Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Well versed

I TURNED to a former public orator at Oxford University, Godfrey Bond, to see if the Latin signature of Save Radio 4 Long Wave, the polite group of protesters who oppose the switch to FM, had any classical connections. They had ended their thank-you letters to the media and the police with the phrase Ubi longae perveniunt undae, ibi adsummus.

Mr Bond said it read well but as verse did not scan. He was rather shocked by the misspelling - the double 'm' in adsumus. He offered the following to give the phrase a respectable metre: Ubi longae perveniunt undae, nos adsumus (where the long waves travel, we will be there).