WHAT a joy to see the people of the North-East celebrate the BBC's Last Night of the Proms in Centre Square, Middlesbrough, last Saturday.

If only their patriotic fervour was shared by our hopeless politicians.

Let's remind ourselves of these famous words, as Gordon Brown is about to consign our freedom to the dustbin of history: "The nations not so blest as thee, Shall in their turns to tyrants fall; While thou shalt flourish great and free, The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves."

David Lacey, Durham.