Rule Brittania is racist

[kj35]

 

Rule Britannia faces axe in BBC’s ‘Black Lives Matter Proms’

The BBC is agonising over ‘decolonising’ the Last Night’s traditional bill

Traditional anthems are hugely popular with prommers

CHRISTIE GOODWIN

Grant Tucker and Rosamund Urwin

Sunday August 23 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

 

The BBC is discussing whether to drop Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory from the Last Night of the Proms in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The traditional anthems are hugely popular with the flag-waving prommers who ordinarily cram into the Royal Albert Hall, but organisers fear a backlash because of their perceived association with colonialism and slavery.

Dalia Stasevska, 35, from Finland, who is conducting the Last Night, is among those said to be keen to modernise the evening’s repertoire and reduce the patriotic elements.

The South African soprano Golda Schultz is part of the team drawing up the programme for the Last Night of the Proms

A BBC source said: “Dalia is a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and thinks a ceremony without an audience is the perfect moment to bring change.”

The team drawing up the programme for the occasion includes David Pickard, 60, director of the BBC Proms, Stasevska, who will be only the second female conductor to preside over the Last Night of the Proms, and Golda Schultz, 36, a South African soprano.

They have been meeting regularly over Zoom but have yet to agree the Last Night programme, which is on September 12. They are also concerned about how to strike a sombre tone during a global pandemic and how to respond to the ongoing debates over race equality.

The coronavirus restrictions will certainly make it difficult to perform Rule Britannia in the traditional way, and could provide an excuse for the BBC to drop it.

Rule Britannia is usually performed by about 80 members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of more than 100 singers. But social distancing guidelines mean the orchestra is expected to be at about half of its normal strength, with only about 18 singers able to perform. There will be no audience to sing along.

Jan Younghusband, head of BBC music TV commissioning, confirmed that Rule Britannia’s place in the Last Night repertoire was still being reviewed.

She added: “We have a lot of problems about how many instruments we can have. It is hard to know whether it is physically possible to do it. Some of the traditional tunes, like Jerusalem, are easier to perform . . . We also don’t know if we’ll be in a worse situation in two weeks’ time.”

 

The coronavirus has forced the Proms’ organisers to contend with a host of new problems, including performers’ spittle, which mean spacing is vital. Robotic cameras will also replace human operators to create more space.

Tom Service, the Radio 3 broadcaster and Proms presenter, noted that the festival had faced hard times before, including during the Second World War, but said that these were “arguably the most challenging set of conditions that the Proms have ever experienced”.

One insider described this year’s season as the “Black Lives Matter Proms”. The live performances, which begin on Friday, will open with a piece written by Hannah Kendall, 36, a black British composer, and will close with Schultz leading the Last Night’s ceremony on its 125th anniversary.

The Proms’ live soloists include Anoushka Shankar, who will perform on the sitar in honour of her late father, Ravi; the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason — who played at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — and his sister, the pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason; and the Japanese-born pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

Wasfi Kani, 64, chief executive of Grange Park Opera in Surrey, whose parents sought refuge in the UK after the partition of India in 1947, is among those who would cheer the removal of the songs.

“I don’t listen to Land of Hope and Glory and say ‘thank God I’m British’ — it actually makes me feel more alienated. Britain raped India and that is what that song is celebrating,” she said.

Proms presenter Josie d’Arby, who is black, said: “This year, everyone is thinking about racial equality . . . The Proms has always done that, but . . . it is upping it out of respect for the current climate.” She argued that the evening should be inclusive but retain tradition: “Part of being inclusive involves including your traditional audience and the diehard fans.”

Each year, the main singer on the Last Night can include a piece close to their heart. Last year, the bisexual mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton chose Judy Garland’s Somewhere over the Rainbow, a gay anthem. Schultz is yet to announce what she has chosen, but when accepting the position, she tweeted: “Honoured to be representing for Africa”.

Conductor Dalia Stasevska

Last month, she said: “Dalia and I want to pay tribute to the culture that has invited us into its space, and also make sure we do something that speaks to the times we are living through.”

Camilla Kerslake, 32, the Brit-nominated soprano, suggested the lyrics could be changed: “It’s possible to find a way to respect the music but make it modern.”

The Last Night ceremony will include a new work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Schultz will also pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim, in the year of his 90th birthday, by performing two numbers from his musical A Little Night Music: Night Waltz and The Glamorous Life.

While God Save the Queen and Jerusalem will be performed, Auld Lang Syne is also in peril because it is sung by the audience.

The entire Proms repertoire has had to be reworked in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. While orchestras and choirs have shrunk, the stage has expanded, and musicians will have to have daily temperature checks.

