The outrage machine was in full cry over the weekend, thanks to reports that the BBC is considering axing the songs Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia from the Last Night of the Proms.
The argument has been raging since July, when BBC Young Musician of the Year judge Richard Morrison used his BBC Music magazine column to call for the end of the “toe-curling, embarrassing, anachronistic farrago of nationalistic songs” in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.
From one perspective, the idea that we could better accommodate black and minority ethnic Britons in the Proms experience by dialling down the patriotism seems itself a touch racist, assuming as it does that only white British-born citizens are capable of patriotic feeling. It’s hardly in keeping with the idea that citizenship of modern Britain is capacious enough to welcome all comers.
This, though, assumes that patriotism is a positive value. And the bien-pensant view is that patriotism itself is now outdated, an understanding that sets Proms organisers increasingly at odds with Proms attendees.
The petit-bourgeois ticket-buyers who flock from the shires to enjoy Proms events have for some time now been drifting apart from the cosmopolitan arts professionals who deliver those events. The former remains attached to symbols of British national identity; the latter, not so much.
Hitherto the two groups have been yoked together by the necessity to sell tickets. It’s not wise to outrage paying customers by confiscating their favourite singalong moments. But this year’s Proms will have no audience, thanks to the pandemic. So absent the discipline of ticket sales, we can hardly blame the high-minded mavens of the music scene for wanting to shed all cultural traces of a group whose values they do not share.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe