Steve ~~ I say you are not a fool; you call me a twat. And then you have to gall to accuse me of calling you naughty names. Oh, Mr Shaw, you really are a one!

I am not, btw, particularly pro-royal: a lot of them [Harry with his swastika; Diana with her sex-life; Margaret with her overall snobbish toffenosed general objectionability] can be a terrible embarrassment to those who wish them well. It is just that it happens to be the system we have, & works pragmatically as well as most others one observes; and it is usually best IMO to work on the valuable "if it ain't broke don't fix it" principle, for fear, as I think it was H Belloc who put it, of finding something worse. That is the full extent of my support for the institution.

But, as the judge said to Rumpole when he was trying to influence him re a suitable sentence, "You have your job to do and I have mine"; so we all have our jobs to do and they have theirs: & while they are doing it, surely they will do it most efficiently without constant sniping from mindless [thank you for the word] objectors on dubious principle to the very fact of their existence?

~M~