John Barrand Alexandria Royals are a joke anyway, so what's their problem? I read with outrage and disgust the article concerning the interference of the royal family on the planned broadcast by the ABC of the Chaser's coverage of the wedding of Prince William. That the royals should have the power to do this is an insult to the rights of free speech of the peoples of a ''sovereign'' nation. The royal family is itself a source of great amusement to many and it is a sorely unfunny joke that an English queen should still be officially our head of state. For myself, I would prefer to watch for hours of static. It would be more edifying.

Peter Miller Lane Cove The ABC is gutless. Greg Smith Balcatta Ross Cameron explains it all so clearly (''William, Kate and everybody you know'', April 28). I must have extricated myself from the mush that is the ''primaeval grip'' of the princess myth. I have never wanted to be one, can't think of a worse job in the world and can't think of anything more boring to do on a Friday night. Anyone for scrabble? ''Princess'' could score quite well on a double word … Amanda Harrison Greenwich

As a republican Australian I say thank goodness commonsense has prevailed on the banning of the Chaser's commentary of the royal wedding. Comedy and satire is always appropriate after the event, not during.What was the ABC thinking of? Certainly not etiquette, manners and respect. Will the head of the ABC and head of television be handing in their resignations? Or perhaps better if the chair and board resigned for not doing their jobs in the first place. Anthony Buckley Port Douglas Clarence House has just done wonders for the republican movement in Australia. And it has one new member. Christina Trappes-Lomax Elizabeth Bay

With almost every Australian current affairs and morning TV presenter in London covering the royal wedding, now is the perfect time to rort a system or rip off a pensioner. There's no one around to catch you. Nicole Bradshaw Breakfast Point If only the royals had enforced restrictions over media organisations as forcefully when Diana was alive. Walter Lee Enmore We let the Barmy Army take the mickey for a whole summer of Ashes but the Chaser is not allowed to reciprocate. Very telling.

Steve Pollitt Cremorne I was delighted to see the Chaser has been chased off the ABC coverage of the royal wedding. A wedding is an important and solemn occasion, not to be dealt with as a joke. Now that these buffoons are off, I will happily watch the ABC coverage. Derek Davies Bomaderry The intrusion of the monarchy into Australian television programming via its Chaser ban is the final straw. Grab your scissors, remove the top left corner of our flag and declare a republic where we are free to laugh (and free from stuffiness). What's worse is I'll now have to listen to the footy on ABC Radio. Vince Heffernan Dalton

On the same day that our Prime Minister was lecturing the Chinese about basic respect for human rights, some foreign minion at Clarence House has the nerve to censor how our national public broadcaster will report and portray an event. Did our PM speak up against this injustice? This hypocrisy is infuriating. Shame on you, Julia Gillard. Platon Theodoris Newtown The censorship of the Chaser by the palace has given Gen Y and Z more of a healthy disrespect for the monarchy than the broadcast itself could ever have done. Deborah Mobberley Lindfield

In the springtime of my old age, all sorts of unworthy conservative notions were taking root (canonise Philip Ruddock, bring back the Kent Brewery feathered Clydesdales). Then the minions of a princeling threatened our ABC, and the old revolutionary fires were reignited. Anger and rejuvenation. Thank you, Clarence House.

Rosemary Brown Castle Cove Hardly surprising in light of all that inbreeding. Helen Lyons-Riley Melrose Park Simulcast. Brendan Jones Paddington (Qld)

Downer takes potshots while questions remain Alexander Downer likes to vilify Mamdouh Habib. He is an easy target, being a broken shell of a man, reduced to that condition, so it seems, by his treatment at the hands of those acting in the name of national security (''Downer hardly in a position to call me shocking, says Hicks'', April 27). It would help the uninformed public to evaluate Mr Downer's criticism if he would tell us what he knows about the Habib affair. For example, what does he know of Mr Habib's rendition to Egypt from Pakistan? How many Australians were involved? Did Mr Habib go to Egypt to look at the pyramids or was he sent there, with Australia's knowledge, to be interrogated by methods repugnant to civilised nations? Were Australians involved in the torture? Who sent Mr Habib to Guantanamo Bay? Can Mr Downer tell us about his treatment there? In this age of official secrets revelations, surely Mr Downer could help us understand the Habib affair by coming clean. I suspect that, beyond traducing Mr Habib, he will remain mute, hiding under the blanket of national security.

