Witchell was not being anti-royalist with baby remarks

From: Elisabeth Baker, Broomhill Crescent, Leeds.

ANDREW Vine (Yorkshire Post, July 24) castigates both the BBC in general and Nicholas Witchell in particular for taking a virtually Republican stance in reporting on the birth of the new Prince, primarily because of the reporter’s use of the expression “as things stand” in reference to the Prince being our Sovereign in the future.

The Monarchy is an institution which, give or take one or two particular personalities, I support wholeheartedly. The BBC made an unforgivable hash of its coverage of the Diamond Jubilee pageant.

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But on this occasion, my understanding was that “as things stand” was with reference to the new Prince following his great-grandmother, then his grandfather and then his father onto the throne.

Who knows what the future will bring? Will the Succession go smoothly, with all in direct line surviving to take their places as expected? I thought that Nicholas Witchell’s phrase was merely a staid version of “all being well” or “the Lord willing”.

Was I being naive?

In the same way in which I found the pre-birth “Royal Baby Souvenirs” published by some of the press to be tasteless and virtually tempting fate, I preferred to await news of the baby’s safe arrival before raising a glass to him.

Let us hope that he grows up healthy and strong.

From: David Horncastle, Birkdale Close, Bessacarr. Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

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REFERRING to Andrew Vine’s article (Yorkshire Post, July 24), yes, to say “as things stand” is possibly not quite the most attractive way to refer to the future prospects of the new royal baby.

However, my grandmother would never allow any projection to be made without the assertion “all being well” which, life being the uncertainty that it is, does allow for the intervention of a whole range of unforeseen circumstances.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

I AM at a total loss as to why the BBC chose Nicholas Witchell to be the regular Royal correspondent.

His ability to be snide in 
his remarks and tendency to 
“put down” the Royals at 
every chance, plus the fact 
that he is far from popular with the Royal family, makes him, at best, a poor choice.

Or perhaps it is endemic 
in the BBC to create an impression of dislike for 
our hard working and very popular, both here and 
abroad, Queen and other 
senior members of 
“The Firm”.