Asking us to pledge allegiance while watching the coronation is out of touch

I hear with interest that we are being invited to pledge allegiance to the king on Saturday. Out loud.

Am I the only person completely baffled by this?

Not to mention the hundreds of millions being spent on the day itself. We are constantly being told by the government that there is simply no money available to allow us to live a dignified life. The NHS is crumbling. Schools are seriously underfunded. Children have been plunged into poverty, the older generation are too afraid to put on the heating, and no, we can’t possibly afford to make sure that children have at least one hot meal a day while at school.

How can this be right? If Charles wants to be respected as a king who understands his subjects, then why is he so utterly tone deaf when it comes to the abject misery of the lives of so many people in the UK? He says he can’t bear a leaky pen. Parents can’t bear their children being hungry and cold. Working people can’t bear the size of the bills, rent and mortgage costs. He simply has no idea.

Karen Brittain

York

So Charles wants all the people watching his coronation at home to pay homage to him en masse at his coronation. Sorry, which century are we living in?

Geoff Forward

Stirling

I read Sean O’Grady’s recent column with interest and amazement that Kemi Badenoch presumably had to steel herself, to announce the “tragic” news that there would be no “bonfire” of EU regulations. Is there anyone in this country still the slightest bit interested in such a thing?

Presumably the government has woken up, smelt their flat whites and appreciated that a gung ho, intractable Brexit is no longer high on the public’s wish list. Clearly we have lost interest in the endless, pointless reinventions of what was a daft strategy in the first place.

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk

Being nearly 80 I have had an e-mail and then a letter inviting me to get the latest Covid vaccination.  However, when I try to get one I can only conclude that the government doesn’t actually want me to.

I checked walk-in centres and the nearest is more than 100 miles away.  When I try to book an appointment the nearest is nearly 15 miles, and the soonest appointment is 4 weeks away by which time I hope to be on holiday. They have none available beyond that time.

The correspondence emphasises how important it is, but if they really believe this why don’t they make it easier to get one?

PJ Johnston

Hexham

There is another unintended consequence of the loss of our hospitality sector and its replacement with fewer, more expensive restaurants and bars.

The culture of the UK will suffer greatly from ever more expensive convening and gathering places, where we can come together, see other people and generally be a more connected society. The more we eat and drink in our homes, tethered to the constant feed of entertainment from our devices the less social we become.

A culture that is then ripe to be fed misinformation and to become ever more insular and inner directed. We lose something more than just an industry: we lose each other.

Breaking bread with other people about should be something we fight hard not to lose.

Laura Dawson

Harpenden