Is it just my imagination, or have the wokerati at the Beeb finally institutionalised The Last Night of The Proms? We have had this constant battle over at least two decades, with, for example, the BBC SO conductor Leonard Slatkin removing Rule Britannia as a separate piece and shoving it into the bowels of The Sea Shanty medley. Then, in 2020, the BBC ruled that the words to Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory would not be sung - but played with no words - on Covid grounds!!! Then, between 2011 and 2026, the actual standing promenade space was reduced by some 30%. The BBC has not admitted shrinking the Arena to diminish the patriotic spectacle. But the change produces precisely that effect and fits a long history of attempts to tame the Last Night’s exuberant nationalism.
The BBC has repeatedly expressed discomfort with the Last Night’s patriotic character; it has previously removed or diluted traditional songs, broadened the ceremony’s national framing and now enlarged the stage at the expense of the densely packed, flag-waving Arena—the part of the occasion that most visibly escapes BBC editorial control. You won’t find an internal memo saying “Six ideas to drain the patriotism from this event”, but whatever the BBC says - if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks, it’s probably a duck.
The clue, incidentally, was the very visible props department dressing of the rostrum,
