Letter: Queues for the palace

Sir: You, rightly, refer (leading article, 24 June) to the unsatisfactory admission arrangements for visitors to Buckingham Palace; but even you assume that someone queuing for hours will eventually purchase a ticket. Is this assumption justified?

As a provincial who will not devote a day's travel, parking and eating in the hope of maybe visiting a venue, I am torn by a conflict between a lifelong ambition to see inside Buckingham Palace and a distrust of the queuing arrangements.

My only previous experience of such an arrangement was an abortive attempt to view the British Museum's Tutankhamun exhibitions. Having queued for hours we left to catch the train home. The problem was that as the queue inched slowly forward, the marker board, indicating guaranteed entry for the day, retreated at an even faster rate (as coachloads of priority visitors went to the head of the queue).

I can envisage convoys of priority coaches and diplomatic cars two abreast down the Mall, while queues of hopefuls cower under their umbrellas and wonder how many tickets will be available for them.

Yours faithfully,

VINCENT HOLMES

Oakham, Leicestershire

25 June