I DON’T know why The Sun newspaper decided to feature a picture of the Queen as a child doing the Nazi salute in 1933. She was a child and it was probably seen as amusing.

For palace officials to be upset about it and see it as an unwarranted incursion into their privacy is over the top.

Obsession with keeping us in the dark about what happens inside the palace invites curiosity. If the crown is neutral and above politics it is best to appear normal, and not see itself as a “no go” area.

Prince Charles’ letters, when finally published, were not all that interesting.

My recollection during the war is of the royal family staying in London during the Blitz and, though I question the institution, the decision not to run for safety make them one of us Personally, I would love to know what the Queen herself thought of the various Prime Ministers who came to see her as part of the play acting which goes on behind the scenes.

That would be an interesting scoop and may tempt me to read The Sun which I regard with disdain at present as I do its proprietor who is either an American or an Australian.

G Bulmer, Billingham.

WHY on earth are the press trying to discredit the Royal family yet again this time over a family photograph taken some 82 years ago of them supposedly performing a Nazi Salute?

Has no one ever seen Fawlty Towers’ hilariously funny ‘don’t mention the war’ episode?

Or the old Will Hay movie The Goose Steps Out? And what about Mel Brooks’ portrayal of Hitler in The Producers? When will these pathetic dirt diggers realise this is 2015? We are not at war with Germany but we are all in conflict with terror and terrorists on a massive scale.

Look at today and our children’s future not historic buffoonery. It’s pathetic.

John Cumberland, Rushyford.

BEING more or less of the Queen’s generation, I too, as a child, used to give Nazi salutes as a parody of what we saw on the cinema news reels.

Back in the early 30s Hitler was much admired for the way he dragged Germany up out of depression. What it led to was, of course, totally abhorrent.

Alec Telford, Darlington.