FOOL BRITANNIA
BBC bosses attacked for failing to intervene and allowing ‘woke’ Proms conductor to ban lyrics
A CHORUS of anger on Tuesday met the BBC’s decision to ban the words to Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory from the Last Night of the Proms.
Beeb bosses were attacked for failing to intervene and allowing woke Finnish Proms conductor Dalia Stasevska to ditch the words and play only musical arrangements.
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Outgoing Director General Tony Hall and BBC One Director of Content Charlotte Moore were among those in the line of fire.
Boris Johnson railed against the corporation, while war veterans condemned the ban. And the daughter of forces’ sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn — who died earlier this year aged 103 — hit out, too.
A petition calling for the lyrics to be reinstated gained tens of thousands of signatures amid calls to defund the BBC.
On Tuesday night, Dame Vera versions of Land of Hope and Glory hit No1 and No2 in the iTunes chart after anti-woke campaigners urged Brits to download the crowd-pleaser in protest.
Her daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, 74, said: “My mother started singing Land of Hope and Glory on VE Day in 1945.
“It’s a song that was so important to her and the war generation.
“For millions of people Land of Hope personifies what it means to be British and to live here. Even now it resonates, perhaps even more so today.”
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Beeb bosses announced that the anthems would feature only as orchestral versions amid fears of a backlash from Black Lives Matter campaigners over their lyrics’ British Empire connotations.
Virginia added: “Anything to do with slavery is appalling and I can appreciate the sentiment but, on the other hand, had the Nazis won in World War Two people in Britain would have been slaves.
“And if you weren’t blond with blue eyes you probably wouldn’t be here anyway, not to put too fine a point on it.”
National treasure Dame Vera shot back into the charts after actor Laurence Fox asked his 230,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday to try to get the song to No1.
He added: “Would the @BBC then have to play it? What a beautiful day that would be. Please share widely. RT #DefundTheBBC.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, and about our culture, and we stopped this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness.”
And on social media, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly wrote: ‘I’m black. My mum was black. I have black family. I have black friends. I have black colleagues. I have black constituents.
“Number of times that the Last Night of the Proms was raised with me as an issue before this BBC nonsense? Zero.”
The Sun Says
THE BBC no longer seeks to represent or entertain half the population. Why should we all still be forced to fund it?
It is clear from its news, its commentary, its dramas and its dismal, lazy comedy that it despises the voting majority which — to the out-of-touch corporation’s disbelief — repeatedly backed both Brexit and the Tories.
Its decision now to censor Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory ought to be the last straw.
Boris Johnson has rightly joined many others in condemning it. And though it is not for the PM to decide the BBC’s output, his Government can and should end its publicly funded financial model.
The Beeb could turn this around. It just doesn’t want to. It dislikes much about Britain and is ashamed of our past.
Its woke staff are interested only in causes and ideas beloved of middle-class metropolitan Remainer graduates like them. Mainstream views shared by the ordinary majority, older Conservative voters in particular, are held in contempt if they are considered at all.
So Tories, who won a huge election mandate only months ago, are treated with cynical disdain. Meanwhile left-wing activists are routinely given platforms on news programmes where they masquerade as “ordinary people” or even Newsnight journalists.
The BBC has destroyed the case for its licence fee. It’s time the Government stopped griping about it and took action.
Constance Halford-Thompson, 93, who served in the Women’s Auxiliary Service in Burma, said: “It’s absolute rubbish not to sing the words.” Constance, of Putney, South West London, added: “It’s part of our history and part of England.”
Ex-RAF man Alan McQuillan, 97, of Cirencester, Gloucs, said: “Not singing it is a daft idea. If there was an audience there I suspect they’d sing it anyway.” Ex-Paratrooper Fred Duffield, 94, of Leek, Staffs, said: “It’s political correctness gone mad not to sing it.”
A BBC spokeswoman would only say the call was “ultimately a BBC decision”.
But the highly paid executives refused to take responsibility and put the blame on guest conductor Ms Stasevska.
The traditional anthems are usually played as the Last Night audience enthusiastically waves flags and sings along.
But there will be no audience at London’s Royal Albert Hall on September 12 for the concert owing to coronavirus.
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On Tuesday night, panicked BBC chiefs insisted the songs would be sung next year — but refused to reinstate them this time. A host of managers and board members are in the chain of command responsible for the Proms, whose director is David Pickard.
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Big guns also include Alan Davey, James Purnell and the outgoing BBC Director General Mr Hall, who was last night being urged to reverse the decision by furious lobbyists.
Asked whether BBC chiefs had discussed plans to ditch the songs over links to slavery, Mr Hall said: ‘The whole thing has been discussed by David and his colleagues; of course, it has.”
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GMB debate if BBC should drop 'Rule Britannia' and 'Land of Hope and Glory' from Last Night Of The Proms because of their links to slavery and colonialism
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