Genuflecting before the wedding of mass distraction

If only the royal marriage carried the significance Zoe Williams attaches to it ( Comment , 18 November). Their embrace of Kate Middleton may save the royal family from a diminishing gene pool, but changes little else. To imagine that it is "a nail in the coffin of an obnoxious hierarchy" is to confuse the institution that is monarchy with the family that is Windsor. While the nation may be delighted by the inclusion of a "commoner", it will still genuflect before the symbols of privilege and elitism. Hooray for William, if his actions repudiate divine right; the rest of us were under the misapprehension that this doctrine had lost its legitimacy when Charles I lost his head . Paul McGilchrist Colchester, Essex • Alexander Chancellor ( G2 , 19 November) claims William and Kate are "the people with whom Britons in general can identify and feel comfortable with". Try telling that to those hundreds of thousands about to lose their jobs, their housing or invalidity benefit, or shortly to be denied a university education. No doubt they are both nice people and I wish them well, but that's all that can and should be said. Alistair Mcintosh Burford, Oxfordshire • The government has unleashed WMD: wedding of mass distraction. Alasdair McKee Lancaster • We are being told that the British people are overjoyed at the impending royal wedding and therefore don't mind bearing the cost. Why not put this to the test? Instead of our taxes funding security and other wedding costs for a leading member of one of the richest families in Britain, there should be a public collection to which anyone who wants to can contribute. Stephen Hardwick London • Could the wedding of Wills and Kate be put out to private tender to gain best value for the taxpayer? Alan Quinn Manchester • Since the momentous news broke, Scots have been plagued by the same question: if William gave Kate his mither's engagement ring, did he also give her "a bonnie wee tartan shawl"? Francis McCahill Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire • Will Miss Middleton be the first queen in a thousand generations to go to university? Richard Castle Redhill, Surrey