"The Civil List is paid to the Royal Family in return for its surrendering the income from the Crown Estate to the Treasury. Since the Treasury receives in the region of £226.5m pa from the Crown Estate and pays out around £8m for the Civil List it appears that the taxpayer has actually got something of a bargain."

Not exactly. The Crown Estate does not belong to the monarch - it belongs to the country so, by giving back the income to the Treasury, George was actually only gving back what was ours anyway. The Windsors are now asking for £14 million a year - hardly a bargain to keep a bunch of useless drones in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

Our national heritage is not just in the buildings, it is in the freedom of thought and action that led to The Peasant's Revolt and ever other major insurrection of the people that has occured in this land - especially the thinking of The Levellers, The Diggers etc. as set out in the Agreement of the People and discussed in the Putney Debates and which stimulated the ideas of Paine, Rousseau, etc. which, of course led to the American Constitution...... That is the true heritage of this country - a heritage of ideas and ideals from people who refused to be bound by a bunch of in-bred idiots whose power rested on accident of birth.

In 1649 Parliament declared:
"the office of the king in this nation is unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous to the liberty, society and public interest of the people."

Today, more than ever, this holds true.