Labour Party Conference, their anthems & ours. God Save the King v The Roast Beef of Old England
With the appointment of Charles as King the reappearance of God Save the King as the national anthem is a given. It has already been sung on numerous occasions
There is a lot of history here. In the late eighteenth century there was an anthem war between Loyalists to the Crown and Jacobins who supported the French Revolution. This took place according to E P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class in provincial theatres- places of entertainment and politics.
Loyalists sang God Save the King and radicals the more traditional anthem, the Roast Beef of Old England. Non meat eaters can relax here. The radicals were not eating beef. Thanks to what we call a cost of living crisis they couldn’t afford it. The basic diet was bread. The point was that there was a time when the poor could afford to eat beer.
Thompson reports an incident at a Sheffield Theatre in 1812. South Devon Officers ‘Church and King Bullies’ insisted on the singing of God Save the King. Thompson notes ‘the mobility in the gallery insisted on it not being sung’
Perhaps its time to reinstate the Roast Beef of Old England as the national anthem.
Perhaps a start would be at the start of this year’s Labour Party Conference. While Keir Starmer has tweeted nothing except Royals since 8th September, undoubtedly wears union jack underpants and is he claims a vegetarian, given that Roast Beef is really about the cost of living and is a genuine national anthem perhaps some delegates will sing it as opposed to the God Save Sir Keir has dictated.
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