Letter: Royal blues

AS I AM but a year younger than 'Ma'am', I must tell you that having read your succinct article on that overpaid and almost extinct old lady ('Duty before happiness', Review, 3 October) I feel about 25 in comparison.

I well remember the quite sickening sycophancy attendant upon this woman in my own youth - and it seems that not much has changed. But I also have a pin-sharp memory of events leading to the Townsend debacle. The one obvious but hushed-up factor in her distress was the amount of cash she would have lost as a result of marrying her dashing young officer.

Another thing that hasn't changed is royal greed. Nor the stupidity of the British nation in failing to see that this outdated institution is no longer working or affordable.

Dorothy Grestly

Manchester