WHEN I read some of the stories associated with planning for the Coronation next year and when one considers the political, social and economic condition of the UK today, one wonders how much of the flummery surrounding a coronation can actually be justified ("New king will be crowned on May 6 next year", The Herald, October 12). Indeed one ponders about how our new King, with his track record as Prince of Wales of encouraging a culturally and religiously diverse country, will address certain features which have appeared so far in coronations of our monarchs.

It has been reported that being anointed during the Coronation was of profound importance to his mother. Is it really as important to him? Whatever happens to him procedurally on May 6 next year, he remains a human being, albeit a highly privileged one. How does he really feel about the monarch having to be a Protestant and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England? Might it be that he has similar views to his predecessor William IV (1830-37), who said that he would have been content to have just sworn an appropriate oath in Parliament ?

In these straitened times, which may well be prolonged, I wonder if the country will eventually reach a similar conclusion to that of the Northern Star following the Coronation of Queen Victoria – "this palpable waste of the national resources, at the precise moment when we are up to the very neck in the mire of national bankruptcy".

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS PART OF THE FUTURE

ROSEMARY Goring (“Warning: a private education can seriously limit your career choices”, The Herald, October 12) ends her piece with the observation "I exaggerate, of course, but only to a degree". She wasn’t kidding.

She asserts that independent school pupils "never consider applying for" certain jobs because of their background, or that no independent school pupils consider work in social care or the NHS. She should speak to a few school alumnus bodies. She thinks pupils’ life choices are "selected for them before they are born" and thinks everyone who goes to any one school has the same accent. She should speak to a few young people. Most troublingly, she appears to assume that those educated in state schools would hold someone’s accent against them in the workplace, not least because they are "the embodiment of an Establishment that is widely perceived as doing its best to crush them". Was a unique, formal public benefit test to widen access all for nothing?

It takes a particular sense of detachment to make so many sweeping judgments with no evidence whatsoever – about how Scottish pupils think or sound, or what they wish to offer the world. There are the same number of pupils in Highland Council as in the Scottish independent sector – more than in more than 25 other Scottish local authorities – all of whom have more in common than the schools 400 miles south she relies on for her stereotypes. How does she presume to know how Scottish pupils all sound, where they want to work, and how they are treated when they get there? What of the 10 per cent of independent pupils from countries beyond Scotland? Yet apparently it is independent school pupils that "can have a hard time diverging from the group think".

According to the Scottish Government, the time has come for a "new national discussion on education, one which will give everyone the chance to have their voice heard". The independent sector will be part of that, with as many different voices as there are young people. They and their families and carers are far more interested in the enriching experience of being at school then whatever might lie after. Perhaps we might all learn something.

John Edward, Scottish Council of Independent Schools, Edinburgh.

SILENCING WIND FARM OPPONENTS

IT was no surprise to read that NatureScot’s budget has been slashed yet again by the Scottish Government ("Warning of budget cut threat to wildlife", The Herald, October 14). We have witnessed the decline in its ability to scrutinise and respond to wind farm applications for more than a decade due to its lack of resources. This of course suits the Scottish Government and developers down to the ground as there is less opposition to their plans – unbelievable profits for developers and mega millions in rent for the Government when planning permission is granted for development on public land. This is a gross conflict of interest as it is the Scottish ministers who give consent to large-scale wind farms and they are therefore effectively lining the Government's pockets.

RSPB, another consultee to wind farm applications, is in a similar situation as its lack of resources also leaves it gagged and only able to focus on “priority sites or species”.

The Scottish Government knows local authorities are overwhelmed with planning applications and can’t cope and it is also well aware that local communities do not have the manpower or expertise required to scrutinise large technical documents or the ability to raise sufficient funds in order to employ professional help when faced with numerous applications simultaneously or consecutively.

It is doing a grand job of silencing any opposition to its plans to destroy our rural communities, iconic landscapes and wildlife. Is there not a word for that?

Aileen Jackson, Uplawmoor.

SEE WHERE WE ARE WITHOUT OIL

I SEE that October is Black History Month; in other countries it is also LGBT History Month and National Arts and Humanities Month. Can I suggest that we have a No Oil Month?

For one month there would be no production, refining, buying, selling or transporting of oil. Petrol stations could close for a month and oil-related workers could take leave. At the end we could have a referendum as to whether the people support leaving fossil fuel in the ground.

Geoff Moore, Alness.

STAKING A MUSICAL CLAIM

I RECENTLY received an email from Glasgow Concert Halls advertising, among many other attractions, Greig's much-loved, deeply romantic Piano Concerto, but they surely missed the opportunity to rival A Play, A Pie And A Pint by offering at least a steak bake in the Encore Cafe to whet our appetite for the music.

Tom Rodger, Glasgow.