SO the funeral is over. Life as we know it has begun to return to what passes for normal. Swords and bows have been put back in cupboards. Feathered cocked hats have been returned to wherever one stores one’s feathered cocked hat. Costumes formed from the flags

of the nations of the UK have been put back on a hanger. I’m left to wonder where you would get such a garment dry-cleaned. Perhaps there is a royal dry cleaners in the basement of one of the many royal residences. Presumable all these items will be dusted down for the forthcoming coronation.

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The adverts for royal memorabilia have started to swamp the internet. Coins, books, mugs, no doubt tea towels and the like. My eye was drawn to a small teddy bear produced by a well known German brand and often bought by collectors of such things. £370 seemed a bit expensive even in these inflationary times. It had already attracted several hundred comments on its web page. Some to say it was too expensive and some to object to fact the bear was black!

Over a coffee I decided to see on TV what our MSPs were debating on their first day back. Sad to say it was more “tributes to her late majesty the Queen.” A Tory MSP was attempting to establish that she was a great supporter of the Union.

Back in the real world, a short time later the news broke that performance on waiting times targets at Scotland’s hospital A&E units has hit another new low. Figures for the week ending September 11 showed just 63.5% of patients were dealt with within four hours. The Scottish Government target is that 95% of patients attending A&E are seen and subsequently admitted or discharged within four hours. The figure has been below 70% since May and the previous low was 64.8% at the beginning of July.

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In the latest weekly figures from Public Health Scotland, 27,097 attended A&E and a record number waited more than four hours (9,895). The number of people waiting more than eight hours was 3,367 – a new high – and 1,257 people waited longer than 12 hours.

According to Scotland’s Health Secretary, “the impact of the pandemic continued to affect health services across the rest of the UK and globally.” Given the general reduction in Covid cases, this is becoming an increasing hard story to accept.

I always thought that politics was about priorities. Please, please can we move on from mourning the dead and try to deal with the acute health problems of the living.

Brian Lawson
Paisley

SINCE Queen Elizabeth’s death our newspapers have been awash with reports and photos of people paying their respects. But I ask, what do we really respect? If the article in one paper I read is anything to go by, there is certainly no respect for our environment. In Southwark Park alone an estimated seven tonnes of additional litter was removed over a period of four days. In Westminster area, street cleaning vehicles have been dressed in black ribbons and council workers wear black bows.

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I stand back and wonder are we really mourning the passing of one human being or are we mourning the destruction of our planet? Our new King professes some green credentials so can I dare to dream that he will get the message across to the morons who think it’s acceptable to leave their waste behind?

Kate Armstrong
Glenfarg

IN her long and eventful reign, Elizabeth Queen of Scots commanded universal respect and was a cohesive force for good. However her passing finally severs an imperial connection to that Anglo-Britain of the past.

The days of mourning and royal pageantry in Edinburgh emphasised that Scotland as a nation is not necessarily opposed to the monarchy, but is opposed to the British state which the monarchy represents.

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The proclamation of King Charles III and his firm affirmation of the independence of the Church of Scotland confirmed the sovereignty of Scotland and that of its people. This was guaranteed, along with Scotland’s separate judicial system, by the 1707 mutual Act of Union between Scotland and England. Hopefully in Scotland Charles will be known as Charles, King of Scots in respect of his mother.

In these very difficult times, with a weak new PM, Charles has become King of a United Kingdom in transition, where human rights and democratic leadership will be paramount.

Grant Frazer
Newtonmore

EVERY time I see organisations or commentators referring to Queen Elizabeth II, I wonder if they are ignorant or deliberately slighting Scotland,which has never had another Elizabeth.

I am fairly indifferent to monarchy, but surely monarchists should realise that since the Scottish king took over the throne of England, Scotland clearly has prior claim on the monarch and has to decide whether to allow England to share the monarch.

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Are all these people really unable to differentiate the union of the crowns from that of parliaments? Engand and Scotland shared a monarch for a full century before the “parcel of rogues” sold the Scottish parliament for bribes. Several Commonwealth countries share our head of state without parliamentary union. And St Giles’ is not a cathedral.

Richard W Russell
Bowmore, Isle of Islay

THAT’S the circus over, when is the bread? Let’s hope it’s not manna but money to offset the spiralling costs that every ordinary family is having to face. Platitudes, promises and pomp don’t feed folk or heat their homes.

E Ahern
East KIlbride

I HAVE one question to ask those who were upset about the BBC’s coverage of the journey of the late Queen’s cortege from Balmoral to Edinburgh. Why on earth were you watching the BBC in the first place?

Keith Halley
Dalkeith

DID you know that, according to Oxfam, one person dies of hunger in Ethiopia every 48 SECONDS? Since Queen Elizabeth died on the eight of this month, around 20,000 men, women and children have died in Ethiopia with no mention in the widespread national media. That is sad and appalling beyond words. We have got to get back to the realities of this world. People are in pain. People are dying. They all need help, NOW, not tomorrow, not next week, NOW! When we gain our independence, I truly hope we do a lot better than this unforgivable nonsense.

George McKnight
West Calder

I HAVE one question to ask those who were upset about the BBC’s coverage of the journey of the late Queen’s cortege from Balmoral to Edinburgh.

Why on earth were you watching the BBC in the first place?

Keith Halley
Dalkeith