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The French sing the Marseillaise, the British chant God Save the Queen. But Spain, home to one of Europe's oldest national anthems, has never had an official verse to go with the tune.
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Now Spain's opposition leader Mariano Rajoy is presenting an initiative in parliament to create a commission to write words for the anthem. The proposal has some enthusiastic support, but Spain is a country with strong separatist feelings in regions like the Basque country and Catalonia. Many Spaniards think it is going to be very difficult to find words that satisfy everyone. Mr Rajoy says two or three months should be enough for a parliamentary commission to produce a verse for the national hymn. If that happens, Foreign Affairs Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos says he will sing the new words with passion.
So is God Save the Queen a little outdated, do we need some new verses which reflect our changing political society?
Poet Murray Lachlan Young has suggested the following new lyrics to the tune of God Save The Queen:
On this Atlantic rock
We do complain a lot
And like a drink
La, la, la, la, la -
White van man industry
Blanket CCTV
Childhood obesity
But it aint all bad
National assemblies
Cardiff and Wembley
And Elton John (Shirley Bassy, Daniel O’Donnell, and Lu Lu)
La, la, la, la, la -
Mortgaged home ownership
SNP and UKIP
Plus our weekly Tesco shopping trip
And the knowledge that there’s (real and genuine) progress (It’s getting better all the time) in Iraq
Listen to the inteview with Poet Murray Lachlan Young, here.
E-mail us your suggestions with alternative lyrics to the national anthem.
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