Letters: Prince Harry’s counter-intuitive approach to royal reconciliation

SIR – With the Harry & Meghan series on Netflix, and the publication today of the Duke of Sussex’s autobiography, Spare, it beggars belief that the Duke felt the need to give television interviews as well (report, January 9). It’s as if he is determined to prod the Royal family with damaging claims until he gets some sort of reaction.

There may be things that he has every right to be angry with his father and brother about. But if you really want to “reconcile” with loved ones after a bad falling-out, is it wise to lambast them in public? Whether what you say is right or wrong, it won’t help the situation – as anyone with an inch of common sense would recognise.

Emilie McRae
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

SIR – I saw some of Prince Harry’s television interview, and still don’t know what he wants. Does anybody?

Christopher Hunt
Swanley, Kent

SIR – I will admit to suffering a bias – unconscious or otherwise – against privileged people who think and speak of virtually nothing but themselves, their sufferings (real or imagined) and the shortcomings of others.

Adrian Thornton
Shackleford, Surrey

SIR – I would like to express gratitude for what Harry and Meghan achieved during their brief career as members of the Royal family.

Their wedding was fun, moving and ground-breaking. The Invictus Games, created by Harry, have proved to be a morale-boosting showcase for disabled veterans to demonstrate courage and resilience.

The presence of a mixed-race duchess exposed racist attitudes in the media, the establishment and the general population that have at last begun to be addressed. 

The support for vulnerable groups such as the Grenfell Tower fire victims has resulted in increased awareness and fundraising. And absurd allegations, such as the claim that Harry “harmed” the health of the late Queen Elizabeth (who herself pointed out the impact of the Covid she suffered) before she died aged 96, have exposed the ruthlessness of so-called “sources” – who, as Harry revealed, targeted him and his wife.

Well done, Harry and Meghan, for showing us who we are. Our best hope is that we learn lessons from the sad loss of your talents and potential.

Dame Esther Rantzen
Lyndhurst, Hampshire

SIR – I found myself empathising with Harry during his ITV interview. As a student at Alsager College of Education in 1967, I was ordered to shave off my beard before first teaching practice or risk being sent down.

I reluctantly complied; but Granada News ran an item about the dispute. It included famous people with beards – among them Harry’s forebear George V. The principal’s argument was that we would scare the children, but I was more scared of the six-year-olds than they ever were of me.

Richard Ferley
Great Harwood, Lancashire

The nature of the EU

SIR – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard makes a fair point that many consequences of Brexit will only become apparent in the distant future (Business, January 5).

However, the EU is not actually “moving ineluctably towards a centralised unitary state”, as he claims – its responsibilities are limited to what is laid down in treaties that can only be amended with the consent of all its member countries, most of which do not want it to become a unitary state.

In those limited fields where it does have the power to legislate, such legislation requires approval from a council composed of national ministers from the elected national governments of the member countries. Its budget amounts to just 3 per cent of public spending in its member countries and is subject to a ceiling that can only be raised with the agreement of every member.

Mr Evans-Pritchard says the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights gave the European Court “sweeping jurisdiction over most areas of British policy and life”. Yet that Charter is only applicable in the field of European law. It constrains the EU institutions and prevents them from acting beyond it.

He claims that “Britain’s semi-detached membership outside Schengen, the euro, and Napoleonic law could not endure”. Yet none of that could have been changed without Britain’s agreement. And there are several EU member countries that are also outside those aspects of the EU, and show no intention of changing that.

Richard Corbett
Leader, European Parliamentary Labour Party, 2017-20
Shipley, West Yorkshire

Bond’s alma mater

SIR – When naming major public schools (Letters, January 9), mention must be made of my (and Tony Blair’s) alma mater, Fettes College in Edinburgh.

After all, this was the school to which Ian Fleming sent a young James Bond after Bond was expelled from Eton for conduct unbecoming involving the headmaster’s daughter.

Sandy Pratt
Storrington, West Sussex

SIR – One of the greatest public schools must surely be Stowe, which celebrates its centenary this year.

The school has turned out over 10,000 well-educated, well-rounded individuals, including Colin Welch, an esteemed past deputy editor of The Telegraph, and Peregrine Worsthorne, who edited The Sunday Telegraph.

Simon Shneerson
Chorleywood, Hertfordshire

Doctor exodus

SIR – Last year, 6,950 registered doctors applied to the General Medical Council for a certificate to work abroad (report, January 8). Some will have gone for educational purposes (as I did) and will return, but many will stay. This is a significant loss to this country, especially when you consider that next year there are only 7,500 medical school places available nationally.

