Singing the National Anthem

I never join in public singing. That is partly because I can't sing in tune, but also because I don't like having words put into my mouth. If I'm to say something, or if I could sing, sing it, I want to choose the words myself, rather than be a passive channel for other people's thoughts, or lack of thought.

The words of the National Anthem are particularly absurd. The very first word invokes a being that doesn't exist, and some of the later verses are so embarrassing that even keen singers no longer sing them.

I have grave doubts about the opinions and intellectual powers of present Leader of the Opposition, but that does not justify wholesale criticism of everything he says and does. I find some of his eccentricities quite endearing.

At the service commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain he had made one big concession to convention by wearing a tie. In the photograph I saw he looked charmingly owlish. He was the only person in the photograph who looked as if he were thinking about anything.