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 One lawmaker has challenged the tradition of playing "God Save the
Queen" before England teams take to the football or rugby fields,
saying the anthem is about Britain, which includes Scotland and
Wales, and not specifically about England.
His bill, which legislators backed introducing to parliament but
which may not make it all the way to becoming law, opened the
floodgates to a range of suggestions of what best represents
England, from traditional patriotic songs such as "Land of Hope and
Glory," to the theme tune of long-running BBC radio drama "The
Archers."
For the driver of a small white van circling around outside
parliament on Wednesday, Jerusalem, which is based on a poem by
William Blake, was the obvious choice, as it played repeatedly from
loudspeakers attached to the van roof before the vote.
 "It has often seemed incongruous to me that when England has played
against other home nations on the football or rugby field, that
while the Welsh or Scots sing an anthem that reflects their nation's
identity, England should sing about Britain," said Toby Perkins, an
opposition Labour lawmaker for Chesterfield in northern England, who
introduced the idea.
"It reflects the sense that we see Britain and England as synonymous
and this not only denies us English an opportunity to celebrate the
nation that is being represented but is also a cause for resentment
among other countries within the British isles who feel that England
have requisitioned the British song."
Perkins's proposed legislation would require the government to hold
a public consultation to decide the anthem.
Jerusalem, sung at the start of many English cricket games, has been
used by the English Team at the Commonwealth Games since 2010 after
coming top in a public vote.
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Perkins said "I Vow to Thee, My Country" and "There will always be
an England" were among other songs which had been suggested, as had
the possibility of a newly commissioned song.
"We should welcome the opportunity to reestablish the idea that the
United Kingdom is a union of four separate nations with their own
identities," he said.
But with a resurgence in Scottish nationalism since a failed
independence bid in 2014, increasing powers for the Scottish
parliament and the British parliament sitting for the first time on
Tuesday under new rules giving English lawmakers a veto over issues
only applying to England, some fear an English anthem is another
step towards the disintegration of the United Kingdom.
"These expressions of the individual nationalism are a disuniting
factor in our country, in a country that we ought to make more
united," said Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, who represents
a constituency in southwest England.
"What greater pleasure can there be for a true born English man or
true born English woman to listen to our own national anthem, a
national anthem for our whole country, for our whole United Kingdom
of which England is but a part."
(Editing by Stephen Addison)
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