The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170032   Message #4111310
Posted By: GUEST,matt milton
25-Jun-21 - 05:56 AM
Thread Name: The OBON song (One Britain One Nation)
Subject: RE: The OBON song (One Britain One Nation)
But Dave, its message isn't sound. It doesn't matter who wrote it: I do not want my 8-year old son singing 'strong Britain, great nation' - it is way too close to the slogans of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

And, as suggested in the post above, the line "our nation survived through many storms and many wars" really rankles, given England's long history of imperial aggression. Ditto "widened our island's shores".

The line about faces 'moving at the same pace' bothers me too because statistically we know damn well that certain colours of face very much do NOT move at the same pace as others...

The idea that this is the unmediated expression of 'Bradford schoolchildren' is itself a little suspect. IS this draft 1 or draft 20? Anyone with primary school age kids or any experience of teaching knows that teachers always guide kids or work with them when producing poems or songs. If it was a group effort then there will have been decisions taken as to whose words were picked, and which ones...

Ultimately though it doesn't matter who wrote it, it's the words themselves that count. It doesn't need to be 'hijacked' by right-wingers, it's already dodgy. I emailed my kid's headteacher and said I hoped they weren't entertaining the idea of any of this.