A video about England and her people, accompanied by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song Suite.

A shame about the political message at the end (Enoch Powell I think) but hopefully it does not detract too much from the great music and video.

By A.J.Jenkins

In his recent call to celebrate Englishness, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, ended his speech with the lyrics of Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory (which happen to be the two front-runners in our current poll). However, there are those who would like a new, contemporary, anthem for England.

The BBC and Arts Council England have teamed up to commission a new anthem for England. The result is Sam Dunkley’s Made in England.

I am England, England is inside of me.
I am England, England is what I want her to be,
I am England, I am English, I am England to my core,
And wherever you may find me, you’ll find England.
England Forever More!
England, my England, she never lets me down,
Hustle bustle, urban tussle, dancing through the crowds,
Or out in the country, a fresh place for me to breathe,
England my England is always home to me!
Fish and chips in paper, with mushy peas,
Balti chicken, naan bread and onion bhajis,
A cup of tea and toast, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding,
Tastes of our culture, tastes like England to me!
Swing low sweet chariot, God Save The Queen!
Land of hope and glory and of pleasant mountains green,
England’s future, past and today live in our minds on St George’s Day,
England, England, my country!

The Daily Mail calls it ‘banal‘, Cranmer calls it ‘utterly banal‘ and Anthony Barnett says ‘ouch‘.

You can judge for yourself by listening to it here.

England (With One Voice) by singer songwriter Tim Hunter.

An Anthem for England. Obtained ‘honorable mention’ in Social/Political category of the 12th Annual Unisong International Song writing competition.

There is a new petition to sign at the Number 10 site for England to have it’s own National Anthem.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Let England have its own National anthem at sporting events.

Like Scotland & Wales let England have its own National anthem at sporting events. God save the queen to be sung when Great Britain take part in events. Let the good people of England sing out loud how proud they are of their country and of being English. The Scot`s and the Welsh do why can`t we!!??

The creator of this petition is Mr Mark Lloyd and the deadline to sign is 23 March 2010

Greg Mulholland intervenes in a Commons debate on a GB Olympic Football Team:

I am slightly concerned to hear that the Prime Minister is running with the ball when we are talking about football rather than rugby. However, I put it to the hon. Gentleman and the Minister that whatever our views on Team GB—we have different ones here—we should address the absurdity of the Team GB football team singing “God Save the Queen”, which is, wrongly, still the English football national anthem. When will we address that and stop having this identity confusion? When England compete as England, they should have an English national anthem so that when a British team plays, we do not ask its Scottish and Welsh members to stand and sing what they perceive as an English anthem, which is absurd.

We now have the very real prospect of only English players playing for Team GB, and singing the de facto anthem of English football - God Save the Queen.

Does Gordon Brown honestly think that this will help his Britishness quest?

There is a petition to sign at the Number 10 site to make Jerusalem the English national anthem.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make Jerusalem the English national anthem.

There is currently no English national anthem while God Save The Queen is the British national anthem. We the undersigned would like to see Jerusalem made the English national anthem, ans used instead of God Save The Queen at all occasions when the English national anthem should be played, e.g when the English nation are playing at sport (for example versus Scotland or Wales, where the playing of the British national anthem is quite stupid as it’s partly their anthem too). God Save The Queen will still be used when the country of Britain is being represented, but England will always be represented by the playing of Jerusalem.

The creator of this petition is an Alex Heylin and the deadline to sign is the 26 August 2009

The Times reports that President Sarkozy is most displeased by the recent booing of La Marseillaise.

Witness last week’s events in Paris, where Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, summoned the head of the French FA and told him that, from now on, if a national anthem is booed before an international, that match is to be immediately called off.

Bernard Laporte, the French junior sports minister reminded the boo-ers that “under French law booing the national anthem is a crime punishable by a 7,500 euro fine and six months in prison”

If such a law was in place in Britain, many a Scotsman would be short in pocket, and possibly behind bars.

Via O’Neill

Patriotic gran, Thelma Brown of Northampton, has written a new song - “Forever England” - that she hopes will be adopted by England fans for the 2010 World Cup.

“All I want is for England fans to have their own national anthem. I was inspired to write this song by the new Wembley and I would love to have it played there. I just hope we can get it played on the radio and the England fans latch onto it.” - Thelma Brown, Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

Thelma previous wrote “Voices Strong” which can be heard here performed by the Masquerade Choir.