The Last Last Night of The Proms

From The Guardian

“The traditional flag-waving anthems Rule Britannia and Land of Hope of Glory could be dropped from the Last Night of the Proms because of their perceived links with colonialism and slavery.

The BBC is reportedly considering whether to axe the patriotic staples in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, and the Covid restrictions are seen as an opportunity to make the change.

Reduced orchestra sizes, social distancing and no audiences make the 2020 Proms a very different experience from past years.”

Discuss

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48 Responses to The Last Last Night of The Proms

  1. Guest Who says:

    “And did those feet, in BBC studio time, walk into Studio gobs from guests‘ rooms green?”

       20 likes

  2. Guest Who says:

    “Sling low, sweet Geordie, coming for to snark Boris from home…”

    Cue shock and awe from Toenails.

    Again.

       23 likes

  3. Richard Pinder says:

    Repeat Post, but is relevant to the above:

    This proves that the BBC is Londoncentric, so I think the BBC wants the Proms to reflect the fact that the majority of people in London are not British, as well as the fact that white people in London are mostly traitors loyal to the European Union, and BAME people in London are loyal to other countries in Asia and Africa such as Pakistan and Nigeria.
    The Proms should therefore be transferred to somewhere patriotic like Stoke-on-Trent, Hull, Portsmouth, Boston, Hartlepool, Swansea, Wrexham, Torbay, Grimsby, Walsall, Great Yarmouth, Fraserburgh or somewhere in North Antrim.

       61 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      The upside to the BBC even considering changing “the last night of the Proms “ is to make more decent people aware of what we know the BBC has become – and hasten its ‘ demise .

         63 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I have been to the Last Night several times. I have also reported here how few Bames go to the Proms during the season.
      I was at the Last Night the year we were fighting for the Falklands. I can still remember the pride in the face of a Polish friend as he sang Rule Britannia. It was all about pride in one’s country (or his adopted country) and not the self loathing of the Woke..

         55 likes

    • taffman says:

      Just scrap the Anti British Broadcaster.
      Simples

         28 likes

  4. brexiteerkent says:

    This could be the tipping point that would make many stop paying their licence fee. They can’t jail us all !!

    Ps thanks for the thread Fed 🙂

       46 likes

  5. Up2snuff says:

    The BBC sure know how to win friends and influence people.

    Unfortunately, the small minority may never adapt to to the BBC and the large majority will happily leave, now that there are so many alternatives available, some at much lower cost. BBC, speaking of cost, are you aware that on your very own web-site today you are pointing out that the Lockdown in response to Covid-19 has reduced the incomes of many and cost the jobs of some, already. There may be many more job losses ahead.

    Remember what Mr Micawber said about an excess of expenditure over income?

       28 likes

  6. Richard Pinder says:

    Should the BBC sack all White and Muslim employees because of their perceived links with White colonialism and Muslim slavery.

    Is the word British to be removed from the BBC because of its perceived links with British colonialism and the abolition of slavery.

    But more relevant to the present. Should we deport all Muslims due to their links to modern slavery.

    Richard Pinder says: Yes I think we should deport those linked to present day slavery because those linked to past slavery abolished it. I also think freed slaves should be allowed to return to Africa, rather than suffer arrests for forged notes and knife crime in the inner-cities.

       53 likes

  7. Deborah says:

    Didn’t last 10 minutes of Countryfile. We switched on as Matt was interviewing some East Anglian Laird who seemed so wealthy that making any money from his farming enterprise didn’t seem a consideration. It was all about the environment. His theory seemed to be that people should go vegetarian and only the rich would be able to afford his prize beef. Fences had been taken up with no explanation of how animals were kept in. But unlike Mr D, the farmer’s priority was not to produce food but green issues. I am sure during lockdown most people began to understand how important food production is.
    Countryfile the went to Tom Heap and production of electric cars and we could stand it no longer.
    We switched to The Yorkshire Farmer on Channel 5. We saw real life, a farmer up in the Dales coping with Storm Ciara, Storm Joge, snow and rain. He and his wife also have about 10 lovely children who appreciate their life.

       48 likes

    • Fred Stubber says:

      I can tell you from personal knowledge that Clive and Amanda are great people.