Ian Barker, QC Berry As well as those ''terrible'' Messrs Hicks and Habib, I'm sure Mr Downer will soon reveal his emphatic view that Iraq still has ''Weapons of Mass Destruction''. Chris Cudmore Moss Vale Economy of scale Could Mr Costello name any other treasurer who had a $340 billion resources boom fall into his lap and then waste it on middle-class welfare (''Bad luck enters with a boom in parallel reality that is Wayne's world'', April 27)? A drovers's dog could have managed such an economy. He talks of budget surpluses. The Liberals had never produced a single surplus until Keating produced three on the trot when treasurer. Only then did the Liberals adopt ''surpluses'' as their holy mantra.

Reforms? For 11 years the Liberals were asleep at the wheel and surfed on the Hawke-Keating reforms. These were: universal superannuation, the floating of the dollar, deregulation of the finance industry, the full franking of shares, the eradication of centralised wage fixing; removal of tariffs and the Accord with workers. These are the reforms that also protected us from the Asian meltdown. Name even one reform that matches these, Mr Costello. In 11 years all Mr Costello could come up with was the Great Big Tax (the GST) and Work Choices. Ray Armstrong Tweed Heads South Despite the latest inflation figures, I am at a loss to understand how raising interest rates in this present climate is going to help (''Rate fears as cost of living hits new high'', April 28).

Engineer as I am, economist I am not, I have always been led to believe that inflation, i.e. increased prices, came from ''demand pull'' or ''cost push''. Retail sales are slow and house prices are stagnant so there is little or no demand pull. So it must be cost push brought about, in my opinion, by excessive wage demands leading to increased labour and associated costs. Interest rate rises are only going to put increased pressure on these input costs. David Lasker Middle Cove Here's a tip to business, and it's free (''Digging deep to pay for training'', April 27). If you would like instant access to staff with a strong work ethic, lots of experience and built-in loyalty, all you need to do is eliminate the bias within your organisation. And, employ a baby-boomer. They're out there, in large numbers. Ted Keating Tallai I actually know of only one man on the dole.

I know at least another 10 men who don't have a job but do not qualify for assistance. (Having more than $2000 in the bank is enough to make you ineligible.) They're in their late 40s or early 50s and have spent 20 or so years in corporations that don't have any further use for men of that age. When the employment numbers exclude from their definition so many people in my immediate circle, I'm tempted to suggest that they vastly understate the real extent of unemployment in the wider community. It is a pity that this group is not more vocal about their plight but I guess there is the shame of admitting to be unemployed rather than merely ''consulting''. Daniel Jeffares Bowral Whale of a time It's strange that Japan hasn't sent a bunch of their whale scientists to investigate the carcass at Newport Beach (Diary, April 28). It's just sitting there, with no need for the expensive and messy task of killing a fresh one and dragging it out of the sea. Surely the fact that it has started to putrefy and is therefore inedible would have nothing to do with it.

Matt Petersen Randwick Strickland funds Strickland House and its surrounding buildings definitely need funds for maintenance. But New York University's proposal to convert it to a campus has too many concerns. For instance, NYU began negotiations with state Labor in October - that is, the government that gave us the Barangaroo and Harold Park developments. In addition, university students and heritage gardens don't mix (with apologies to uni students but many do let their hair down on weekends). Consider only proposals that keep the site in public use.

Diane Davie Rose Bay Monkey business Elizabeth Farrelly is appalled at those who regard human beings as ''reducible to primates'' (''Mystery dies when we don't see ourselves as part of eternity'', April 27). Well, that's what we are, and compared with some of the others - gorillas and orang-utans, for example - we're pretty destructive and morally dubious primates at that. Anthropocentric exceptionalism - including the faith-based variety that Ms Farrelly espouses - is behind a lot of the very brutality and shallowness she's complaining about. If we stop thinking we're so special, we might start being civilised. Mark Demetrius Potts Point Trying transport

