Sexy Martin “Money Saving Guru” Lewis is running a poll over at moneysavingexpert.com about whether or not we should ditch the royal family.  (His is a brilliant site by the way - link in the side bar).

At the moment of writing this, in response to the question, “Which of these is closest to your view of what should happen to the royal family?” people have voted as follows:

I am reassured that 52% of people are not happy with things as they are.  However, the results of this survey suggest that almost 40% of people are content to let the Royals be.  Why????

As for the 11% of people who would like to go back to having an absolute monarchy…  well, I can only assume that they are joking.  It’d be a very worrying state of affairs if they’re not.

The Queen’s annual public accounts were published at the end of June.  According to official documents, the royal family cost the British taxpayer £37.3 million last year.  Her flunkies were quick to point out that this equates to “only” 62p per person - a bargain, apparently.

Well, £37.3 million a year is no bargain in my book.  Just think what else that money could be spent on - more nurses, better equipment in schools, drugs that are currently too expensive for some NHS Trusts.  £5.6 million alone was spent on travel, including £2.2 million on helicopter trips, and £19,271 on a return-trip to Brighton using the royal train.  Charles and Camilla’s tour of the Gulf States in February cost a cool £345,710.

And it seems that £37.3 million may actually be a conservative estimate.  According to Peter Tatchell, the true cost of the monarchy was actually more like £150 million, as the royal accountants failed to include the cost of security and unpaid taxes in their calculations.  Tatchell says that the British monarchy costs 20 times more than the Irish president, and four times more than the President of Germany.  

Quite apart from any cost issues, having an unelected head of state is just not fair.  To quote the Republic website, “inheriting power and privilege is indefensible: how can we claim to be in a democratic and meritocratic society if our Head of State is chosen by a random genetic lottery?”

It really is time for the royal family to do the decent thing.  They need to step aside as soon as possible and allow this country to move into the 21st century.