WATCHING our Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on TV, I felt really proud to be British.

We have something in this country which is the envy of the world – our monarchy – and long may it continue.

What a sight, all those thousands of Union Jacks being waved. I say union, because I was brought up to call it that, not the Union Flag.

The Union Flag is that nondescript blue rag with a circle of yellow stars in the middle and is meaningless to me and, I suspect, the majority of the nation.

It signifies a European Union which is rapidly falling apart, more to the point the destruction of the single currency which would never work in the long-term.

Germany tried to rule Europe by aggression in the last century and failed. Now it seems with Angela Merkel as their leader they are going to conquer by stealth.

I’m beginning to wonder if she pulls the strings of those puppets in Brussels.

MICHAEL CLARKE Lewell Avenue Old Marston Oxford