AN English Archbishop is calling for Scottish and Welsh fans at international sports games to sing God Save the Queen with English fans.
Writing in the Telegraph the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, suggested that people watching the Scotland vs England match during the Euro 2020 tournament earlier this year "faced a conundrum" in what anthem to sing.
Scots proudly sang Flower of Scotland during that match - and all over international sporting events - because it's the national anthem of Scotland.
England traditionally sings God Save the Queen as their own national anthem (despite it officially being the anthem of the UK as a whole), so it's odd to suggest that Scottish fans would be happy singing with their opponents at any football, rugby or other international sporting events against England.
READ MORE: A progressive England could help topple Westminster's elite – and the Union
While England does not have its own official individual anthem, there have been efforts in the past to make it the Christian hymn Jerusalem, which does at least refer to the "green and pleasant land" of England.
Cottrell, the second most senior bishop in the Church of England, said that whenever the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play England, they could "belt out" their individual nation's anthems and then sing God Save the Queen together.
The Archbishop also discussed the idea of "Englishness" more generally as when devolution happened in Scotland and Wales, Westminster "started to feel like the English Government" and London, with its own mayor, wealth and influence felt like a separate nation, adding that "even in England, it was London and the rest".
Brexit, Cottrell says, was something that most people voted for on identity rather than economics.
He's correct in a way, as a majority of Scots voted to maintain their European identity by voting against the damaging effects of leaving the EU, they just so happened to be economic ...
But many English people felt "left behind by metropolitan elites in London and the South East, and by devolved governments and strengthened regional identities in Scotland and Wales," Cottrell added.
READ MORE: Why I'm supporting England at Euro 2020 - and why that's good for independence
He argues that this is more about the loss of British identity for English people outside of the elites with many wanting to know "what has happened to their country" with questions never really being addressed.
Calling for a "more developed and strengthened regional government within England", Cottrell says that Westminster should just hold onto the "big issues" to do with shared sovereignty with expanded devolution in England empowering "regions to serve their own localities better".
Good luck convincing Boris Johnson and his Tory government that giving away power is ever going to be a good idea for them.
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