I'm not a fairytale Monarchists, as Parliamentary Monarchies and Republic's in purely political terms work as well as each other, so I've never been bothered in that respect.
However in purely financial terms the Royal Family pays its way many times over, nobody visits France in the hope of seeing Macron etc etc. The pomp and ceremony works only because it's based on real history. The reason the Guards don't look like Disney tin soldiers is because those bearskins were not just created for effect, they were won in battle from Napoleons Republican Guard, there is real history in all this, some of it a thousand years old old.
But mostly it's not them though the Queen was exceptional. It's who they keep out. If we abolished them can you imagine what sleazy creeps would battle their way to replace them. President Blair or Johnstone or even Sir Rodney Walker anybody? Thought not.
The only power they have is to stop the above and for that I swear my allegiance all day long. Charles and William would have to be truly dreadful to blow it, so we are in safe hands from that perspective.
With two exceptions they do a great job in the full glare of a sometimes hostile press and they never complain.
We are different to the rest of the world and I celebrate that even if some of it appears truly odd. Long live the king, long live the UK and its quirky, belligerent and occasionally bonkers people.
