MAY I thank Mrs Welthorpe on her outspoken letter on the Royal Family.

Madam, you are beating the same distant drum that I used to in the 1950s, at RAF Yatesbury, central school of signals.

Anyone in electronics was then sure to be an oddball and they all were, so a lively and entertaining exchange of opinions was guaranteed. It never turned to violence in my presence; as an oratory lion, I was an aggression mouse, disappearance being the better part of valour.

One ex-editor always said to me that if you voice a controversial opinion and get a lot of abuse, then you've hit the nail on the head.

Mrs Welthorpe, you can expect similar. In passing, though, if our elected president and his wife prove to be as duplicitous and self-seeking as our present "president" and his wife would you, like me, reconsider? The vacuous, infantile royalty seen to be the lesser of the two evils.

Mick Snowden,

Amotherby,

Malton.

Updated: 09:04 Tuesday, April 25, 2006