I NOTE that the English are continuing to use God Save The Queen, which is Scottish Jacobite in origin, as their so-called national anthem at rugby union Internationals. God Save The Queen is the Royal Anthem of the United Kingdom and of other nations which have our Queen as head of state. Accordingly, to say the least, it is entirely inappropriate for any nation to use it as its national anthem on international occasions when other nations entitled to use it are specifically represented and using their own national anthem or equivalent.

The Private Member’s Bill to designate a specific English national anthem, currently going through the House of Commons, is to be welcomed (MP: England needs its own national anthem”, the Herald, January 14). However, one would hope that Blake’s Jerusalem does not come to be designated as England’s official national anthem as it is based on a legend dating some 500 years before any Anglo-Saxon (English) settlement in the Celtic (British) Isles.

As for an official Scottish national anthem, can we please have some appropriate words to the tune Highland Cathedral rather than a dirge such as Flower of Scotland.

Dr Alexander S Waugh,

1 Pantoch Gardens, Banchory.