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The Defund the BBC campaign has hit back at the Beeb over its potential plans to axe the British anthems from the Proms line-up. Defund the BBC tweeted: “If the BBC do go ahead with
stripping the last night of the Proms of patriotic songs #DefundTheBBC will organise a mass defund in retaliation.” Defund the BBC accused the broadcaster of “using every licence fee payer
funded opportunity to signal its disdain for the British people”. Calvin Robinson, who describes himself as a Defund the BBC campaign champion, also tweeted: “Why is the BBC pandering to
hard-left extremists? “Last Night of the Proms is a British institution. It's one of the rare occasions we still expect a little patriotism; That's not a bad thing, our Britishness
is something that unites us! #DontDivideUs #DefundTheBBC” Back in June, protests erupted around the world after African American George Floyd was killed by white police officers in the US.
The protests also sparked a review into the UK’s colonial history. Several statues and monuments were destroyed in wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Slave trader Edward Colston’s
statue was removed and thrown into the harbour in Bristol by protesters. Robert Milligan’s statue was taken down by London authorities and it was announced a review of all the monuments in
the capital will be issued. Sir Winston Churchill’s statue in Whitehall was also vandalised and the words "was a racist" was dubbed on the monument. READ MORE: MEGHAN AND HARRY ARE
MAKING ONE CRUCIAL ISSUE THEIR MAIN FOCUS Now, British anthems such as Rule Britannia and Land of Hope of Glory could also be axed from the annual Last Night of the Proms following the
ongoing movement. The BBC is considering dropping the songs amid fears of criticism due to their links to colonialism and slavery, the Times reported. Dalia Stasevska, who is conducting the
event on September 12, said a “ceremony without an audience is the perfect moment to bring change”. Due the coronavirus outbreak, this years event, which marks the 125th, will be performed
in front of an empty Royal Albert Hall. As the orchestra is expected to be much smaller due to social distancing measures, Rule, Britannia is unlikely to be able to be performed. Jan
Younghusband, head of BBC music TV commissioning, said: “We have a lot of problems about how many instruments we can have. “It is hard to know whether it is physically possible to do [Rule,
Britannia]. “Some of the traditional tunes, like Jerusalem, are easier to perform… We also don’t know if we’ll be in a worse situation in two weeks’ time.” Rule, Britannia originates from a
poem by James Thomson and became symbolic with the British Empire and Navy in 1745. The song has been widely criticised for lines such as “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”,
hinting at the nation’s involvement in the slave trade. Last month, BBC columnist Richard Morrison called for the songs to be axed from the set-list calling them “crudely jingoistic”. He
urged, in the BBC Music Magazine, for organisers to replace the “toe-curling embarrassing anachronistic farrago of nationalistic songs”. BBC Proms director David Pickard said: “These are
challenging times for our nation and the rest of the world, but they show that we need music and the creative industries more than ever. “This year it is not going to be the Proms as we know
them, but the Proms as we need them. “We will provide a stimulating and enriching musical summer for both loyal Proms audiences and people discovering the riches we have to offer for the
first time.”