Petition for Rule, Britannia! to be sung at Last Night of the Proms reaches 10,000 signatures in 24 hours

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Some 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for the BBC to fully reinstate Rule, Britannia! into their ‘Proms’ programme, as a cabinet minister said he would “like to see the lyrics sung”.

Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary said the Last Night of the Proms brings “a huge amount of pleasure to millions of people” and that if singing is not possible, the BBC should put up subtitles.

On Monday night the BBC defied the Government by announcing that Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory will not be sung at this year’s Last Night of the Proms.

Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, had warned the BBC not to “erase history” by dropping the songs amid a row over colonialism, while Boris Johnson had told the corporation it was a mistake to target the “symbols” rather than the “substance” of such issues.

But the BBC ignored them, effectively censoring the traditional anthems by choosing to play orchestral versions only, with no soloist singing the lyrics. With no audience because of coronavirus restrictions, there will be no-one to sing along to them either.

One government source described the decision as “incredible” and signalled that ministers were taken aback by the decision because they had believed the BBC would back down and stick with tradition.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Sharma said: “Personally, I would like to see the lyrics sung, and of course it’s always possible to put the lyrics up as subtitles on the screen so people who want to can join in.”

He echoed the Prime Minister’s sentiments that “we need to tackle the source of the problem” around racism and colonialism.

By Tuesday morning a petition to have the songs played as before, with singing, reached 10,000 signatures.

“The singing of two rousing patriotic anthems, Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory, has been part of the programme of The Last Night of the Proms for many years. But their performance is now threatened with cancellation by the forces of political correctness,” says the petition.

“The annual singing of these songs on The Last Night of the Proms, which is broadcast on BBC Television, has become a much-cherished ritual,” it adds. 

“They are sung with pride and sentiment, but also with a degree of joshing humour and wry self-mockery that is characteristically British.”

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Christopher Silvester, who started the petition told the Telegraph this morning: "The BBC's pathetic justification for not having soloists and chorus but only playing orchestral versions of these patriotic songs is, of course, the coronavirus pandemic. 

"And yet they managed to use soloists in their VE Day and VJ Day televised concerts. Indeed, they used a gospel choir in the VJ Day concert. 

"Admittedly those concerts were filmed outdoors, but nonetheless the Albert Hall is perfectly suited to the social distancing of singers and with all the BBC's expertise in the use of microphones it should be possible to accommodate a reduced chorus. 

"The failure to do this betrays the BBC's true colours and reveals their political agenda."

Michael Fabricant, Conservative MP for Litchfield told BBC Radio 4 this morning: “I think it's all very sad. 

“There are some lovely words to Rule, Britannia! You start to talk about ‘Rule, Britannia! and Britain shouldn't be slaves’, but you've got ‘other nations not so blessed as thee must in the turn to tyrants fall. While thou shalt flourish great and free’. I mean, isn't that lovely?” 

He added that he appreciated what Oliver Dowden said on the issue.

“I rather like the quote by the way from all the doubt the culture secretary who said, confident forward looking nations don't erase their history, they add to it. And you know, Britain's history is not all bad. We abolished slavery in 1807, more than 50 years before the United States got round to that and that's something of which we can be proud of.”

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