Sir - So now we have it - our first "gay" marriage, both the adjective and institution having been hijacked.

"Gay", originally a simple everyday word meaning "light-heartedness" has now taken on its unfortunate, modern connotation. And marriage, venerated since time immemorial as an institution between a man and a woman, is now open to all, under the pretext of "equality".

But what sort of mind is it that can equate proper sexual relationships between married men and women with homosexual acts? The two sexes are designed by nature to be complementary - their physiology perhaps provides a slight clue here?

Thanks to a vociferous campaign, the left-wingers have finally got what they want: many, including most of the impressionable young, browbeaten and brainwashed into accepting the new orthodoxy; others questioning whether their traditional view was, after all, wrong. It was not. The wisdom of the ages (and just plain common sense) has been overturned. What a terrible indictment of modern Britain.

Mr Alan Winwood

Kempsey