Well, it's very nice of the Crown to contribute £242 million to the Treasury. But the Crown Estate, and all the other royal holdings, belong to the nation, if you care to go back far enough. They were all stolen from the ordinary people of this country by the ancestors of those who hold them now, and are now used, landlordistically, to further fleece the people they were stolen from. Tell us what proportion of the total income of the Crown Estate et al. £242 million is. That would be quite revealing - and quite small. But you'll never be able to find out. Ask yourself why. Then calculate what the take would be if the Crown Estate et al. were fairly divided among ordinary, hard-working, honest, tax-paying people who couldn't, or wouldn't, afford armies of accountants to minimise the tax take of the state. Why, we could probably pay off all of Spain's debts!

Any man who is sad because he disagrees with you is, indeed, a very happy man, Keith.