A FREEDOM of information request has revealed that the Queen received £34,164 in grants between 2018 and 2020 for her Balmoral estate. The Queen and the royal family are a relic from the past and of another age. One of the richest women in the world gets subsidies from the parasitised British taxpayer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks, people in poverty and on the verge of poverty will soon have their Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits reduced.

Balmoral is the Queen’s annual retreat at this time of year. For Prince Andrew, the Balmoral retreat has a very different meaning, more like a bolthole. Andrew is reported to be “stir crazy” but far more likely he’s moving around to avoid being served with legal papers by Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers. How long he can keep avoiding Ms Giuffre’s legal papers – believed to have been served on August 27, according to a filed document in a New York court – is anyone’s guess. Andrew’s dubious and colourful private life is a gift that keeps giving for the voracious British press, providing them with copious amounts of salacious copy.

READ MORE: 'Wanted' Prince Andrew billboards appear outside Scottish Asda

For those gullible and deluded souls who still think that the royal family is apolitical, think again. I can recall a newspaper article from a few years ago which stated that between them, the Queen and Prince Charles had used the royal veto on parliament on 19 occasions. Now there is a proposal to make Prince William some kind of roving paladin for the Union. So much for royal political neutrality.

Balmoral has become a metaphor for the royal family: grand, remote and isolated, of another age. The royal family have no real power, they are only nominal heads of state. They are essentially famous for being famous. They legitimise elitism and are the pillars upon which the British establishment rests.

The Queen, first sequestered at Windsor Castle and now at the 50,000-acre Balmoral estate, cuts an inaccessible, distant and irrelevant figure in pandemic Britain.

Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh

THE SNP virtual conference got under way on Friday and a multitude of topics could have taken top spot on the agenda, but rightly it was welfare, which affects so many households in the country. Too often the silent majority are left behind, an add-on, but on Friday we heard a plea, a plea to the Westminster government not to abolish the £20-per-week temporary uplift to Universal Credit (UC), a single act which will plunge in excess of 400,000 households in Scotland into poverty.

The SNP recognise they are not alone in this plea – charities, devolved administrations, cross-party support in the House of Commons are all demanding no cut.

READ MORE: SNP conference RECAP: All the news and updates from Sunday

Unfortunately for those in receipt of UC, the SNP have no devolved powers on this benefit, but this situation makes the clear case for full welfare powers to be devolved to the devolved administrations, where the interests of the claimant can be prioritised.

So, the time has arrived for the Chancellor to break his silence on this crucial issue before the queues at the food banks get out of control. Over to you, Chancellor!

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

THEY really don’t get it, do they?

Alex Rowley having a pop at our FM over the referendum/independence issue. I’m sure Mr Rowley is in complete agreement with me when I say that the current Tory government is bad news for Scotland, so ... what to do?

The indy supporters’ solution is (surprise surprise) self-government, which is likely to rid us of Tory governments FOREVER! What’s the so-called “Scottish” Labour party’s solution? Sit on our collective arses indefinitely, patiently waiting for England to elect the party of the workers (which no longer exists, by the way) so we can “join in” and have a Labour government in Westminster, with Mr Starmer as PM? Does that sound like a practical solution to our problems to you? I think not!

READ MORE: Six in 10 want indyref2 by 2026, Tory think-tank finds

I seriously doubt even the most committed Labour supporter believes they will form a Westminster government in my lifetime (I’m nearly 75). Achieving independence IS the day job, as it’s the only way ANYTHING is going to change. “Things can only get better” – remember that one, Alex? Tony and the invasion of Iraq, and Gordie Broon screwin’ the economy. That went well, didn’t it?

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

A LETTER in Saturday’s National says there was “no persecution of witches during the Cromwellian Commonwealth”. This is a common misapprehension, but it is just that – a misapprehension. Certainly, after the invasion of Scotland by Cromwell’s army, many witchcraft suspects seem to have been freed, but by the latter years of the Commonwealth witchcraft persecution was once more flourishing – in East Lothian, at least.

Janet Bruce from Tranent was tried and executed for witchcraft in 1657. The extensive documentation of her interrogation and trial includes a possibly unique diagram of the pin used to prick her for witchmarks by the notorious “pricker” John Kincaid.

In 1658 the Haddington magistrates sent Margaret Anderson for trial before the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh, and she was convicted and executed for witchcraft even though she had repudiated her confession.

Eight women from Stenton were tried for witchcraft in the High Court of Justiciary in 1659. One was acquitted and the rest executed. Ten women and one man from Tranent were also tried for witchcraft in the Justiciary Court the same year. One woman died in prison and the rest were found guilty and executed.

It was not until 1660 that the “Restoration” brought the Commonwealth to an end.

DM Robertson
Longniddry, East Lothian