This is a situation in which only money will talk. There should be an immediate 50 per cent increase in the fees paid by medical students to reflect better the cost of the course, but with a full loan available. Each year of work for the NHS should attract a 10 per cent reduction in both the loan and interest.

Such changes would in effect give those who stay a tax-free pay rise as junior doctors, and increase the amount paid by those who leave. They would also affect another group: those who qualify but never practice, having discovered the marketability of a medical degree in other lines of work.

Dr Michael Pegg
Esher, Surrey

SIR – Why is the NHS in a parlous state? Consider the cost of the following.

A band-7 nurse with more than 30 years’ experience in A&E requests a reduction in hours to three or four days a week. The response of management: this is not possible, due to insurmountable problems. The result: the nurse retires and then returns to work (because the hospital is short-staffed) for her chosen hours at a higher rate of pay.

This is achieved by thousands of personnel by going on the “bank”, an agency supplying workers to cover staff shortfall. The cost to directorates is exorbitant, so it’s not difficult to see where management, often through intransigence, is wasting vast sums.

Angela Dunn
West Moors, Dorset

Slavery reparations

SIR – Regarding Barbados and reparations for slavery, may I add part of my own family history?

Like Benedict Cumberbatch (report, December 31), I am descended from the slave-owner Abraham Cumberbatch. But unlike him, I came down the illegitimate line. Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch fathered a son, John Edward, with a slave, Elizabeth, whom he “owned”. Lawrence left his illegitimate offspring very well provided for (though not his main fortune), as can be seen from his will.

In two generations John’s offspring made their own way in life, becoming members of the British upper-middle classes, one leaving sufficient funds for the erection of the Cumberbatch Building in Oxford’s Trinity College. The story of their ancestry on the wrong side of the blanket was a well-guarded family secret.

The same John Edward married a daughter of the Belgrave family, one of the extremely few wealthy black families on the island who had played prominent roles in early uprisings against the British. These descendants of enslaved people owned many slaves and plantations themselves.

The rights and wrongs are by no means straightforward.

Helen Cumberbatch Ashton
Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Morris horribilis

SIR – I also bought a Morris Series E in the early 1960s (Letters, January 6).

I paid 16 pounds and 10 shillings for it – four pounds for the car and 12 pounds and 10 shillings for the vehicle tax. My MOT report simply said: “Your car does not seem to have a chassis anymore.” So that was the end of that.

Ben Howkins
Staverton, Northamptonshire

Hope that wassailing will bless another crop

SIR – I was delighted to read Joe Shute’s piece (Weather watch, January 7) on planting apple trees and wassailing on Twelfth Night to improve the crop. We are trying the same approach in our vineyard.

Our delightful local male voice choir came and wassailed in the vineyard on Thursday. We will be interested to see how the old custom fares when applied to grapes. We then moved on to a more traditional performance in our neighbour’s organic apple orchard.

Sarah Ingram
Pewsey, Wiltshire

Time to step up investment in energy storage

SIR – The solution to green energy intermittency is more storage. Liquid air (Features, January 9) appears to offer a promising way forward, although it is not the only available technology.

If companies that are seeking licences to build either wind farms or solar parks were only granted permission to do so on the condition that they invested in a certain number of days’ energy storage at the mean output of the proposed facility, it would quite quickly go a long way towards solving the problem.

Dr Chris Staley
Bredwardine, Herefordshire

SIR – Why are energy bills due to rise again, when it’s been confirmed that wholesale gas prices are now lower than they were before Russia started the war in Ukraine?

Who is forcing the prices up, and who is making huge profits from British consumers? Why does the Government or the Opposition not investigate what is happening?

Ron Watson
Middlesbrough

SIR – The Energy Bills Support Scheme is provided to every household in the UK, which means that if you are fortunate or wealthy enough to own two homes, you receive double the allowance of those who only live in one.

Once again, because of incompetence, this Government has reacted to events by widely distributing taxpayers’ money without any proper consideration or planning.

Sue Crouch
Stroud, Gloucestershire

SIR – I have just ordered my last delivery of household coal. Apparently, from May 1, coal will be unavailable in England and burning it will be banned.

However, my coal merchant tells me that it is still available and can be used on domestic fires in Scotland and Wales. Smokeless fuel is just not the same. The majority of my fuel use is dried hardwood with less than 12 per cent moisture content. Coal is required for a fast start and heat buildup, as well as the creation of flame in an open fire.

Jon Pearson
Hope Valley, Derbyshire

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