Should we abolish the Royal family?

[Gandalf]

Privatise the Royal fucking family then. Let them inflate their price so that only daft Yanks with no history pay to look at them. The Prime Minister should be head of state, not some outdated Queen. Why have both when you can pay for one? I don't care about tourism, I care about democracy and a monarchy is anti-democratic.

Great so when our prime minister is visiting with foreign diginitaries, or maybe the victims of a terrorist attack, where hundrede have been killed in a response to a government military policy in the middle east who is he representing first and foremost? The country? The people of Britain? The Government? The Conservative Party?

Our current Head of State is politically neutral and is not making policy. This is a wonderful thing. She doesn't represent the government, or the Tories, or an unpopular set of policies or austerity cuts. Rather she represents us, the people of Britain. There is such a great value to that that only a fool would want to lose it.

Whilst our political leaders may be hated by half the country, and blamed for much of what happens in it, the Royal Family represent us. When the queen visits her subjects she does so on behalf of us, not Labour, not the Lib Dems, not the Tories, or the judicial system.

There is strength and comfort in having a thousand years old institution to provide stability and an enduring presence in our nation. The royal family was invaluable during the war, and historically have been in times of great crisis, when the people need a focal point. You seriously underestimate the asset we have in them.

A leader of a country should really be representing the people that voted for him. The Royal family is irrelevant in that regard. If the Queen was really about representing the people then she should have spoken up for the majority who were against the war in Iraq. Likewise, she should have spoken up against the poll tax and all sorts of other attacks against her so called people, but she doesn't. She stands either mute or uttering inane pleasantries. That is because she is one of the elite and likes her position as chief benefits scrounger of the UK. It's all well and good saying that she is one of us, but that is blatantly untrue.

She and her lot are relics of a bygone and more inbred period in our history and I would like to see them consigned to history. People pay quite happily to see Buckingham palace for the structure that it is. Move the Queen into a 3 bedroom bungalow and the country would be a better place. Only then can she truly say that she is one of us.