Welcome to the Daily Mail letters page. This is your platform to debate our headlines and share your unique perspective on the stories shaping our world today.
Here our readers share their reactions to Amanda Platell’s column this week on Camilla’s lacklustre role in the US state visit – and whether Diana would have done a better job…
Personally, I am pleased the King has a wiser wife than his first one. Like Meghan, Diana was more interested in her fancy clothes and hairstyle than in royal duties.
Although not everyone considers Camilla their queen, she has been a great asset to the King.
Mrs Diane Hallsworth, London E4
The royal couple pose together in Washington DC on their state visit to the US last week
Lucky Amanda Platell (Daily Mail) has the best job in the world – she can bitch about everyone and get paid for it. But is she right?
She thinks Diana would have made a very glamorous and beautiful queen, compared with Camilla. I doubt it. Stuck in a loveless marriage, Diana would have treated us to the sulky expression she adopted on the official tour of Korea in 1992.
Charles and Camilla may be getting on in years but they radiate happiness, humour and flawless noblesse oblige.
Wendy Doel, Winchfield, Hampshire
I agree entirely with Amanda Platell. How can Camilla be deemed Queen in any sense? She is the King’s consort, thanks to her persistence in seeking to marry him, and like many I find it galling that she has been elevated to this position. May dear Princess Diana’s memory live on.
Sally Wood, Bristol
Amanda Platell’s comments were spiteful and untrue. As for those priceless jewels the Queen wore, if they belong to the Crown, she is entitled to wear them.
J. C. BYRNE, Harrow, north-west London
Congratulations to Amanda for stating what we all think of Camilla. To this day, the people’s princess is sorely missed.
James Oseman, Sevenoaks, Kent
I thought the Queen looked lovely and appropriately dressed for her age. What did Amanda Platell want? That she should dress like a teenager, so Amanda could accuse her of being ‘mutton dressed as lamb’?
Poor Camilla, there is just no pleasing some folk. She is so good for Charles as his rock and helpmate.
As to what would have happened had Charles and Diana not divorced when they did, I believe they would still have divorced or led miserable lives.
Mrs Elizabeth Quin, Bournemouth
Most of us understand that Amanda Platell adores the late Diana. Nevertheless, Camilla is our Queen, whether Amanda likes it or not.
Congratulations to Camilla for never trying to outshine the King and being a true support during his illness. With her, he has grown in confidence and learnt to laugh again. Their obvious happiness together is lovely to see.
Avril Brown, Newtownards, Co Down
Queen Camilla and her outfits were much admired in America. The lilac Dior coat dress she arrived in was outstanding, as was the gorgeous pink evening dress by Fiona Clare that she wore to the state dinner.
What bad taste to compare unhappy, unfaithful Diana with the King’s loving, 78-year-old wife of 21 years.
Mary French, Chelmsford, Essex
Perhaps if Amanda feels that way about Queen Camilla’s looks, she could grace her column with a more up-to-date picture of herself.
M. Samuels, Cefneithin, Carmarthenshire
Terrified animals
I agree with Jane Ridgeway (Letters) about loud fireworks being set off randomly throughout the year. Our dog is prescribed diazepam by the vet because she gets so upset.
Readers may remember that Edinburgh Zoo bred a rare red panda cub, Roxie, in the autumn of 2024. Her mother died, possibly from firework-induced stress, then five days later, so did three-month-old Roxie, choking on her own vomit after being terrified on Bonfire Night.
Fireworks without bangs would mean an end to such cruelty.
Jan Townend, Brixham, Devon
Discretion needed
I am happy that the King’s US visit was seen as a success but find the boasts in certain sections of the media that he somehow ‘got one over on’ Trump rather troubling.
Any such arrogance could be noted by Trump’s entourage and passed on to the man himself, which would do nothing to help the special relationship on which we so depend.
Alan Stead, Loftus, North Yorkshire
Forgotten scandal
While I agree with Michael Moody (Letters) on how appalling it is that falsely accused former Post Office staff are still awaiting compensation, the numbers involved and the length of time are nothing compared with those infected and affected by the contaminated blood scandal.
Most have yet to be invited to make a claim for compensation and need to jump through hoops to do so.
My father died in 2000. My brother and I, now in our 60s, will probably be dead by the time we are invited to apply.
Nicola Pigott, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Did Charles ultimately make the right choice marrying Camilla – or would Diana have been the better Queen?
Fiona factor
Fiona Bruce, host of BBC’s Question Time
I was incensed by how Fiona Bruce attacked Nigel Farage through Zia Yusuf on Question Time.
