I feel that Zoe Williams has rather misunderstood the cause of Scottish fans’ displeasure at the singing of the national anthem by the English team at Hampden Park last week (The booing of the national anthem shows the vulnerability of King Charles’s reign, 18 September). I wince every time I hear an English sports team singing God Save the King, but my discomfort does not come from any republican sympathies; it is rather from the pain of hearing the national anthem of the whole UK claimed by England as its own.
As a Scot who identifies as both British and Scottish, I consider both God Save the King and Flower of Scotland to be my national anthems. When the former is sung by a team I do not support, I feel conflicted in my cultural identity and as though something of my Britishness has been unjustly anglicised. I believe this display of English dominance is a more immediate issue for Scottish people than anything to do with King Charles himself. I cannot ever imagine England being content with Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland singing God Save the King as their national anthem. It has long been suggested that England teams find their own sporting national anthem which does not conflate Englishness with Britishness and this feels increasingly overdue.
Katherine Arnott
York
• Zoe Williams misunderstands the British national anthem when she writes “God can be asked to save him (the King) and will consider that request reasonable”. There is no such demand or request in the national anthem. The words are not “God, save the King”, but “God save the King”. The “save” is subjunctive, not imperative. You aren’t addressing God, but just expressing the hope that he will be a saviour.
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
• Scots booing God Save the King? Why should we be surprised when verse six celebrates the violent suppression of “Rebellious Scots” by an English army. More surprising perhaps is why such anti-Scottish nonsense was ever considered appropriate as the national anthem for a supposed United Kingdom.
Dr Andrew Pennington
Dunnington, North Yorkshire
• Isn’t it time for a rethink on the words of our national anthem? Let’s be united in singing the praises of the country we all love, as those in almost all other countries do. Being expected to sing an anthem that venerates an individual is inherently servile and divisive.
Pamela Collins
Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
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