"God Save The Queen"

I find that crap offensive (along with Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory etc) and I'm what many would call a Brit.

"As to your foolish Birmingham/Warrington response . . ."

Perhaps it sounds foolish to you over there on the other side of the pond Mick, but I lived on the outskirts of Brum in the 70s and WLD is correct - the bombing of the Talk of The Town at the bottom of the Rotunda scared the living shite out of Brummies. I can remember an Irish family near us being talked about with mild suspicion at the time by some of the locals - singing rebel songs in a pub in the city might well have made landlords wary. They were less enlightened times in those days, unfortunately for everyone involved.

Imagine this in the America of the future - they have two types of public bars. The dyed-in-the-wool red-white-and-blue places where they serve great suds and grits and corn dogs etc and everyone stands up at the end of the night, sings 'God Bless America' and waves Old Glory. On the other side of town is an Iraq theme pub. This is full of people singing songs about how they kicked the invaders out of their country after it was occupied, songs mourning the deaths of their women and children, and singing the praises of those martyrs that died for their cause - even by flying planes into skyscrapers and murdering innocents, or planting IEDs to kill American soldiers.

Would these songs seem so harmless now? They're just songs after all. Ask yourself if you would still feel so tolerant?

It doesn't matter which 'side' you're on, these songs can evoke offence and very strong feelings - especially if people are directly involved in a conflict, and that means you do need to think where and when you sing them.

stigWeard
Welsh Englishman, for those who can't see beyond race.