Why, oh why am I joining this.

Please don't anybody fall in to believing that the Royals have any power or control any longer. Anti-Royalists have been trotting out the "priveleged birth" argument for centuries, but it's all a bit passe (can't do acute accents I'm afraid) in today's terms.

And in no way is Her Majesty responsible for (probably not even conscious of!) anything carried out by "Her Majesty's police force" and especially not "Her Majesty's Government". Bottom line is they don't COST, they EARN, so it's best thay stay.

And Gervase, are you bidding for non-sequitur of the season? - more people go to France than to England simply because the weather is better. Oh - and the food.

Cheers, Terry