Royalty

^ and who says republicans are miserable ;)

I'd just like to say I'm astounded this thread has seen so much action and feeling.

I'm not particularly pro or anti the Royal Family*. I'm a bit dubious of any of the arguments either for or against what the cost benefit of the Royal Family is - they always seem to be put forward by militants of one camp or the other (although I thought this was interesting)

My main issue is with the insane amount of power held by the PM, who as Gordon Brown has shown doesn't even need to be elected.

On that point in particular I would welcome GA2G's views.

• that said the size of the "expanded" Royal Family and the hangers on do erk me a bit. How many of them do you need to look after? Monarch + spouse, 1st in-line + spouse, 2nd in-line (no spouse), x1 backup(?). The rest do not need publicly paid security etc. and with the increase in life expectancy there will be even more of them!