Spitting creates one of the biggest logistical problems. “There’s a lot of spittle going on in an orchestra,” said Younghusband, who is an oboist herself. “Brass and woodwind are almost impossible, and even if you are playing a flute, you are blowing across it and blowing out. It is not possible to seat an orchestra in the normal way.”

Musicians will be spaced more than 2m apart, each turning the scores themselves, and will have stand-ins ready in case they become ill.

Ben Weston, the executive producer of Live Wire Productions, which is producing the TV coverage of the Proms, said the distancing requirements meant some works were impossible to perform: “We’d normally be able to get hundreds of people on the stage using the biggest extension, but we are talking about 30 to 40, not much more than that. We can’t do Mahler’s [Symphony No] 2, those types of works are out.”

There will be no audiences for any performances, which will affect the acoustics, making it more “lively” and also removing punctuation points such as bowing.

Presenters, including Katie Derham, will stand on a new platform in the stalls that Weston likened to a “helipad”: “You’d be amazed at how big the platform has to be for two guests and cameras. It is closer to the stage to stop Katie feeling like without an audience she is in outer space.”

Many pieces will be recorded live earlier in the day and then broadcast later, but the Last Night will be fully live.

Alan Davey, the BBC Radio 3 controller, said that it also represented an opportunity: “We have turned the Royal Albert Hall inside out . . . We can’t use the changing rooms, and everyone has a circle around them of 2m. But you can also do shots in the hall that we won’t normally do, and the hall can come to life, which it can’t when it is the background.”

Service added that he expected all the difficulties would mean that the concerts had an “extra fire” to them: “The audience’s absence will be felt, but . . . there will be a burning desire to communicate to everyone though the microphones and the cameras and to make that electricity happen.”

SONGS THAT STIR A NATION

Rule Britannia!
Long associated with patriotism and the Royal Navy, Rule Britannia! originates from a poem written by the Scottish playwright James Thomson and was set to music by Thomas Arne, an English composer, in 1740.

Modern critics have balked at the anthem’s line “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves” in light of the nation’s role in the slave trade.

Other problematic lyrics refer to Britain as the “dread” of other nations.

The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all

Land of Hope and Glory
Edward Elgar wrote the music to Land of Hope and Glory and Arthur Benson added the lyrics in 1902, extolling the virtues of empire. They were said to be inspired by Cecil Rhodes, who left a fortune plundered from southern Africa.

Wider still, and wider
Shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty
Make thee mightier yet!

 

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July 03 2020, 12.01am

Richard Morrison

 

[oz93666]

BLM Prom ??? this has got to be a joke ... Promoted by the BBC ??..

 

They are rubbing the public's noses in it ... thank god I'm away from all this insanity 

[Jack]

Quote

A BBC source said: “Dalia is a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and thinks a ceremony without an audience is the perfect moment to bring change.”

That exactly whats happening, in society.

Shut everything down and replace it with the new normal

[EnigmaticWorld]

TFW they decolonize your culture by colonizing your culture.

[kj35]

35 minutes ago, EnigmaticWorld said:

TFW they decolonize your culture by colonizing your culture.

What's TFW @EnigmaticWorld ?

 

I can only think of The FuckWits

[EnigmaticWorld]

Just now, kj35 said:

What's TFW @EnigmaticWorld ?

 

I can only think of The FuckWits

 

Lol. That also seems fitting.

 

It means 'that feeling when'.

Edited August 23, 2020 by EnigmaticWorld

[kj35]

2 minutes ago, EnigmaticWorld said:

that feeling when

Thank you. And good to see you back. I think we've all been a bit battle weary.

Edited August 23, 2020 by kj35

[EnigmaticWorld]

I'm expecting somebody to say who is "they" and I will respond in advanced by saying the ones pushing this crap, not all black people. It's the same when I talk about Zionism, I don't blame all Jews, and there are Christians and Muslims that also push the Zionist agenda too, mainly in America and Saudi Arabia to be fair, but I'm sure people get the point. Just thought I better add a disclaimer before somebody gets in a hissy fit.

 

One of my close freinds has Irish Jewish heritage and I have never seen him advocate for this nonsense, same as my Muslim pals.

[kj35]

7 minutes ago, EnigmaticWorld said:

I'm expecting somebody to say who is "they" and I will respond in advanced by saying the ones pushing this crap, not all black people. It's the same when I talk about Zionism, I don't blame all Jews, and there are Christians and Muslims that also push the Zionist agenda too, mainly in America and Saudi Arabia to be fair, but I'm sure people get the point. Just thought I better add a disclaimer before somebody gets in a hissy fit.

