The Queen is actually quite a shy and private person and having Prince Philip by her side was a great support for her. He knew how to "break the ice" with his jokes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't!

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He reminded me of my own late grandfathers who also served in WWII and would make similar "grandad" comments and jokes.

It will be hard to imagine him gone as he was always "there" right beside the Queen helping her in her duties. He is like everybody's grandfather.

I just feel sad for the Queen who has lost her husband of more than 70 years.

It will be hard for her to go on without him, nonetheless she is a strong and stoic woman and has the support of her family. I hope we never become a republic, because I love the royal family!

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I echo the sentiments of Di O'Neil, in her letter of Tuesday April 13.

The Karen people have escaped extraordinary deprivations and dangers to get to Bendigo.

The people who are customers of mine are always warm, kind and polite.

They are great people. Unlike some migrants from other countries, they are grateful for the chance to live here, and never demand we change our way of life to suit them or become 'offended' by our lifestyle.

I do encourage all Bendigo residents to reach out to the Karen people and make them welcome.

They deserve it.

The recent letter from the Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh is light on detail and heavy on rhetoric.

He conveniently leaves out the fact that the black spot program to help fix the most urgent road upgrades depends on his federal party colleagues providing adequate funding to the states.

It would also be nice if the Federal Coalition directed these funds to where they were most urgently needed instead of helping to get their local members re-elected.

Everyone also knows that for fatal or serious accidents an investigation and comprehensive report is done as to what may have contributed to the accident.

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It would be of much more benefit if Mr Walsh made the effort to find this out.

Many of the fatalities over recent months as reported in the Advertiser appear to be the result of drivers running off the road, some early in the morning or in wet conditions.

Quoting a percentage over a 20-year period is just lazy.

It's a figure that without any further statistics really tells us nothing about the causes.

Most people would agree that it's a much more complex problem.

Throwing bucket loads of federal and state government money at resurfacing works may help to a small degree.

It certainly won't be a panacea for solving the wide array of complex factors contributing to vehicle accidents in this state.

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