DESPITE Gordon Casely's excusing himself as a heraldic anorak (Letters, December 5) for noticing cartoonist Steven Camley's use of the English quarterings on the royal swaddle, UK passport holders can hardly have failed to notice the same English version has been in use on UK passports for the best part of 100 years, while statements by members of the Westminster Government are habitually made from lecterns bearing the same English version of the royal arms.
It would, of course, be a nice tribute to the four nations which make up the UK to have one of the English quarterings replaced by one representing Wales, thus providing a single version of the royal arms suitable for use on all occasions within the UK. However, my friends in the Home Counties say this is out of the question as the second of the English quarterings represents the English conquest of Wales. Equally, of course, they state there is no need for an English Parliament as the existing one at Westminster is the English Parliament.
Despite the passage of more than 300 years, "respect for tradition" does not appear to have changed in the deep south.
Alexander Valentine,
9 Armadale Crescent, Balbeggie, Perth.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article