Sports Letter: Anthem spat

Sir: Campbell Diamid (Sports Letters, 25 November) accuses Glenn Moore of a "typically anglocentric view" of the British national anthem, but a "typically Celtic view" is probably not the most articulate response. The arguments raised are spurious. The lyrics asking for divine assistance in trying "the rebellious Scots to crush" are clearly anachronistic and offensive, but these words are not part of the official anthem; and is he seriously suggesting that the Jacobite rebellion is uppermost in the minds of 40,000-plus Scottish football fans?

As for the claim that the English have appropriated the anthem: "God Save The Queen" used to be sung by both the English and Scots at such matches, so how the adoption of (the excellent) "Flower of Scotland" amounts to appropriation by the English defies logic.

CHRIS WOOD

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