I have always thought that the opening lines of I Vow To Thee... are grounds for divorce: "Entire & whole & perfect the service of my love"? "Entire"? What about one's wife or husband, then: don't they get any???

Nobody seems to have mentioned what has always seemed to me the main thing to be said in favour of the present one

~~ its delightful brevity.

When one has sat, waiting for the match to begin, thru some interminable boring tune in three distinct parts lasting about three whole minutes from some visiting nation, it's so lovely to know when they strike up our anthem that in a very few seconds [fewer than 30, I make it, including the opening drum roll] it will be over and the teams can get on with it.

As to the words: well, not that inspiring, but they are what we have; not particularly broke, so why bother to fix? A traditionally revered figurehead of state seems to me as worthy of standing as symbol of the nation as a starry or tricolor flag fluttering in the breeze.

As for the truculent "watch it you foreigners" element that some above have expressed desire for, as in watering plough-furrows with enemy blood like that lot just over there, or banners waving under gunfire like that other lot a bit further off in the other direction ~~ surely all that is subsumed under the one key word "Victorious"?

So, again ~~ If it ain't bust, don't fix it ~~ one of the wisest of all proverbs IMO.

~Michael~