Welsh. Using The Sex Pistols song of the same name would give England more street cred and attract the support of more neutrals around the world but would anthem4england go along with that?

http://www.anthem4england.co.uk/