Letter: God save us all

Sir: Win McCurrach, in calling for a new national anthem (Letters, 3 August), is wrong in thinking that the present anthem is a song to the monarch. It is a prayer to God, for the monarch and, as the monarch is head of the state in which we live, for all of us. In time of war, if the king or queen were "victorious", then we all would be, his or her enemies being our enemies. And what can possibly be wrong with praying that the head of state should "defend our laws", and that God should "save us all", unless of course your correspondent is an anarchist and atheist?

As for the anthem being 250 years old and bearing no relation to modern times, how relevant does Mrs McCurrach think her new anthem would be if it were to last, as she puts it, "for the next thousand years"? Can she seriously imagine that the French would give up the "Marseillaise", even though it recalls the worst excesses of a revolution which took place 210 years ago?

DONALD FOREMAN

London E4