Thinking, then, of how Radio works, and how the opening notes of a familiar melody, it seems, are sufficient to cause the song's entire meaning to "wash over" a listener, is it only because so few people know the words to "Liliburlero" (let alone its historical context) that the BBC can get away with using a specifically anti-Catholic song as a signature tune? Now that the nature of this song, and therefore its "associations" to those who know of it, has been made explicit, I trust there will be as powerful and persistent publicity against this use as there has been about all those other songs which are derogatory towards other defined groups.
I'm still waiting to know if I have permission to whistle any of Stephen C Foster's many elegant melodies.