Why do the UK Labour party mumble their song?

[oggbashan]

At the end of the UK Labour Party's Conferences, the assembled delegates sing their anthem: The Red Flag.

But after the first verse and chorus, they al start mumbling. Why?

Because apart from being wholly inappropriate to modern Labour, the song is very, very long:

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look 'round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

 

[Champakian]

Guiness?

 

[CornusKousa]

IDK ogg, you're the hammer and sickle fan boy, why don't you tell us??

 

[oggbashan]

IDK ogg, you're the hammer and sickle fan boy, why don't you tell us??

!. I'm not and never have been hammer and sickle. Ask Hobbit. He thinks I'm so right wing I should be falling off a cliff.

2. They are embarrassed by the words which don't fit their modern version of the Labour Party.

3 They sing it once a year and can't remember it all.

 

[oggbashan]

Guiness?

They'd never drink Guinness. They think the rich Guinness family are bloated capitalists and exploiters of the poor.

They would apply this verse to Guinness:

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

 

[Champakian]

I'll wager that they are not the Temperance Society.

 

[DeYaKen]

At the end of the UK Labour Party's Conferences, the assembled delegates sing their anthem: The Red Flag.

But after the first verse and chorus, they al start mumbling. Why?

Because apart from being wholly inappropriate to modern Labour, the song is very, very long:

.

I would say that the reason is that most don't know any more than the first verse. That puts it on a par with the National Anthem. Most of the population don't know there is more than one verse.

 

[Liar]

They have their own? I thought all labour movement parties belted out The Internationale.

 

[Sean]

I know all the words. And am proud to sing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKYQ4GOqmk