Why is it that no-one stands when our National Anthem is played?

Question

UK London 2007 and when the National Anthem is played people dont stand! i find it strange as most these would call themselves Nationalists!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

I personally DONT stand for the national anthem, I don't believe in God and all that bull$hitt . However, I live in the South, and all those d**n rednecks ALWAYS stand. Its ridiculous here, its like their ALL brainwashed and close-minded down here. Its sad really.

Answer 2

When I was a lad before WW2 ,whenever the National Anthem was played, usually at the end of cinema shows, everybody stood and did not move to leave the cinema until the music ended.After the war the mood changed.Some still stood,but others continued to leave and paid no attention to the anthem.Eventually cinemas stopped playing it at the end.The BBC television programmes which finished each night at about 11pm had the National Anthem played each night.This again was abandoned.I think the problem is that our anthem extols the monarch rather than the country.Although people may have National pride they don't feel the national Anthem reflects this.Similarly the Monarch and Royal Family have lost a lot of the respect they had in years past.There are quite a lot of people who would prefer a Republic.There are those who feel that something like "Jerusalem"might be more suitable. Most countries whose people are respectful to the anthem of their country are anthems about the country and its heritage of which people can be proud, hence the respect.. The problem in the UK is I think that people would prefer a different anthem. The best one would be Land of Hope and Glory.I think most would stand for that.

Answer 3

im not sure why that was but we do most of the time where i come from. apparently its because we r free to choose wot we believe in n if we do belive in the monorchy n god then we stand n if we dont then we sit. they shud make a national anthem that we cud all stand for n believe in. x*x

Answer 4

What is the National Anthem?  Trying going down to Kent, they may have a different approach due to being so near to the scrabous foreign ilk of Surrey!  

Respectful to the flag?!  Err hello flag, I respect you! Will you be my friend in the playground.  La la laaaa, brainwashy time, la le laaaa. Aarrf!

Answer 5

it's not cool. that's all.

Answer 6

hey come on , take a look around you ,we have no  unity.

Answer 7

In my country everyone stands for the national anthem.

Its respectful to the flag.

Answer 8

if your refering to the cup final, it should have been an english national anthem (do we even have one ?) as both teams were english. and to be honest its now forced upon us so most people treat it with the disdain it deserves.

Answer 9

We are all lazy.

Plus i dont believe in God or monachy

I believe in anarchy

Answer 10

it's because if you stood, you'd be expecting to sing and no one actually knows the words to god save the queen.

Answer 11

because we just dont care anymore.

sad but true.

Answer 12

I agree with Del's Rep it's not so much about our country more that we don't respect the Monarchy people are fed up scraping by for a living and getting cheating out of pensions after they've worked all the life then read/watch the royals boozing it up in night-clubs frittering their time away on holidays etc and basically not caring about their subjects

Answer 13

I don't believe in God, and I don't believe there should be a Queen, therefore the anthem is meaningless to me.

Answer 14

People in the UK, particularly Britain claim to be many things out of ignorance.I think we`ve got more respect for other peoples` things than we do for ours.We`re a nation of posers so standing isn`t cool.I wouldn`t worry if they actually recognised the anthem.

Answer 15

Most other countries seem to have a National Anthem that means something for their country or about their country.  We SHOULD have Land Of Hope And Glory, but instead we have a durge that anyone with even the most basic grip of music could bang out the melody line of on a piano.  Which would be not SO bad if the words meant anything.  But is it about our country?  No, it's only about the Queen, not the rest of us.  Is it deep and meaningful and poignant?  No, a child could have written it.  In fact if we had a national competition in primary schools to write a new one it would be much better.

There aren't enough royalists in this country for it to have any meaning to any of us.

And if the footballers in the England Squad can't even get around to learning the words to it when they are live on tv around the world, why would anyone else bother to stand to sing it?  Save your energy and stand to cheer the goals instead (if and when England score them).

Also it says a lot doesn't it, that the National Anthem is now reserved just for sporting events when it used to be sung at every trip to the theatre and the cinema?  Americans pledge allegiance to the flag every day, the British mumble about the Queen a bit only when the rest of the world is watching and therefore we think we should.