Fred: Thank you for such a reasonable, and reasoned, post. I hold no brief for them, as I say. Prince Harry's swastika was a dire misjudgment, to put it no stronger. & his granddad's gaffes are notorious [tho he is only a Consort, remember, not a real one! I should dearly love to know what HM confides to the few suffered to know her honest opinions {there must be one or two, I suppose, or the poor woman would surely go bananas} about his idiot goings-on].

But I don't see why they should be treated with gross discourtesy, any more than with arsecreeping sycophancy. Honest, now: are you complacent about your "makes me want to throw up" remark?

& I can't see that any left-wing governments that have ever managed to get themselves into power have been much to write home about. I am a pragmatistic don't-fix-if-not-broke person far more than a KnowWhatsBest4U-er. I should certainly rather live under Liz II as my figurehead than under Mao or Uncle Joe as my absolute overlord. By their fruits... I don't know your age; but were you about while Stalin did reign and this old fur-cap was new? &, if so, how did you feel about it all?

So forgive me if I don't join you in your abolition campaign: but rather take my watchword from Hilaire Belloc; make do with what is there, "for fear of finding something worse". My late wife was in Beijing at the time of Tienanmen & was lucky to escape, and I just missed it having been there till a few weeks earlier. Believe me; there are worse things than the fairly harmless inhabitants of Buck House & its environs. So be careful, as any fairytale would warn you, what you wish for!

~M~