English oak and British valor.
England for ever: the land we live in.
England, the queen of the isles and the queen of the main.
May old England’s sons, the Americans, never forget their mother.
The Plantster’s Vision
Sir John Betjeman
Cut down that timber! Bells, too many and strong,
Pouring their music through the branches bare,
From moon-white church towers down the windy air
Have pealed the centuries out with Evensong.
Remove those cottages, a huddled throng!
Too many babies have been born in there,
Too many coffins, bumping down the stair,
Carried the old their garden paths along.
I have a Vision of the Future, chum,
The workers’ flats in fields of soya beans
Tower up like silver pencils, score on score:
And Surging Millions hear the Challenge come
From microphones in communal canteens
“No Right! No Wrong! All’s perfect, evermore!”
The UK is as much an ally as Japan or Israel (from a secular standpoint for Israel).
England is not my “mother.” At best she is a dowdy old Professor, whose lessons in government and law are well remembered, but whose other traits (imperialism, snobbery, sarcasm, bigotry) are best ignored.