Actually, most BRITONS don't like singing "Land of Hope and Glory".

[Ken Burch]

(this is in response to one of the stupidest of the stupid quotes from that Romney adviser on Mittens' UK pound-raising trip).

It's not the UK anthem...or even the English national anthem(England doesn't HAVE an official national anthem) it's the anthem of the Conservative Party...and the majority of British voters voted against the Conservatives in the last election and all through the height of Thatcherism(the Conservatives never took more than 43.9% of the vote in the Thatcher era...gaining parliamentary majorities only because of Britain's undemocratic "first-past-the-post" electoral system)

Plus, "Land of Hope and Glory" is a crap song. The tune is "Pomp and Circumstances&quot yeah, that's right, the graduation song)and the lyrics DO NOT FIT THE TUNE. Try singing THIS to "Pomp and Circumstances":

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.

The song is pretty much ONLY sung in Britain at the Conservative Party conference and on "The Last Night of The Proms&quot "The Proms" are an annual series of outdoor concerts in London, and "The Last Night of the Proms" an evening dedicated to booze-soaked musical jingoism that always concludes with a bunch of inebriated aristos waving their Union Jacks around-and the British flag as well-while pretending that the Empire not only still exists, but should actually be EXPANDED, as the "wider still and wider still" line demands).

Just thought people on this side of the Atlantic should understand how utterly weird it would be if President Obama(or anyone who wasn't a wealthy Tory alcoholic) DID like singing that song.

[dballance]

1. Score another point for cultural ignorance for team Rmoney - Can't wait for Poland /eom

[Ken Burch]

2. And actually, Mitt would sing it like this(according to Letterman):

tey reithgim eeht ekam,ythgim eeht edam ohw ,doG ,
tey reithgim eeht ekam ,ythgim eeht edam ohw ,doG ;
tes eb sdnuob yht llahs rediw dna llits rediW ?
eeht fo nrob era ohw ,eeht lotxe ew llahs woH ,
eerF eht fo rehtoM ,yrolG dna epoH fo dnaL

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Rule Brittania is better. Thomas Arne.

And "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar, sung on Remembrance Day (Veterans Day) is an interesting tune.

I had the "Nimrod" variation with the words
"Requiem aeternam, lux aeternam" (Eternal rest, eternal light) played at my dad's funeral. I managed to sneak some Latin into a Methodist church!!

[Ken Burch]

4. I'd go with "Jerusalem" myself.

It's patriotic and contains both social truth AND the continuing possibility of social transformation-in fact, it makes working for such transformation a patriotic duty in the last stanza:

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spear: o clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built jerusalem
In england's green and pleasant land.