      Fred

         9 likes

    • tarien says:

      It is nine children Deborah! Goodness what a woman and mother she is, and those children all so happy in such an environment, few of the so called luxuries, but masses of love all around them. It is all quite genuine-the care and support the eldest son gives to his younger brother, the very little ones seeing and learning about life and nature-they will all be well rounded kids as they grow up, not enfused with the dastardly, sneaky, duplicitous MSM and the smartphone population. In spending time with my cousins on their farm when a kid was wonderful for my brother and me-feedom to roam, to ride, to feed chickens as well as having to pluck them, keeping the rats out of the barn with an air-rifle, goodness wouldn’t the dogooders we alarmed! Of course in those far off days, we only had TV for a few hours a day, no mobile phones, only a wind up record player which gave all 8 of us a lot of pleasure-few sweets, petrol @ 1s 5p a gallon or something like that. Yes the population around the late forties and early fifties I suspect was less than 45 million-so no feeling of being overcrowded, crowds only at sports matches and or in the pub!.

         14 likes

  8. Nibor says:

    Anything that has the most tenuous link to slavery should be abolished / banned .

    So that’s the end of The Guardian and the BBC pension pot .

       39 likes

  9. ScottishCalvin says:

    Meanwhile in Russia…

       11 likes

  10. Thoughtful says:

    I have watched the last night for years, and I can remember my father telling how left wing the BBC was and how they wanted to destroy the patriotism of the last night when I was just a child decades ago.

    Since then they have eroded away that which remained, and for some asinine reason after 9/11 they actually did away with more or less all the second half of the last night on the ridiculous grounds of it being inappropriate after all the deaths in NYC.

    So now they test the water again to see if they can do away with it.
    Well I have a better idea. Lets do away with the proms altogether, as the BBC won’t be able to afford quite so many orchestras and choirs post privatisation anyway !

       37 likes

    • Deborah says:

      The most traditional of Proms (the Bach, Beethoven and Mozart) with the best of orchestras are impossible for mere plebs to get tickets for because the BBC hands out the tickets to their cronies as though they are sweeties. The BBC leaves the avant-guarde stuff to those who want to pay.

         21 likes

  11. taffman says:

    Great Britain needs a leader who will put Al Beeb ‘back in its box’ .
    Who will Bring back our second anthem ‘Rule Britannia’.
    Who will put Britannia back on our coinage .
    Who will turn back Merkel’s Channel Invaders that continue to come.
    We need a Churchillian leader.
    Where do we get one ?

       45 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Not in todays Tory party, tha’s for sure !

         24 likes

    • tarien says:

      Well I’ll have a go taffman, but my idea of justice may not suit all.

         3 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      I believe that Mr. Farage is still available, but you’d better get the offer in quick before he goes orf to the States as some sort of ambassador…

         8 likes

  12. Doobster78 says:

       34 likes

  13. ScottishCalvin says:

    The BBC would doubtless love people to see thousands of “yoof” waving EU and BLM flags during Land OF Hope And Glory, but that would involve those ‘100% dedicated’ people being bothered enough to
    a) Buy tickets
    b) Travel to South Kensington because Imperialists don’t dare hold the concert at a pub in Brixton.
    c) sit through a couple hours of classical music at the start.
    d) Not get bored and walk out after 5 minutes.
    e) Or get thrown out after trying to live-stream their reaction video on YouTube

    Actually, I’m genuinely surprised the BBC or Channel 4 haven’t done that as a show: have half a dozen kids on a couch watching the concert, rather than the concert itself. All the music drowned out by vapid stream of consciousness from the racially diverse kids, all of whom would turn out to be members of the local student Labour party and all of whom would name occasionally check ‘stunning and brave’ LGBT musicians that would have played it better.

       33 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    I wonder if Kamala hooked them up?

       9 likes

  15. Guest Who says:

    If she appoints Jeremy Corbyn Vice President, Jon Sopel will ascend.

       7 likes

  16. Guest Who says:

    Sooo…. when they are not digging up TDS relatives who say stuff, the bbc offers the younger set, this…

    BBC Newsbeat

    Drew Adams spent three years trying to get transgender students to be allowed to use the bathrooms in their school that matched their gender identity ????????

