The duke’s legacy

To The Guardian

The family of the Duke of Westminster deserves our sincere condolences for his untimely and sudden death. My parents died some years ago. They worked throughout their lives as general practitioners for the NHS. When they died, they left their estate, the house they lived in, to my siblings and myself in equal shares. The house was sold at a sum slightly more than the inheritance tax threshold of the time; we paid 40% tax on the excess and divided the balance, after probate, between my brothers, sister and myself. We were content with our inheritance. The duke’s estate has been widely reported as about £9bn: 40% of that could make a very useful contribution to the NHS, to schools, to social services. And yet, again widely reported, it is said that his heirs will inherit it all. While I have no doubt the tax arrangements are legal, they cannot be right or fair. As long as ordinary individuals and families continue to pay their taxes, how can the rich not – and yet remain honoured by titles, befriended by royalty and applauded for their “generosity”? Martyn Brown, Budleigh Salterton, Devon

To The Daily Telegraph

The Duke of Westminster’s wealth is represented on social media as a pile of dead money on which a single person sits doing nothing, rather than an enterprise that employs 1,200 people directly and tens of thousands indirectly. This enterprise contributes to the state through tax, and its profits have funded a generous philanthropy. It inspires an oldfashioned loyalty towards those to whom fate of birth has given a sense of duty. Give me a Duke of Westminster over a politician, Russian oligarch or footballer any day. Victor Launert, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire