Letters: The Duchess of Sussex wasted an opportunity to be a force for change

SIR – What a shame that the Duchess of Sussex took the easy route of becoming a victim.

She is hardly a timid character so it is hard to believe that she could not have pushed back against the royal household, particularly given how evidently charmed the late Queen was by her, and how receptive was the then Prince of Wales.

She had the opportunity to be a force for change in the Royal family but she chose self over a higher calling. And now the Duke is stuck between a rock and a hard place. What a waste.

Jeremy Hopwood
Lewes, East Sussex

SIR – What hubris is it that makes someone complain about leaving one hugely privileged existence for another while great chunks of the country – including many who served in the Armed Forces, as the Duke of Sussex did – are using food banks?

There is a horrific war in Ukraine, we face a crippling recession, many people can’t afford to feed their children or heat their homes, our justice system is broken and most of the public sector is on strike.

The Sussexes are now a national embarrassment. They should be grateful for the £30 million wedding we funded, and go and be happy – quietly.

Shalaleh Barlow
London NW3

SIR – Where is the noble prince who created the Invictus Games and had the loyalty of the Armed Forces?

How disillusioned they must be.

Miriam Howitt
London SW15

SIR – If Harry and Meghan want to wash their dirty linen in public, I really couldn’t care less.

What I do care about is their rubbishing of Britain and the impact this will have on our reputation abroad, our exports and our tourism industry.

For this reason, they should be stripped of their royal titles, so that hopefully over time people will no longer associate them with Britain.

Angela Jones
Ascot, Berkshire

SIR – On the day that the Sussexes released their personal rendition of Poor Poor Pitiful Me, there came news that a truly great man had died, who is almost unknown to today’s youth.

George Leonard “Johnny” Johnson, the last surviving original member of the “Dambusters” raid of 1943, died on Wednesday, and it is to him and his generation of heroes that we pay homage, not Netflix stars paid millions.

Mark Peaker
London W1

SIR – I admit I have changed my mind after watching Netflix’s Harry & Meghan documentary. It is now abundantly clear that Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series was not the biggest fantasy production to hit our screens in 2022.

Phil Angell
Helston, Cornwall

SAS fictions

SIR – I’m not surprised that the portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne in the BBC One drama SAS Rogue Heroes has been criticised (report, December 7).

The series is a travesty of the book on which it is based, with invented characters and events that are the wrong way round – or, in some cases, never took place. Ben Macintyre, the book’s author, did extensive research to get his facts right but these appear to have been thrown out the window.

What will the next series bring?

Mary Wiedman
Piccotts End, Hertfordshire

Safer gambling

SIR – I have been dispirited by the number of gambling advertisements shown during the World Cup.

As a man in my mid-thirties, I see how completely normalised football gambling has become, and the money people lose by placing regular bets. This money is then lost from the local economy, and often goes offshore.

It might seem radical, but I wonder if the Government should consider setting up a state-owned gambling operator and website, and spend the money raised on public services. This could lead to a reduction in – or even a ban on – commercial operators, and potentially reverse some of the far-reaching negative effects of gambling on families and society.

Adam White
Norwich

Christie demystified

SIR – With regard to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie and others (Letters, December 8), I always read the end of the book first to discover the guilty person.

Then I can read on, happily spotting all the clues. There’s no need to re-read it to see what I missed, and I don’t feel an idiot for guessing wrongly.

Ruth E Katz
London N20

SIR – Agatha Christie made every twist imaginable. Having read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None, I knew exactly what the outcome of the last book published before her death, Curtain, would be.

However, little is made of a formula she used in many novels, which is that the villain is the most likely suspect, ruled out early on by an unbreakable alibi – only to be revealed at the end.

Andrew Glover
Oadby, Leicestershire

The need for coal

SIR – In principle, I oppose the plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria (report, December 8).

However, coking coal is still needed to make steel, a product that is essential to modern life. The conflict in Ukraine has shown the need for secure sources of strategically important materials. Importing coal leaves us vulnerable to international events; its transport also generates considerable quantities of carbon dioxide.

