Wedding hitch

I despaired when I read your article that public money was to be used to fund the £400,000 policing costs associated with Zara Phillips’ wedding to Mike Tindall (9 November).

It’s not just the amount that irritates me (I am sure that many public or charitable bodies in Scotland could put £400,000 to good use). What really concerns me is the palace’s response that it “would be inappropriate to comment”, which I interpret as “not worthy of comment”.

I sincerely hope that this example of exploitation of the great unwashed by the establishment does not go unnoticed by our political representatives. This story needs to be debated at length in the media so that an equitable outcome, for example, one in which the Phillips-Tindall family foot some of the bill, is achieved.

Alan Kennedy

Silverknowes Place

Edinburgh

It has been reported that the cost of policing the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall in Edinburgh was £400,000. This was nearly as much as the £543,000 cost of policing the Pope’s visit to Edinburgh.

When the Pope visited this country we were told by various humanists and secularists that it was unacceptable at a time of economic austerity for the country to be paying for his visit, and a number of demonstrations, albeit sparsely attended, were organised on that basis.

However, I do not recall these same groups making as much as a whimper when it came to the cost of policing the Phillips-Tindall wedding.

Is this a case of one rule for the Pope and another for the well connected? Or does this simply expose the blatant hypocrisy of those who protested against the Pope’s visit?

Michael Ryan

Campsie Drive

Glasgow