I wouldn't mind the song being replaced by something the people as a whole preferred, if it were possible to find out what that actually was, but for now see no problem at all with a patriotic song in a constitutional monarchy referring to the monarch, and it is a rousing tune, [/quote]

A rousing tune?????? Patriotic???? The anthem is an embarrassment, more suited to a country governed by a mad dictator.

Instead of the tired X-Factor format, perhaps there should be a TV competition to compose and then have performed a new National Anthem? So long as no one under 40 is allowed to vote, it might work.

That could actually be a part of it if it did become the national anthem. Imagine a sporting event with the whole crowd singing, then shouting that at the end

..in your opinion, but then perhaps you've never heard it being sung at Wembley (for example). I don't detect much embarrassment, and I'm afraid you've lost me with the mad the dictator stuff. Most people on the planet would recognise the UK national anthem, and I really don't think anyone pays much attention at all to the words, let alone spending anguished hours pondering over their true nature and meaning

...that's because at least a third, if not more, are singing "God save the team".

With Jerusalem I can see your point. I'm not religious either but "Abide with Me" would easily make it to my desert island. A lost soul, contemplating an imminent death, concerned for the mark he has made on the world and what is to come. Something everyone can relate to backed with a cracking tune. Everyone who's felt their own mortality at any rate.

To the same tune as GSTQ

"At last the Queen is dead
Cod'ead chopped off 'er 'ead
The Queen is dead

If any of her kin
Try to rise up again
Cod'ead will do 'em in
All praise cod'ead

If you're referring to the religious content in Jeruselam, I don't mind it, because it is reference to the history and culture that formed this country. I do mind praying to a mythical being I don't believe in toprotect the life of someone I or my peers did not choose to have influence over us.

Which country shares the tune with us?

It's definitely a reference to our history and culture, because when it was written people could ask the question "did those feet in ancient times...?" without people saying "No, they didn't. Are you really so self absorbed as to assume a Judean Trot' you've chosen to nominate as son of god would come to this irrelevant backwater two thousand years ago? No wonder the rest of the world thinks we're arrogant 2@s."

Though I admit it sounds great when 80,000 people are asking that stupid question.