    ***
    Got to be worth £5 billion, am I right or am I right?

       13 likes

  17. Philip_2 says:

    Annual income of the BBC in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2019, by source.
    I can think of no other industry that costs 75% to deliver 25% in sales. But that is how the BBC operates. And its been that way since at least the 1980s refocus under John Birt. As the BBC income grew under Labour, the BBC expanded its empire. In the year ending March 31, 2019, the BBC saw an income of approximately 4.9 billion British pounds. Of this, 3.69 billion British pounds were attributed to the license fees paid by UK households.
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/284709/bbc-s-annual-income-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-source/
    As it faces competition in Radio and TV it claims is ‘unfair’ and yet it (BBC) pays no Corporation tax at all, unlike its competitors. However this picture is skewed as the BBC is hugely profitable is it owns a large part of FREEVIEW channels where it is able to collect money from adverts.
    The BBC makes a lot of money from recycling old content on FREEVIEW….
    UKTV, DRAMA, DAVE, GOLD, YESTERDAY
    are all 100% BBC owned along with several ‘other’ channels (usually US joint corporations) that also now extends into a ‘desperate’ joint venture as ‘BritBox’ another BBC (and ITV) re-cycle operation which is (despite BBC claims otherwise has a 40% drop out rate). Run by the BBC in large part.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8058449/BritBox-struggles-viewers-month-free-trial.html

    The BBC runs a clever monopoly. It bills its satellite commercial companies for content that is paid for by TV licensing, which is diminishing. The over 75’s will not make much difference when overall audience figures watching the BBC on any channel or radio are in decline.
    BBC’s entire operation rests on sending out threatening letters. Ironically, the one radio station with any increase in listeners is the same one involved in knife crime in London and unlikely to respond to threatening letters. The irony, is lost on the BBC. None are likely to turn up at the Proms, or pay any fees at all, but they will rob you given half a chance and try to sell you some drugs. Manchester drugs gangs have seen a boost to the local economy since the BBC moved there. Knife Crime up as well.
    https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/frightening-rise-knife-crime-manchester-16539059

       18 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    Lewis on board yet?

    Mates’ rates.

       13 likes

    • Kaiser says:

      perhaps the idiots should have stood up for democracy in the UK first

         10 likes

    • G says:

      Taffman,

      If, (and that seems doubtful) DJT loses this November let’s see if we can get him to come over and join Nigel…………….

         2 likes

  19. Nibor says:

    Anything to do with colonialism should be abolished / banned / reduced , supplanted .
    So that’s the English language then .
    BBC , you now have to broadcast in Esperanto to the home audience and all the foreign listeners .
    And your threatograms are invalid unless they are suitably apologetic for being in a language of the oppresser .
    I want mine in the Aztec language .

       19 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    And on that note…

       17 likes

  21. Scroblene says:

    A better version of Rule Britannia comes from ‘The Book of Rugby Songs’…

    ‘Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,
    Five Chinese crackers up your a******e,
    Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang’!

    Very apt, and better sung in a wet market.

       12 likes

  22. Fedup2 says:

    Sad news – the BBC has announced that it is to retain the ‘ patriotic elements ‘ of the last night of the proms .

    Yes – theyre going to keep a foreign conductor- but theyre going to keep the anthem – the South African one i guess .

    Or maybe theyll put the National Anthem to a reggae beat or get one of those ‘ angry ‘ rappers to do their Act …. not for me …. and of course theyll have plenty of EU flags .,,,

       10 likes

    • taffman says:

      Fedup2
      I told you so !
      Here is a copy of my previous post…………..
      \\“Could the BBC Proms drop Rule, Britannia?”
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53888209
      Operative word “Could”.
      The snowflakes at Al Beeb are ‘testing the water’.
      They may not have the bottle to pull it when they see the furore ?
      How many of you readers and posters are snowflakes and are still paying the Telly Tax? I stopped my payments long ago.
      Teach them a lesson – don’t mess with our nation’s heritage.//

         7 likes

  23. Fedup2 says:

    Taffman – £200 million profit over 7 seven ! Years – in broadcasting terms that peanuts per year . Those figures can’t be right ….

       3 likes

    • taffman says:

      Fedup2
      QED.
      What is ‘off shore’?
      What is the super guru Dominic Cummings doing about it?

         3 likes

  24. Lucy Pevensey says:

    Nicely summed up here

       13 likes

  25. fakenewswatcher says:

    Lucy – This short message needs to get to Boris and be followed up with him. We want a straight answer, no blustering or waffling or evasion or sidetracking.
    For it is he and his cabinet who must stop the compelling, and not in 2027 either.

