HOW unfair of Fred McDermid to blame Scotland's defeat at Murrayfield on that awful Flower of Scotland when the Auld Enemy can beat us hollow even after mouthing most unenthusiastically the lacklustre anthem of the old Union (May 28). He should reflect on what they might do to us if they were allowed to sing their own magnificent anthem, Blake's Jerusalem.

What a pity our own national poet could not come up with anything comparable. The really dreadful Scots Wha Hae must have been penned on one of Rabbie's off days. Surely Flower of Scotland is a considerable advance on gory beds and drained veins?

I disagree with Mr McDermid that it is anti-English, it is merely anti-Edward. And what about the conciliatory second verse? ''Those days are gone now and in the past they must remain'' - a wise sentiment missing from most other national anthems.

I would also contest the view that Scotland's rugby anthem conveys nothing to teams from Italy and Samoa. Wasn't Garibaldi, the great Italian patriot, an admirer of William Wallace, erecting a statue to his memory?

As for Samoa, the home and final resting place of Robert Louis Stevenson, its most famous resident, I would be very surprised if the inhabitants were uninterested in the colourful but often turbulent history of that country which inspired Kidnapped and Catriona.

Flower of Scotland, in the best tradition of Freudian analysis, confronts the past, comes to terms with it, and looks confidently forward to the future. It is an anthem to be proud of and Fred McDermid should think again before rejecting it as the Scottish national anthem at Murrayfield and elsewhere.

Ethel S Goodall,

97 Queensborough Gardens,

Glasgow.

June 1.