 

One of my close freinds has Irish Jewish heritage and I have never seen him advocate for this nonsense, same as my Muslim pals.

It's heart breaking to see a lot of empathic caring young people falling for it too. They'll learn I hope.

 

 

[shadowmoon]

 

I wish one of these people had the guts to say " We are doing it as we have always done it, stick your rules and changes up your collective arses."

 

[EnigmaticWorld]

 

[rideforever]

Telegraph today said that the Government is replacing the ... top man at the BBC (on the board I think) ... the job advert goes out this week and states that he would need to regain the reputation of the BBC by restoring impartiality.

 

The next chair of the BBC must help restore the broadcaster’s reputation for impartiality, ministers believe, as they prepare to publish a job advert for the role within days.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/22/next-bbc-boss-must-tackle-bias-say-ministers/

 

The degenerate scum who have infiltrated many parts of society are trying to kill as much as they can, to destroy as much of the culture and healthy people as possible ... because they are encouraged by the darkness to continue with their degeneracy, rather than return to the light.  At the same time it's true that the entire society has allowed itself to slide, quite far, it no longer seems to remember any principles at all.  People do not seem to be able to state what things are good and why.  They don't seem to remember.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by rideforever

[Nemuri Kyoshiro]

I can't say I care for jingoism myself. 'Patriotism', a wise man once wrote, 'is the last refuge of a scoundrel.' That being said, love of country is a noble sentiment and I love my country as much as the next man and part and parcel of that is loving and accepting tradition. Rule Britannia is fairly jingoistic but it goes deeper than that. It unites people. At the Proms, everybody joins in and sings the song loud and proud. They don't want that. They want disunity and chaos and that's why it is being sidelined. Better still, a Finnish/Ukrainian conductor is wielding the axe. I hope it blows up in their faces but as there won't be any audience, they can do what they want. The answer? Turn it off. Don't watch. Refuse to pay the BBC tax and keep them permanently out of your homes.

 

[Fluke]

It doesn't suprise me or probably anybody else. 

 

I hear Farage and Andrew Neil are planning on airing their own mainstream television show. However it will be funded by murdoch which doesn't feel me with hope. But those are the noises I'm hearing. 

 

I think this is part of their agenda. I think the problem is with "regular" people they are looking to their governments to save us, while lying about a deadly illness, and then taking advantage of frightened but also the good will of the british public, while they clap and bang their pots and pans, immigrants have been flooding our shores and they tried to cover it up.

 

The reality i don't think they care, or want to. People need to wake up and realise that the media are not about fairness although they say they are.

 

They are not for integrity. They hate us. I think people are slowly realising that. And even if it is lack of understanding on the medias part, they are acting like enemies and so should be treated as such. Contempt. Thats how they treat us. 

 

And the majority of people thst work as mainstream journos appear to be incompetent naive, and within the bounds of the M25. In the old days you would ring vicars, talk to barmen, and do your work from the ground. Those days are long gone. 

 

Of course its all incidious and laughable. They are a disgrace.

 

Edit

And even when i went through my very short lived 'far left' stage at 16 i was listening to Rule Britannia once and my sibling said "you are not supposed to like that". I just thought it was a good piece of music...

 

these people are anti humanity.

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Fluke

[Not Thoth]

11 hours ago, EnigmaticWorld said:

 

 

They could keep the initials BBC and change their name to Big Brother Central

[zArk]

replace with Jerusalem !!! whey hey!

[kj35]

And rule Brittania is confirmed as removed from the proms

[SimonTV]

To be replaced with BBC WOKEPROM, LGBT and BLM flags only, Songs of hiphop and RNB only. Celebration of all countries except Britain, finishing off with a 10 minute performance of self-flagellation by our top BBC presenters wearing chains to represent their role in slavery. 

[oddsnsods]

Songs of Praise Cat Jewis comparing objectors too Neo Nazis not wanting to go to the gas chamber.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8662651/BBC-Songs-Praise-producer-compares-Rule-Britannia-Nazis-singing-gas-chambers.html

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by oddsnsods

[Golden Retriever]

On 8/24/2020 at 7:30 AM, zArk said:

replace with Jerusalem !!! whey hey!

 

Jerusalem and dark Satanic Mills won't be deleted from the Proms under the British Zionist Occupied Governments

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Golden Retriever

[Jack]

quite weird.

I googled jeruselum and this came up.

 

It went viral this year and everyones starting to dance to it.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Jack

[Golden Retriever]

Jerusalem at the Satanic London Olympics in 2012

 

This Youtube video states " REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR ISRAEL. ITS ALL GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN.."

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Golden Retriever