It’s time to pension off the monarchy - Bruce Whitehead

The royals, I wrote "must either stop making political remarks or resign their office and become a low-cost bicycling monarchy with a purely symbolic role and no power of patronage. They cannot have it both ways."

Bruce Whitehead

They had their chance; now they should go. The monarchy is a divisive force entrenching the vast gulf between the wealthy and the poor, with special access to top education and jobs enjoyed by the well-connected rich and powerful.

The widening class divide, which sees poorer students excluded from higher education, even with free tuition, and a huge attainment gap between poor school pupils and the wealthy, this week gave us unemployment at a 5-year high. It's time to spread the wealth around.

Top of the pipes - David on Princes Street

The rigged system that locks families into working poverty through both boom times and recession needs to end, and the class system which underpins it is ultimately controlled by the British aristocracy, led by the Windsors.

The public think it's time; last year they scored the lowest-ever levels of support at 51 per cent. With the post Brexit/Covid/Ukraine squeeze on public finances we can ill afford the upwards of half-a-billion we waste on them every year. The argument that this is an investment which pays out for all of us is bogus.

There were precious few Random Acts of Kindness on the Queensferry 43 on Wednesday; an elderly couple got bypassed as the Princes Street queue collapsed like an England scrum, a dozen teenage passengers surging offside, leaving the pensioners standing downstairs along with a breathless mum with two kids. I nabbed the last seat upstairs.

This must have been Karma; I had just handed a coin to a busking piper at the Mound, but suddenly recognised a dear friend.

Sporting a Pride flag and yellow tartan, David is simply the best piper on Princes Street!