I THINK I have the right to reply to Diane Rhodes’s somewhat offensive letter you just published under “Freedom to be wrong”. It seems she did not read my letter before starting her diatribe.

The main point of that letter was to challenge the previous writer’s statement that only one third of the population supported the monarchy and another third were republicans.

Regarding singing the national anthem, she misunderstood what I wrote. It is my wife and I who have been singing it for 70 years, mostly at rather more official occasions than sporting events. I am well aware of its age and origin.

As for the lyrics, I accept there are six verses, though I have never met anyone who has sung more than four.

However verse six, referring to the Scots, is now normally omitted as it was written to back an attempt to put down a Scottish uprising The German National Anthem is known under the name ‘Lied der Deutschen’, or sometimes ‘Deutschlandlied’.

It is however best known by the opening stanza and refrain with the words “Deutschland uber Alles”, although for post-war politically correct reasons, since 1952, the third stanza is used on all official occasions . That is “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” which translates as ‘Unity and justice and freedom’ .

I never proposed any alternatives to the national anthem as I accept the present one, be it somewhat boring in melody, but merely put forward some possible alternatives for the previous writer.

And I would never propose “Rule Britannia” though in our post-Brexit world, “Land of Hope and Glory” might be thought appropriate.

Diane Rhodes states she is a royalist and also an atheist.

The latter we must respect, but I still wish to believe that I live in a Christian country, where the monarch is head of the Protestant Church, and I have the pleasure of looking from my house at a rather wonderful cathedral.

PETER BELLAN

St Davids