       6 likes

  26. fakenewswatcher says:

    Switched on R4 at 8.30 and there was someone else, telling us what we may and may not do with our statues. David Olusegun? Switched off again.
    About a year ago I predicted that ‘decolonisation’ was going to hit us big time, and the enemy is hard at it. Arch ‘decolonialist’ Afua Hirsh, now has her own programme on bbc tv, although I haven’t watched any. Or is it a radio programme?
    Last night at 11 on R4, two black ‘gentlemen’ from London had a chat about how colonisation had done ‘bad things’ to Africa. I gathered that both before and after colonisation, Africa was a peaceful, progressive, paradise. If only whitee hadn’t interfered. BS. Now they’re here in the UK, envious, ungrateful, resentful, plotting ‘revenge’.
    More statues for us to take down? More of our music to desist from? Maybe they don’t like our museums?
    Free publicity platform from the bbc.
    Time to take down the bbc, an enemy of Britain, more and more so every day that passes. Lozza Fox is so right.
    Perhaps even THE enemy of Britain?

       10 likes

  27. brexiteerkent says:

    So they will play the songs without any lyrics. Time for every indigenous British person to stop paying the licence fee. Were it not for COVID the indigenous British would be standing outside the Albert Hall singing it, maybe they still will. Maybe in every park in the land.

       10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Telegraph opinion piece – Tuesday 25th August 2020 –

      ‘The BBC’s decision to dispense with the words to Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia, and to proceed instead with a half-hearted orchestral arrangement for the Last Night of the Proms, is as extraordinary as it is wrong-headed. The Corporation says it is reinventing the Last Night, respecting the traditions and spirit of the event, while adapting to the circumstances of the time. Most of the public will see this as the broadcaster caving to pressure from far-Left activists who have long loathed this uniquely British tradition.

      The idea that this was a change forced on the BBC by the Covid pandemic does not bear scrutiny. Reports initially suggested that the Covid-compliant orchestra might be too small to perform the songs, or that there would not be enough singers present to give a suitably rousing rendition. Both of these problems, however, would be imminently surmountable if there was a will to do so.

      Instead, this is the BBC using the pretext of Covid to do what many in the Corporation have long been itching to do: remove elements from the Last Night that they deem to be embarrassingly jingoistic and laudatory of imperialism. In an all too typical cultural cringe before those who dislike our country and despair at our history, they appear to have accepted without question the argument that Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia are problematic, and must be stripped of their words to save liberal blushes.

      But these songs are not outrageous relics of an imperial past. Yes, they are products of their time, but they are also much-loved traditions that reflect and inspire a very British form of patriotism. Who, in their right mind, could possibly think that “Britons never shall be slaves” is meant to imply that other people should be? Or that anyone stirred by Land of Hope and Glory wishes to recreate an empire that was dismantled over half a century ago, and which for most Britons is now a distant memory?

      The fact that the BBC clearly does not see this is reflective of how disastrously out of touch it has become from a country that is more than capable of grasping such nuances. The Director-General, Tony Hall, must intervene immediately. If the Last Night of the Proms goes ahead denuded of its most important traditions, it will be an error that many British people will never forgive‘

         12 likes

  28. Lucy Pevensey says:

    So Boris has capitulated AGAIN! The spineless wonder. He can’t even throw a gesture to the majority who voted for him by making the BBC behave on this issue.

       8 likes

    • Lucy Pevensey says:

      I owe Boris an apology. Sorry Boris. He has at least acknowledged the BBC Proms problem.

         4 likes

      • taffman says:

        Who is the “they” that are “trying to restrain me from saying this…..”?

        Lucy Pevensey
        Its all very well but what’s he going to do about it ?
        He has a huge majority in Parliament he has almost absolute power and would have the full weight of the people of Great Britain behind him, but in reality is he just a Liberal in wolf’s clothing ?

           5 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    BBC News has appointed Fergus Walsh as medical editor in recognition of his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fergus was previously medical correspondent at the BBC for 16 years.

    Cripes, they are going to need more real estate.

    Almost as many health copy-pasters as there are in BBC Gay Pidgin.

       5 likes

  30. theisland says:

       4 likes