"They have shown sneering contempt for what ordinary people think, want and believe."

I have sneering contempt for the massive spin machine that helps to persuade a lot of people that the royals are worth having. One upshot of this occurred in 1997, when tens of thousands of hysterically-tearful people and acres of cheap flowers characterised mass "mourning" for a naive playgirl divorcee that none of them had ever met. The country is replete with royal press officers, spokesmen and royal correspondents, not to speak of almost universally complicit media, all of which ensure that we all get the message and that even vague hints of royal tomfoolery are suppressed. It's also telling that the royals, with the glorious exception of Prince Charles of Bellend, who more or less makes an idiot of himself every time he opens his mouth, are kept very quiet, hardly ever allowed to make off the cuff public statements. Scarcely surprising when you consider some of Phil The Greek's past gaffes. When I think about it, Keith, it's you showing the contempt for ordinary people by arguing for perpetuating the mass sycophancy.