Not only was Farage not there to defend himself against the allegations, which were personal, but
the attack had nothing to do with the question raised by an audience member. The biased BBC, at it again.
J. M. Smith, Nottingham
Question of breeding
Boris Johnson (Daily Mail) rightly points out that a shrinking world population can only benefit the planet. The world has finite space, so there must be a practical limit.
Unfortunately, politicians insist on borrowing from future generations. Without population growth, they would have to start living within their means and stop handing out money they haven’t got in order to buy votes.
J. Wearing, Chelford, Cheshire
Politicians don’t want populations to shrink because most democracies are like giant Ponzi schemes: as long as people keep joining, they run OK – until they collapse.
My state pension is paid for by pension contributions from two people who currently work. If those two people are not here to work, the pension system is in jeopardy.
Declining populations are great for the resources of the planet but very bad for the next election.
Clive Gladstone, Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear
Boris has nine children, so how can he tell us how great it is that people are having fewer children?
When he went on to describe the environmental crisis caused by overpopulation, my jaw hit the floor.
Christine Wilson, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
Becks in bloom
David Austin’s Silas Marner, named after the 1861 novel by George Eliot
The late rose-breeder David Austin named many of his beautiful roses after classic characters from English literature created by Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Tennyson, Emily Bronte, John Milton and Shakespeare, to name a few.
They had names such as Bathsheba, Desdemona, Silas Marner, Gabriel Oak and Eustacia Vye.
I wonder if his son and grandson, who took over the business after Mr Austin’s death in 2018, are a little less well-read, as their latest rose is named after Sir David Beckham.
C. Corbin, Faringdon, Oxfordshire
Rental rules
I will probably be one of few readers of your newspaper who agrees with the new Renters’ Rights Act.
Good landlords have nothing to fear and it will bring stability to the rental market. Landlords can still issue a Section 8 notice to bad tenants.
I lived and worked in Switzerland for 27 years, where they have strict laws on renting and the landlord cannot increase the rent unless they make improvements to the property.
When I left my flat there to return home, my rent had not increased in 15 years. It was a block of six flats, four of which were still occupied by their original tenants.
Ken Holden, Blackburn, Lancashire
Airport queues
Italy and Portugal are about to join Greece and suspend the Entry/Exit System (EES) because of long queues and concern over losing holiday trade from the UK. Because of this, they will face EU fines.
But Starmer, in his first reset with the EU, promised that UK nationals would be able to move through EU security easier. So what benefits did the UK receive from that reset?
As usual, nothing.
Philip Whymark, Chatham, Kent
Out of battery
One of your correspondents said last week (Letters) that high prices are no reason for the less well-off not to buy an electric car, as used examples are comparatively cheap.
Indeed they are, in large part because the original purchasers have realised that replacement batteries cost between £4,000 and £20,000.
Until EVs are a genuinely affordable alternative, many people still won’t buy them, new or second-hand.
C. MacDonald, Bottesford, Leicestershire
Mum’s dummy
Recent letters about boys wearing dresses reminded me of when I was about ten years old.
My mother was a professional dressmaker who often made clothes for friends and neighbours. Several times she made girl’s party dresses for special occasions.
Unfortunately she didn’t have a mannequin, so, despite my protests, she would persuade me to model the dress. I would have to stand on a chair while she measured and pinned the hem, all the while in mortal fear of being seen if one of my pals called round to play.
R. Newall, Bolton
No Kings?
King Charles and Queen Camilla on the White House balcony alongside President Trump and the First Lady
Surely the quote of the decade must go to Donald Trump following the King’s visit, reported in last Friday’s Daily Mail: ‘Really great people. We need more people like that in our country.’
D. Ward, Hedge End, Hampshire
Time for tippers
The accused, having been found guilty of fly-tipping, shall be removed from this courtroom to a place of confinement where they shall remain until, at their expense, the aforementioned area has been cleared and its contents have been placed in a legally designated landfill site, thus determining the length of their own custodial sentence.
Take them down.
Oliver Walsh, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Exit strategy
Oh come on. Who hasn’t gone for a quiet drink after work at some time or other, then eventually made to go home, only to find that some damn fool has moved the bally door?
Nick Pointon, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire
Best bet
King Charles was reported to have said to his brother Andrew, ‘no one is going to assassinate me to make you king’. Does Keir Starmer’s only survival plan rely on the same idea?
Michael Lynchehaun, Wallasey, Wirral
