The BBC Proms host Katie Derham has come under fire from England’s leading patriotic society for comments she recently made about the lyrics of Rule, Britannia!
The song has sparked controversy ever since it was first performed at the classical music festival in 1953, with critics claiming it celebrates Britain’s legacy of colonialism and slavery.
Writing in Radio Times, Ms Derham weighed in on the debate, taking aim at Land of Hope and Glory too.
She said: “Accompanied by the frantic waving of flags and a sprinkling of inflatable bananas, these songs will delight and enrage large swathes of the population in equal measure, but have become – undoubtedly – de facto national anthems.
“These singalong classical bangers, like Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia! were written long ago – the former in 1901 (with lyrics added in 1902) and the latter way back in 1740. Both have lyrics that are of their time and, yes, also incredibly problematic.”
Ms Derham took aim at Land of Hope and Glory too
PA
Nick Dutt, Chairman of the Royal Society of St George (RSSGI) is “surprised and disappointed” by the comments.
He told GB News: “The vast majority of British people are not conflicted or troubled by patriotic songs”, adding: “If you are troubled by it, don’t watch it. This is our history.”
The chairman points the finger at sections of society who are “undermining everything we have ever done or stand for and the BBC appears to be in that camp”.
“We have so much to be proud of, we have momentous discoveries. All these things that we as a small country have given to the world. There are things we have done that are not great and we should learn from them but don’t damn everything we have ever done because of those things. Look at it in a balanced way.”
The chairman tells this channel that repudiating the lyrics of Rule, Britannia goes against everything the English patriotic society stands for, which was founded in 1894 with the object of promoting “Englishness” and the English way of life.
“What worries me more I think is that all of these things create a foundation for who we are as a country and if you take all that away, what is there to build on?”
He strongly believes the furore over the song has been cooked up by our schools and universities to “diminish our history, ideals, traditions, that are so important to us”.
For Mr Dutt, it also speaks to how divided and sensitive Britons have become: “People are offended by anything these days. I am troubled by the way our flag is being denigrated. For over a thousand years it has been a unifying and identifying symbol. Now in the last few years it’s been taken over by extreme nationalists. Somehow we need to wrest that back and say that it represents us as a whole and not just one particular part.”
As chairman, he’s constantly trying to clean up the mess caused by people conflating patriotism with nationalism.
It’s a fine distinction as both can be defined as a devotion to one’s own country but nationalism has the toxic element of opposing immigrants.
This confusion leaves Mr Dutt’s society facing “headwinds” from both the left and right, he says.
The RSSG celebrates the history, ideals and traditions of Britain while acknowledging the deep contributions made by immigrant communities, he explains.
To claim that these positions are mutually exclusive is a false dichotomy created by bad-faith actors, the chairman tells GB News.
The chairman believes the furore over the song has been cooked up by our schools and universities
GB News
Mr Dutt concedes that it’s understandable that some members of the public are uncomfortable with the lyrics of Rule, Britannia!, citing the references to slavery and colonialism.
But viewing the song through the prism of 21st-century identity politics distorts its meaning and the important lessons to take away from it, he claims.
The chairman points out that it’s precisely because Britannia eventually did rule the waves that the Royal Navy was able to stop the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Historian and broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo doubles down on this argument, claiming in a separate interview with GB News that the patriotic song has nothing to do with race and the slave trade.
As he points out, Rule, Britannia! was written in the 1740s for a Masque about Alfred the Great – who was king hundreds of years before Britain had an Empire or anyone from England had ever set foot in Africa or Asia.
“It doesn’t say ‘Britannia rules the waves’ it says “Britannia rule the waves’. It was a challenge to go and become the greatest – to beat the Dutch etc. and become the pre-eminent sea power.
“Audiences at the time would also have understood the song as a not-so-subtle warning to King George II and his Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, not to consider becoming tyrannical like their European counterparts,” he previously told the channel.
In fact, like Mr Dutt, the historian believes race activists should sing the song with “great gusto” as it serves as a powerful reminder that it was Britain that abolished the slave trade.
This viewpoint offends many on the left. For example, The Guardian published letters a few years back calling for the Last Night of the Proms to axe the song.
One missive read: “Symbols matter. They act as dog-whistles and means of legitimising discriminatory ideologies. The substance of racism in the UK is underpinned by an inaccurate nostalgia for a ‘Great Britain’ which spread its ‘civilising’ influence across the world in the 19th century and stood alone against the powers of European fascism in the 20th century.”
Calls to axe the song have grown louder after cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who skyrocketed to fame after performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said the song made people uncomfortable and called for it to be scrapped.
He revealed on Desert Island Discs in January that he didn’t stay to hear the piece after he performed at the Proms in 2023.
The RSSGI chairman concedes that we are “living in difficult times and it’s understandable that “people will pick holes in who you are and what you stand for” but the answer is not to erase “lessons learned” and “our foundations as a country”.
For now, he seems to be winning the argument.
Soprano Angel Blue will be singing Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms next Saturday.
