Next Sunday Wrexham AFC will take on Bromley at Wembley in the FA Trophy Final. It's a final, it's at Wembley so you presume that National Anthems will be played. The English to represent Bromley and the Welsh to represent Wrexham. Unfortunately, the English National anthem is considered the British National Anthem. On Wrexham's badge, on its coat of arms is the Prince of Wales feathers with 'Ich Dien':I serve on it. Most or a sizeable number of Wrexham's players are English. The Manager and his coaching staff are English so how will they feel when 'God Save the Queen' is booed next Sunday and booed it will be.
I doubt that it will be booed in such numbers and such volume as at the FA Cup Final last Saturday between Liverpool and Chelsea.
Needless to say I am with the booers! I am writing this blog post to debate in my own mind the rights and wrongs of booing anthems.
If you boo your own 'attributed' anthem then it's fair game. It is a reflection of your disgust at oppressive royalty, an unaccountable royalty as representatives of a class system that has kept your city down. The managed decline of the City of Liverpool by Margaret Thatcher. The Establishment stitch up of the Hillsborough enquiry. The sleights and gibes by Conservatives outside the City who have no representation within the City.
Monarchy decides in the Queen Victoria era that the poor cities of the North of England must sing her praises. It is not a National Anthem. It is a tuneless dirge encouraging you to exhort a 'Supreme being to protect a Monarch' that has a lot more money than you and seems to do less than the 'official' benefit scroungers at the bottom of your street.
The further South you go, the more comfortable your circumstances, perhaps. We know that in London the levels of poverty and social inequality are extremely high existing alongside Kensington High Street and Hampstead.
Yer Working Class poor in the Sarff might have a more patriotic take on Elizabeth Windsor. "Her father got our mothers and fathers through the war and she has been with us since we can remember. Have a bit of respect! Ain't you English or sumffink?"
No we're not English, we are Welsh and our first allegiance is to the language in which our National Anthem is sung "Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau". The old land of the patriarchy is dear to me. The land of bards and singers and Hollywood owners, the enwogion o fri.
Now if Welsh citizens and football supporters consider themselves to be Welsh and not British then they may remain silent, look at their feet, maybe mumble rhubarb when God Save the Queen is played but if they start booing another nation's anthem are you showing disrespect to the Bromley supporter for example who believes in God and the Queen and all things English? It is tantamount to a declaration of war. Not a class war as in Liverpool's case but an ethnic national one.
What if, after booing God Save the Queen, the Bromley Massif decide to boo 'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau out of Wembley Stadium and down Wembley way? What then?
If you are from Liverpool then you have every right, if not a duty to boo 'God Save the Queen' considering what the British Establishment has done to your city but if you are a Wrexham supporter and consider yourself Welsh, then when God Save the Queen is on you should 'Cau dy Geg'. (If you are a Wrexham supporter and consider yourself English or British, then sing or boo away as you see fit.)
If the citizens and supporters of the Disunited Kingdom start booing eachother's anthems then we could get into a Russia/Ukraine situation right here on 'British soil'.
Spare a thought for Parky and his coaching staff and for most of the Wrexham players next Sunday. You don't know what their feelings are about the 'attributed' National Anthem. They might be Monarchists or Republicans or they might not care.
Feel free to leave a comment. Let's have a debate about this topic.
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