It’s time to re-evaluate our affection for the royal family

After the demise of Her Majesty, would it not be the perfect time for Britain to become a true democracy by giving the nation the right to choose its own head of state? What with the Prince Andrew affair, Prince Harry walking away from the monarchy, an adulterous future king now immersed in a “cash for honours” scandal, plus the cost of royalty assessed to be somewhere over £340m a year, has not the time come to recognise that the vast panoply of royalty no longer has a place in 2022 Britain?

So, let us give the Queen her due. Let us celebrate her 70 years on the throne. But after she has passed, let us rid ourselves of monarchs, dukedoms, earldoms, barons, and all the bowing, curtsying and forelock tugging. Let us be a true one-class democratic nation with a head of state chosen by the people.

David Lee

Kingston upon Thames

British tax payers surely have the right to know whether their taxes are being used to dig out the Queen’s favourite son. For Buckingham Palace to refuse to comment is unacceptable.

Ian McMillan

Address supplied

Will Prince Andrew’s imminent charitable donation be eligible for Gift Aid tax relief (at public expense)?

John Driver

Herefordshire

Does the money paid by Prince Andrew constitute the most expensive pizza ever?

Graham Jarvis

Leeds

Nadine White’s analysis of government intervention to prevent teachers influencing pupils with political bias notes that “pupils should not be presented with views that oppose fundamental societal values, such as views denigrating freedom of speech or the democratic process” (News, 16 February).  This is concurrent with trying to push through Priti Patel’s police and crime bill which aims to restrict people’s right to protest by allowing police to crack down on the grounds of “noise” – an amendment which was added after the bill passed in the House of Commons, bypassing scrutiny by MPs (a central part of the parliamentary process by which democratically elected representatives can act on their constituents’ wishes).

Presumably we are expected not to notice the hypocrisy, even as a child who has missed two birthday parties (because the prime minister said they weren’t allowed) is not expected to notice the hypocrisy of the same prime minister being investigated by police for attending six parties in the same time period.

Katharine Powell

Neston

Does Nadhim Zahawi really want to impose the standards of parliament on our schools? The prime minister clearly and openly lies but must not be accused of such. The whip system demands loyalty and removes freedom. Many times, shouting prevents a speaker being heard. If any of that behaviour occurred in our schools, then there should be interference from a secretary of state.

As things are, I would feel privileged to stand with our teachers and I trust them to develop our children to speak honestly, based on facts, and to act with respect and kindness.

Robert Murray

Nottingham

We may want to consider our prime minister’s regard for Margaret Thatcher, whose poll ratings were in the doldrums before the Falklands War. After a successful outcome for the UK, her popularity skyrocketed. Lets hope Boris Johnson is not considering something similar to save his own skin.

Alan Hutchinson

Address supplied

May I humbly suggest that Hussein Kesvani (‘Clickbait, conspiracy theories and hate speech: Facebook has become a hellscape – and there’s no way out,’ 16 February) pops into his local M&S and purchases a bright and colourful birthday card, writes a greeting in one of them, addresses the envelope, attaches a first or second class stamp and sends through Royal Mail to the recipient’s known address.

A bargain in time, energy and security! The response will likely be 100 times more positive than a lost Facebook post behind half a dozen firewalls and passwords. Time for some human interaction, eh?

John Evans

West Sussex

As a recently retired GP I am horrified to watch the unfolding and completely predictable workforce and waiting list crisis within the NHS.

At the start of the pandemic there were approximately 4.5 million people on NHS waiting lists; there are apparently now over 6 million. One of the biggest obstacles to reducing this is the chronic understaffing of the NHS. 

The government’s attempts to approach this with funding fanfares, targets and gimmicky websites are not enough. For example, the target to recruit 5,000 new GPs has had to be quietly abandoned, and the government figures on GP numbers are regularly massaged to include trainees. Neither is it enough to announce extra funding, as if this alone will solve the problem. Without extra staff the NHS is struggling just to meet day-to-day demand.

Ministers reply to this with tales of increasing numbers of doctors/nurses etc in training. However, these numbers are meaningless unless we know how many are retiring or moving abroad etc, and how the numbers relate to an increasing population. Relying on filling a skills gap by recruiting from other countries is also neither desirable nor sustainable in the long term.

A good start would be to develop a proper workforce strategy for the NHS and social care based on regular independent workforce audits, as proposed by Jeremy Hunt in an amendment to the health and social care bill which was inexplicably defeated in the Commons.

Dr Mike Betterton

Skelton