READING Aled Jones anti-Royalist rant (Letters, May 2), I felt quite sorry for him.

I was reminded of the poem which starts: “Breathes there a man with soul so dead”, or of a voice crying not in the wilderness but against the millions in this country, indeed billions across the world, who took pleasure in the royal wedding.

I am long retired, and have been called a cynic in the past, but I watched the wedding while doing my household chores, and was thrilled by the pomp of the bands and the pageantry of the Household Cavalry.

What would Aled have in the place of royalty? A president like Tricky Dicky Nixon of the US or Sarkozy of France, someone like Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy or the many dictators of Africa and the Near East?

We got rid of our monarchy in 1649, but soon got it back some ten years later and saw the beginnings of democracy.

Even the mighty industrialised Japan which swallowed our car and motorcycle industry has an emperor.

No Aled, with all its faults, being human, monarchy is the better choice.

AG Reeson, Huntington Road, York.

• IN reply to Aled Jones, that chip on his shoulder must weigh him down something dreadful. I reckon it is as big as the one Atlas carries around on his.

If two billion watched the wedding, what harm did it do him?

In this world of sadness, hatred and bigotry, if for one day it brought people together in happiness, fun and enjoyment, I say great.

Get a life, Aled.

Mrs M Robinson, Broadway, York.

• THE esteem in which Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is held will have gone up leaps and bounds in the reverence of many people. Why?

Because it has been reported that it was her red pen which crossed out the names of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from William and Kate’s wedding guest list.

These were mainly the ones who put this country back years, while riding roughshod over the wishes of the majority of its citizens.

In many people’s opinion, with the help of the BBC, which they managed to politicise in their favour, they put their own power struggles, future wealth, and their beloved Labour Party above everything else.

Paul Costello, Whiteoak Avenue, Easingwold, York.