FURTHER to Murdo Fraser’s quoted assertion, as reported by you ("Poll reveals scale of gap in support for the monarchy",The Herald, May 21), I would like to suggest that the term “elected politician”, as used by him, cannot always be applied to presidents elected as head of state. We need look only across the Irish Sea to find examples to illustrate this point. While the first President of Ireland, Dr Douglas Hyde, who successfully held office in the difficult years between 1938 and 1945, had certainly been twice briefly a member of the Senate, he had taken no part in party politics and was primarily a linguist and an academic. In more recent times, President Mary Robinson (1990-1997) had also been a member of the Senate but was better known as a barrister and a campaigner on human rights issues. She is considered to have fulfilled her role as head of state with great distinction and was a welcome visitor to Scotland. Her successor, President Mary McAleese (1997-2011) had held no political office when elected, being a lawyer and journalist and was so successful in her role that she was re-elected unopposed for a second term. To her, as to another female head of state (albeit a monarch), we owe a considerable debt for their joint success in normalising the relationship between Britain and Ireland to that of friendly neighbouring countries, a state of affairs now threatened by the current chaos in Westminster.

Two of the elected Presidents who have served in Germany have also shown great skill in playing an important role at a time of change in their country. Both had been politicians but that did not lessen their impartiality as head of state. Dr Theodor Heuss (1949-1959) brought a combination of dignity and humanity to the office as the first President of the Federal Republic in its formative years, while Dr Richard von Weizacker (1984-1994) was instrumental in helping to bring about a smooth transition of two countries in reunification. He has been recognised for his independence and skill in that process.

Mr Fraser seems at this early stage to be attempting to close down options. It is significant that the article quotes the poll as showing that "Scotland was the only nation of the UK where a majority did not see the monarchy as a unifying force after Brexit’’. There can be no doubt that we will need a head of state who will provide a lead in the mould of the Irish Presidents mentioned above and certainly not "an elected politician’’.

It will be for the Scottish people to decide in due course between monarch and president as head of state, by a democratic process yet to be chosen by the said Scottish people. In the meantime, looking further west than Ireland, we should be careful what we wish for.

Robert Mac Lachlan,

28 Foulden Bastle,

Foulden, Berwickshire.

THE belief of your correspondents Graham Smith and David J Crawford (Letters, May 23) that a republic is a Utopian democratic alternative to the current constitutional arrangements ignores the fact that the existence of kings and queens is a consequence of an evolutionary process driven and sustained by the people, lowest and highest, down the centuries and a reflection of human nature. Do they think that under their preferred option privilege, wealth and undue influence would disappear ?

Duncan Macintyre,

2 Fort Matilda Terrace, Greenock.

AS the excitement over the latest Royal marriage continues, it may interest your readers to learn that the new Royal bride has a Scottish surname. Although “Markle” is known as the name of a village in East Lothian, it is certainly not commonly found here as a surname. However, the “bible” of those interested in Scottish names, Black’s The Surnames of Scotland (first published in New York in 1946) indicates that the first record of the name was that of an archer in Livingstone Peel in 1312 and a witness to a sasine in 1496 was a William Merkyll.

May we now claim the new royal as part of the Scottish diaspora?

Russ Walker,

9 Blackwood,

Newton Mearns.