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Ben Fogle's campaign to have the nation sing 'Happy Birthday' to the Queen has backfired

Ben Fogle's campaign to have the nation sing 'Happy Birthday' to the Queen has backfired

A campaign has been launched by the television personality Ben Fogle, to get everyone in the UK to sing 'Happy Birthday' for the Queen.

In a similar vein to the weekly rounds of applause that have been seen for NHS staff and care workers from people's homes on Thursday evenings, Fogle asked for the Queen's birthday on 21 April to sing Happy Birthday to Her Majesty at 9am to bring "good cheer" to not just the Queen, but for the whole nation.

However, Fogle's idea, which is obviously well-meaning and has nothing but good intentions, has not quite resonated with everyone, many of whom have pointed out that if we start doing this then we'll end up doing all sorts of things to celebrate others.

We're yet to find anyone who thinks that this would be a good idea but some did joke Fogle had "ruined the surprise".

This is similar to the campaign to have the nation clap for Boris Johnson while he was recovering from Covid-19 in intensive care which was met with similar scepticism. Ultimately, some people did applaud the prime minister during his recovery period but wasn't a widely participated in as the "clap for carers" applause. We're sure that some people will sing happy birthday to the Queen but, judging by this backlash, it's unlikely that it will be a resounding success.

Three hours after this article was published, Fogle addressed the response to his tweet, saying singing to the Queen was his daughter's idea and that some of the replies had been "mean spirited".

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