On My Soap Box: A rant on UK Politics, Corbyn not singing the national anthem, Cameron's cold war style twitter outburst and on the right to be different.

''The left will never really love this country'' a columnist Philip Collins announced in an online article on September the 18th. He tried to use Jeremy Corbyn not singing the national anthem at the Battle of Britain commemoration in St Paul’s cathedral as proof that Corbyn and by extension the entire labour party are not fond of Britain itself and therefore in short should not rule us.

To further quote the columnist mentioned above ''Corbyn’s petulant refusal to sing the national anthem tells you all you need to know about his true sympathies'' Now although this was said as an attack on Corbyn I believe that it can be taken in many different ways, the man choices to take what he feels he see's or even what he feels he needs in order to write an article from Corbyn's silence. People now days unfortunately seem to buy certain papers or get there news from certain places based on a system of what will best regurgitate there own feelings back at them. So to simplify this idea if you are right wing you are more likely to buy a right wing paper and if your left wing your more likely to buy a left wing paper and then either way you will be able to pat yourself firmly on the back for sharing an opinion being put out by a team of dedicated news people. What I am here to say though is that in doing either of the above you are doing yourself a great disservice. If you only get your news and information from one source then you are taking it in a biased form and most often you are getting only a tiny slice of the reality behind the story. If you really want to know what is happening you should look to multiple sources and read though the bias and hyperbole. 

I love my country but if I for example was to sing the national anthem I would be in an out of tune musical fashion asking a God I do not believe exists to save a Queen I do not believe in and this Ladies and Gentlemen would make me a hypocrite. Yet that aside I too respect the actions and sacrifices made by those involved on behalf of this country in the Battle of Britain, you could argue that if this is true and there is a celebration held to honour them then I should sing any tune I am asked from the frog song, to puff the magic dragon to the national anthem with a smile on my face for there sake and try my hardest to believe in every single word to honour them.  Yet is it not this shut up and do as you are told attitude the very sort of thing they were fighting against? Call me a little internet upstart shit if you like but these brave souls gave everything so that I could have the freedom to be who and what I want to be, free from the tyranny of evil men. 

I also do not believe anyone has the right to tell you how to mourn or how to show respect. Maybe instead of singing he stood there and thought about those brave departed people who had lost there lives in that battle, would that not also be a valid way of honouring there memory. When someone dies and the best way to grieve is mentioned the universal answer is that it is a path which is different for different people and all you can do is what helps you face it, what helps you deal with it, so why does that not apply here? Corbyn came he stood in silence and he did not interrupt anyone else how do we know his feelings and thoughts on the matter were any less respectful or honourable than the person who sang the loudest? 

Maybe it is time that our National anthem was changed to reflect who we are, where we have been and where we are headed as a people. Now I am not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to our past, sure Britain has done and been involved in things it shouldn't be, for example the crusades where we tried to push our religion on others, or events such as when we shot at and sank a retreating vessel but there are many things our land and our people have accomplished that would be worthy of song. 

What about God and our Anthem? Well David Cameron has tried to call us a Christian country but I don't think this is really the case anymore, sure a lot of our law has a basis in things such as the ten commandments but really we are a melting pot of cultures and religions, According to the census held around 2001 72% of people in England and Wales regarded themselves as Christian with 65% in Scotland saying the same. Even then though there were also other religions including Muslims and there were those who said they were not religious in fact there was nearly eight million of those, there were even 390,000 self-proclaimed Jedi. This was about 14 years ago though and times they be a changing. As a youngster I was sent to a Christian school and I would have been scared to say I was anything but a Christian, whole hoards of us would declare ourselves to be so and would hide our doubts in silence scared that our families would love us less or that our community would be un-accepting. The last figures collected in 2011 would indicate that 59% of people view themselves Christian with 41% either believing in another religion or none at all, that means the current national anthem is forcing these 41% to sing out for a God they do not believe in. A politician is supposed to represent the people, there are lots of different people so there is room for lots of different politicians with different thoughts and feelings, lay them out there for us, let them say what they want to say and the votes will tell the tale at the end of the day.

This leads me to the recent Twitter post and connected videos and statements from our current PM and all I can say is for shame on you David Cameron trying to scare monger and paint a rival as a threat to the country. A politician is a voice for the people a voice people can agree or disagree with and the people show there feelings through there words, through there actions but most importantly through there votes that is the very nature of the political system we live in. For you to try to use fear mongering to try to silence a competitor is a cowards move, do what was done in the Battle of Britain, fight fare and true with honour, use your words to paint a picture of why you are a better representative of the people of why the ideas and policy's you endorse are the right ones to lead us to a better tomorrow and drop the cold war style cloak and dagger act.