Letter: Prince threatens his Commonwealth role

Sir: In all the discussion in your newspaper and elsewhere of the future of the monarchy (see, for instance, Matthew Hoffman's article 'President Branson? It's possible', 19 October), I have failed to notice a single reference to the Commonwealth.

It seems to be tacitly assumed that the Prince of Wales will automatically succeed one day as head of the Commonwealth - an eventuality that seems to me to be by no means a foregone conclusion. Many of the present Commonwealth countries take a far higher moral tone than we seem to do; these countries will look carefully at Prince Charles's sex life and are quite likely to refuse to accept him as head of the Commonwealth.

If the prince has thought about this at all, I have no recollection of hearing so.

Yours faithfully, ALEC VANS Awre, Gloucestershire 19 October