I re-post this article from September 16th, 2015 for obvious reasons. I’ve also included (below) a video response to much of the British media from the wonderfully concise Owen Jones.
#JezWeCan #NationalAnthem #ProsperityThroughPoverty #BattleOfBritain
‘Miss Miss, Corbyn’s not singing!’
Lest We Forget
On the day when Prime Ministers Questions may prove to be the most interesting in years, in a week when an opposition leadership election forced a sitting prime minister to rapidly shoot off, somewhat Madonna-like, to visit poor people in the Lebanon, (I’m surprised he didn’t bring a brown baby back for the obvious photo-opportunity exiting the plane at Heathrow) we have the Murdoch press screaming like small schoolchildren at a birthday party, “Miss, Miss, Corbyn’s not singing!”
Apparently Jeremy Corbyn has ‘snubbed’ our glorious monarch by ‘refusing’ to mouth the words of the national anthem during the Battle of Britain memorial service whilst the entire Tory party, nay, the entire nation were standing to attention in front of their television sets, saluting and bellowing for all they were worth.
No doubt young Liz will have been in tears at Jeremy’s ‘snubbing’ on this her special occasion.
Another day in her long reign ruined by that selfish boy at the front.
What nonsense.
Someone ought to remind Murdoch, Cameron, and Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames (the grandson of Winston Churchill no less) that the national anthem – sung or respectfully listened to – is not about the Queen and hasn’t been for quite some time. It is not like singing ‘Happy Birthday to You’. We are no longer subjects of an omnipotent Monarch sent by a powerful god to rule over us.
If we do sing the national anthem – or merely choose to allow that thankfully short melody to wash over us – say on an Olympic podium or before representing our country in a World Cup – it is because we associate it with membership of a collective entity or endeavour, namely England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the United Kingdom, Great Britain, the North East, or what have you.
That the words, like the figurehead herself, are anachronistic are neither here nor there – it is what they represent.
Likewise yesterday’s remembrance ceremony was not there to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was to remember the sacrifice that young men and women gave in the fight against fascism and corporatism during the Second World War. A sacrifice that allowed the survivors of this conflict to return home to a land ‘fit for heroes’.
A land which would enact legislation upon their return – promised legislation – that would bring about a National Health Service, build homes, and develop a Welfare State that would reflect this collective endeavour from ‘the cradle to the grave’.
A land which would act like a beacon to the civilised world in how it treated its citizens, its old, its ill and its poor.
These are the very collective endeavour and ideals that Murdoch and Cameron wish to consign to the dustbin of history. The very collective endeavour and ideals that Corbyn and his supporters seek to rekindle in a nation that has had the product of this endeavour taken from it and placed securely into the bank accounts of the rich and the few.
It is a sad day when those that seek the imposition of a neo-liberal corporatist ideology that is more akin to the fascism that this nation fought against in those dark days when she stood alone, are those very same people that demand we wave the flag and beat the drum of petty nationalism.
It is a disgrace both to the memory of those who fought in World War II, and to the ideals that many in our families were to pay the ultimate sacrifice for.
Anvil Springstien.
Link to: Source – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-34265028
[image: © Battle of Britain Memorial Trust]
Link to: Original Article – ‘Miss, Miss, Corbyn’s not singing!’
Full Link to: Owen Jones’ Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4nwf5eXD14]
meVolution 