Not every granny in Britain is emphatically mourning the Queen

I went to my street party for the silver jubilee and prior to that appeared on an amusing front page in The Leamington Courier after receiving a letter from Queen Elizabeth II (I have the letter still). However, I’ve never been more convinced that castles and unearned privilege and vast quantities of public money sloshed out to the already vastly wealthy – plus silly titles and tatty dressing up costumes – belong back then with the approval of a seven-year-old.

As a grandmother of three young children who will never breathe air as clean as I enjoyed as a child in the 1960s/70s; who will not get the free university education I received (twice) – and who may never own a home or know real security – I see absolutely zero reason to celebrate the accession of this king. Despite what the focus groups and opinion polls tell you, not every granny in Britain is overdoing it on the melodrama for someone none of us really knew – even those of us who once received royal mail...

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

open image in gallery

The answer to the question posed is simple. I can’t.

Gavin Argent

Address supplied

I don’t normally use the Oxford comma, and I am not usually pedantic enough to care about it. But Therese Coffey, our pompous, opinionated and ill-directed health secretary, wishes to deny it to the NHS. She should note that the two foremost authorities on the English language, Sir Ernest Gowers and Henry Fowler, both consider the Oxford comma to be an acceptable option of usage.

However, they do both criticise the use of superfluous accents, such as those Ms Coffey sports in her Christian name, as unnecessary French affectation, not worthy of the King’s English. I wonder if they are covered by Ms Coffey’s ridiculous, patronising, and bizarre directive? I have used two commas in the foregoing, and do you know what? It hasn’t affected the efficient delivery of health care in any way, shape (wait for it....), or form.

Tim Sidaway

Abbots Langley

There may be a case for removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses, but the reasons for retaining it are much more persuasive. To abolish the cap now, while many wage-earners can’t afford food and fuel is politically inept. It’s increasingly difficult to avoid the suspicion that the new PM and her chancellor seem a bit dim or are playing to the wealthy Tory gallery. Or both.

Unfortunately, there is no legal requirement for an early election but, after the recent undemocratic selection of our leaders and in the face of their incompetence, the moral obligation is surely becoming unassailable.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

An estimated four billion viewers from all over the world will tune in to watch the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. As the royal cortege departed from Balmoral, the aerial views beamed across the world showed the true magnificence of our glorious Deeside.

It is, therefore, simply too awful to contemplate the damage another array of giant, industrial wind turbines proposed on the adjacent Hill of Fare will inflict on Royal Deeside.

Consider the true horror of these 840ft monsters, almost as high as the Eiffel Tower, twice the size of the London Eye. They are effectively offshore machines being sneaked onshore to satisfy the insatiable greed of the wind industry.

The farcical, industry claims that larger turbines are more “efficient” could not be further from the truth. Current turbines blades have been tweaked, over many years, to the nth degree, but the inexorable laws of physics demand that all that can now be done is to make the turbines even larger, even more damaging, even more space consuming, even more unsightly and, with blades that travel in excess of 200mph, even more lethal to wildlife. This is simply another load of whoppers from the wind industry!

It must be asked what sort of supremely idiotic politicians actually support the destruction of what must be the jewel in the crown of all Scottish landscapes?

George Herraghty

Elgin Moray