A gesture that was bittersweet

I SUPPOSE one should not look a gift horse in the mouth but there is a certain irony in the Duke of Rothesay giving a chocolate model of his palatial Highgrove House to the residents and staff of the Ayrshire Hospice (“Duke melts hearts on tour of hospice as he gifts patients chocolate model of his Highgrove home”, The Herald, December 22).

Carted all the way from a Swiss chocolaterie it could be compared to another out-of-touch royal saying “Let them eat cake”.

At a time when the backside is hanging out of the NHS our apprentice king is handing out sweeties when it would perhaps be better for all concerned if he were to donate a few million of his Duchy profits to palliative care. David J Crawford, Flat 3/3, 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.

THIS is a frozen ivy leaf I captured while on a walk in the Dalzell Estate in Motherwell, taken with a Canon 7d.