When, by some unfortunate turn of events i find myself in a Church, i don't join in the hymn singing as the idea of tunefully praising someone who i don't believe in would be the height of hypocrisy.
The National Anthem is a double whammy of God and Royalty so if i ever find myself in a situation when the band strikes up 'God Save The Queen', i keep my terrible singing voice quiet because i couldn't care less about a deity making the monarch happy and glorious as she reigns over us.
My sympathy then goes to atheist and republican Jeremy Corben who has been on the end of some disapproval at his decision to stay silent through the national anthem.
Apart from the calling on God to save our gracious Queen theme of the song, it is also a dreadful tune and compares poorly to the German, French or American anthems which at least have a bit of energy behind them although xenophobic nationalism does seem to be the order when picking a song to represent a nation.
We need an anthem for the 21st Century to replace something dating back to the 17th Century when we were at our Empirical height and stomping our boots over other nations and their people.
There is a call every now and then for jingoistic songs like Rule Britannia, Jerusalem or Land of Hope and Glory to replace the dirge we presently have that's just more antiquated drivel about how great we are (were).
Finally, as far as I know and i admit i don't know all the anthems, our choice of national song is the only one that celebrates the head of state rather than the country itself, even the North Koreans sing about the will of the people and a beautiful fatherland and they have the supreme leader and not some doddery old woman who gets paid tens of millions a year for waving.
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