I HAVE been saddened and dismayed at the number of negative articles and letters this week regarding the Coronation.

I feel a lot of the criticism is unjustified and in some cases has been positively vitriolic. King Charles III, like the rest of us, had no choice which family he was born into and I think has made a pretty good job of the role he has been forced to play.

Yes, it is a privileged position, but also has many drawbacks. He has had every movement publicised and scrutinised since birth, he was sent to a school he hated and was basically drummed into a marriage he didn’t want. If you read reports he actually cried the night before he married Diana.

Yes, he and the Royal Family live in palaces, but these are not just their homes, they are national treasures and they are only their guardians for their lifetime. They are public servants just as much as our politicians are and on the whole work very hard at what they do. Princess Anne leaves every morning at nine and does five or six engagements most days. They also have to turn up and be charming at endless functions, most of which must bore them to death and, imagine, having to be pleasant to the likes of Donald Trump.

As the King has matured he has done much good work – for example the Prince’s Trust, which has helped very many young people either into employment or setting up their own businesses, Here in East Ayrshire he rescued Dumfries House and has transformed the surrounding area, giving much-needed employment for young people in a very depressed area. Not only do they work in the house and gardens, obtaining excellent experience and training, he has also set up workshops to learn different skills such as masonry, wood working and heritage plastering. He is highly regarded in this area.

If you visit any other properties he has dealings with you will see the same attention to detail and care that so enriches these places.

I am therefore saddened that such negativity and at times ill feeling is manifest in these pages.

Surely this is a time to celebrate and see the amazing pageantry that Britain is so rightly proud of? Heaven knows, we have very little else to be proud of these days. The rest of the world loves our pomp and pageantry and it demeans Scotland to behave in such a craven manner.

Janette Steven, Kilmarnock.

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My wish for royal couple

THERE seems to be an awful lot of people who have got their undergarments in an entirely unnecessary twist over the fact that we the people have been “invited” by the Archbishop of Canterbury to “state aloud” our homage to King Charles III during his Coronation.

I must admit that I snorted when I heard that invitation. What, in all seriousness, would it mean in practical terms? However, on reflection I decided that while I will not state aloud my homage I will wish that he and Queen Camilla have a long, happy and creative reign together. I have come to admire him as an intelligent, compassionate, serious-minded fellow, many of whose ideas have been before their time. He could indeed be a guid King of Scots.

All I shall ask of him in return is that he continues to and in fact increases the extent to which he puts his undoubtedly excessive wealth to the good of his subjects.

John Milne, Uddingston.

• WHEN I first heard that Kerry Hudson was going to be a new columnist in The Herald I was delighted. My husband and I heard her at the Edinburgh Book Festival a few years ago. We were both humbled after hearing about her growing up in poverty and our admiration of her grew when we read two of her excellent books.

I have enjoyed all her articles so far but her latest ("Buckingham Palace and me – the day I was invited to tea", The Herald, May 3) was the best yet. She is to be congratulated for her straightforward and common-sense arguments against the ridiculously extravagant and expensive Coronation. I applaud her.

Briar Richardson, Dunfermline.

Read more: Buckingham Palace and me – the day I was invited to tea

The war on motorists

VICKY Allan ("Twenty-minute ‘dystopia’ is almost here already... and the coffee is good", The Herald, May 2) is thinking of ditching her car because she lives in a city with everything within 15 minutes' walk. Cities will be divided into stay-at-home zones according to this crazed 15-minute neighbourhood scheme.

The Scottish Government has a "world-leading" plan to cut car kilometres (kilometres, not miles!) by 20% by 2030. The former first minister on the other hand is taking driving lessons to give her freedom, she says. Good for Nicola Sturgeon. The fact is that the private car does give people freedom to travel when and where they like at a time of their choosing with dogs, shopping or luggage aboard or all three.

Any motorist who votes for the SNP is a turkey voting for Christmas.

William Loneskie, Lauder.

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Blue sky thinking

R RUSSELL Smith (Letters, May 3) is to be applauded for taking a deep dive and pinning his colours to the mast.

It will be interesting to see who salutes.

Reaching out and obviously having got down to the weeds I hope his supporters will be singing from the same hymn sheet and he won’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Responders should be impact-orientated.

Hopefully, he has found the secret sauce but I would advise him, at this initial stage, to give them the sizzle but not the sausage.

Keith Swinley, Ayr.

Aliens must be hot stuff

I'VE just read read that scientists are telling us that scientists are warning or advising us that, by using advanced technology, aliens on nearby stars may be detecting our radio wave emissions ("Aliens on nearby stars could detect life on Earth through ‘leaked signals’", The Herald, May 3). One of the universe’s coolest stars, Bernard’s star at six light years' distance, is given as an example.

With a surface temperature of 2,680 degrees Celsius it would certainly be an advanced civilisation.

Alastair Clark, Stranraer.