I’M perplexed by FM Sturgeon’s claim about monarchy. Of course there should be a debate about its future in an independent Scotland, however shouldn’t it be based on its relevance to a modern democratic nation based on equality rather than some contemporary blip in its standard of conduct?

Monarchy is the pinnacle of a privilege structure which is contradictory to democratic equality. How can that be right and proper?

READ MORE: 'Debate to be had' over the future of the monarchy, FM says

How revealing is it that SNP policy is to retain the monarchy? Doesn’t this reveal their lack of confidence that the electorate are ready to wean themselves off their subservience to the Crown?

As I head into death zone my biggest disappointment from my life is two-fold. Scotland is not independent. And we have not embraced true equality by ending the monarchy. These are my generation’s failures. We promulgated equality. We delivered a status quo that is fundamentally unfair, and wrong.

Jim Taylor
Edinburgh