The new state government promised to improve public transport, but some things are travelling in the opposite direction. Hillsbus customers were recently led astray by wrong timetable information for Easter Saturday on the 131500 transport website, and some south coast commuters will have their peak-hour trains cut from six carriages to four from May 9. When do the improvements start? Doug Walker Baulkham Hills Range of rights If it is OK and not illegal for alleged asylum seekers to travel by boat, why do we prosecute the boat crew who help them? They are not an accessory to an illegal act. They are providing a humanitarian service. Michael Sobb Rydalmere

Dear Julia Gillard, while you were bringing up the issue of human rights in China to the Chinese leaders, did you tell them that you deny human rights to all the gay citizens in Australia? Or did that slip your mind? Rodger Hedley Rockdale Destiny of dynasties Your correspondent Garry Feeney writes: ''The passing of political authority from parent to child by 'divine right' is absurdly out of place in the 21st century'' (Letters, April 27). He is quite right, of course - but I wonder how this applies to the Packers and Murdochs, who now wield rather more ''political authority'' than the Windsors have done for quite some time? Ian Burke Berridale

Rain on this parade Another week of rain and another reason to be thankful for the $1.8 billion decision to invest in a desalination plant over water recycling technologies or increases to dam capacities. Tom Key West Pymble Search for aliens or inalienable rights I find it difficult to justify the dedication of a $50 million telescope and operating costs of $3 million a year to the so-called ''burning issue'' of searching for aliens in deep space (''Alien hunters have close encounter of the budget kind'', April 28). Especially as after five decades nothing has been found. This is scientific ''trivia and entertainment'' when we have over half of planet Earth's population without adequate food or clean water. A Rotarian friend of mine would gladly accept some of this ''small change'' towards the mere $18,000 he seeks to raise for a school bus in war-torn Uganda. It seems that we have our priorities all wrong.

Mike Cuming Carlingford Untrue blue In light of David Jordan's comment about film names saying it all (Letters, April 27). There is one ''un'' he left out in regard to our illustrious leader: ''Unforgiven''. A good western for ''she'' who has been in the East. Russell Page Wingham. $1.52 v $1 a litre

Petrol price up by 8.8 per cent and milk price down by 6.2 per cent in the March quarter (''Rate fears as cost of living hits new high'', April 28). How can I have my car converted to run on milk? Kevin Sekel Nowra Dark cars I am waiting eagerly for one of the drivers of these black or grey cars to try to explain why they don't need to put their lights on in poor visibility (Letters, April 28). Do they think that because they can see me that I must be able to see them? It reminds me of when my daughter was two and her way of hiding was to simply put her hands over her eyes. Stephen Broderick Avalon

A lateral solution for Izzy Perko's problem of seeing black or grey cars behind you when merging - adopt the ACT road rule that when merging the car in front has right of way. Down here you really only have to worry about the cars in front of you (unless the person behind has NSW number plates). David Markham Flynn (ACT) Hair raising Now that Obama has revealed his birth certificate, will Donald Trump reveal what that thing on his head is (''Trump takes credit for Obama birth certificate release'', smh.com.au, April 28). Paul Stephen Yamba

Now that we've seen Obama's birth date, could we get a look at Donald Trump's use-by date? Sam Greene Maroochydore (Qld) Making a meal of it Just like Lesley Goldberg (Letters, April 28), we also found some lovely, well-designed restaurants that made it easy to talk to one another. A few wall hangings and soft-furnishings rather than polished concrete, glass and steel is all it took. Of course, these restaurants were in Hobart. Anthony van den Broek Erskineville

Concert challenge Trevor Conomy is spot on (Letters, April 28). I've been to many big concerts over the years where everyone but me seems to be having a splendid time, but I know for a fact they can't be hearing the music because the sound mix is so bad. Maybe they're all listening to the lights and the fog machine. Lloyd Swanton Wentworth Falls When Bob Dylan was booed by the folkie purists in 1966 for going electric, he turned around and said to his band, "Play it [expletive] loud!" On Wednesday night at the Entertainment Centre he answered his recent critics with a blistering version of Ballad of a Thin Man in which he snarled the words "Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr Jones?" Like the true artist he is, Dylan's response was a brilliant concert that simply scorched for just on two hours. And you know, I think the audience was treated to something like a little dance from the great man!

Michael Fischer Coogee