Reluctantly, therefore, I must support the mine.

Harry Wood
Manchester

SIR – The Government’s commitment to levelling up and enhancing Britain’s energy and mineral supply is well demonstrated by Michael Gove’s bold decision to approve the development of the coal mine at Whitehaven.

And, of course, the vision from West Cumbria Mining in bringing the technical plan and business case to government authorities at a politically sensitive time has been fundamental.

Hopefully, after a sticky start, the plan can now be driven through.

A T Patrick
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – Importing coal produces a larger carbon footprint than mining our own.

That is why it is puzzling that environmentalists are up in arms about the new mine in Cumbria. They seem to think that a carbon footprint is acceptable provided it is not Britain making it, while conveniently forgetting that China is opening a new coal-fired power station every week.

Sandy Pratt
Storrington, West Sussex

Army saves the day

SIR – In March you published a letter in which I pointed out that, whether the challenge is foot and mouth disease or Covid hospital building, the Armed Forces (report, December 8) are often called upon to help.

Now, in return for pay rises of between 3.5 and 3.75 per cent, the Armed Forces will be called on again, this time to cover for striking NHS staff seeking double-digit pay rises.

John Clark
Hereford

SIR – The NHS sequestered two operating theatres in our local private hospital, causing dozens of private operations to be cancelled.

For eight months these theatres stood idle; appalled by this waste, a highly respected orthopaedic medic took early retirement in disgust.

The incompetence is breathtaking.

Roy Hodgson
Little Brington, Northamptonshire

Team Sooty

SIR – In the toy department of Kendal Milne in Manchester in the 1950s, my mother found herself in conversation with Sooty’s creator, Harry Corbett (Letters, December 7). He was sure his future with Sooty was doomed and was uncertain whether to carry on. My mother persuaded him to keep going.

My brother is now 74 and still mourns the loss of his original Sooty puppet bought that very day.

Bridget A Ratcliffe
Appleby-in-Westmorland

SIR – As a boy Christopher Cann (Letters, December 7) was disappointed that his Sooty puppet, a Christmas present, was different to the black-and-white one on television.

Our eldest daughter (now 51) unwrapped a Kermit the Frog with happy anticipation. But, of course, Kermit didn’t move. “He’s dead, he’s dead,” she sobbed. A bit of a downer.

Josephine Dicks
Northwood, Middlesex

A Jekyll's generosity on a hiding to nothing

SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, November 29), writing of Stanley Baldwin’s personal donation to the Exchequer, reminded me of Sir Joseph Jekyll two centuries before.

Sir Joseph was Master of the Rolls, an active politician and a very wealthy man, with no children. He died in 1738 and his will provided for scores of generous bequests to relatives, friends and others. It also provided that £10,000 from each of his East India and South Sea stock – worth about £3 million today – be used to reduce the national debt.

Unfortunately, many of the bequests were based on 41-year annuities. Sir John Verney, his successor as Master of the Rolls, judged any annuity over 21 years to be illegal, so recipients would have to be compensated. This would have wiped out the inheritance of the residuary legatees, his closest relatives. Seven of them went to law and, after 37 years and five Acts of Parliament, the will was changed and the national debt only marginally reduced.

Sir Joseph hoped that other men of wealth would follow his example, but none did. Lord Mansfield, a lawyer of that era, described it as “a very foolish bequest”.

Christopher Arnander
Firle, East Sussex

Damaged Elgin Marbles would vote to go home

SIR – Michelle Donelan, the Culture Secretary, says that Britain has “taken great care” of the Elgin Marbles and that returning them to Greece would be “a dangerous and slippy road” (report, December 7).

On the contrary, they have suffered several instances of damage while in the British Museum, notably by over-enthusiastic, inappropriate cleaning in the 1930s, and they are not part of the fabric of our nation but that of Greece. If the stones could speak for themselves, they would surely vote to be reunified with their counterparts in the Acropolis Museum.

Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire

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