I APPLAUD Anne Filer in her call for greater use of the National Anthem.

It used to be the custom for the anthem to be played at the start of first concert of BSO’s Winter Season and I cannot see how this might cause offence as reportedly suggested by the Orchestra’s representative.

More likely it was abandoned just because it was a typically British custom.

Although the players in our great orchestra still wear evening dress with white ties – all credit to them – sadly so many of the conductors who take to the rostrum at the Lighthouse these days appear in different varieties of “casual” rather than in formal attire.

Is this pandering to fashion or the gradual loss of another tradition?

Adrian Scott, Bournemouth