Ah. Took just 14 posts before we got to the old favourite "It's good for tourism" post.

Always makes me smile, that one. That's really the best argument you can come up with - and it always comes up - for the way our whole system of government, our constitution, the very fabric of our nation, is organised? That it attracts tourists?

If that's really the only reason we have for keeping the monarchy, then just knock down Buck House and build a theme park. It would be just as effective and a damn sight more cost-efficient.

Mind, Midchuck's argument about having a head of state who's above all the day-to-day nitty-gritty of politics is interesting. I'll have to think about that one. You couldn't imagine Obama, for instance, getting involved in the weekly mud-slinging and flak-dodging of Prime Minister's Question Time.