The six points

  1. AN END TO EXCESSIVE DEFERENCE British citizens should not be expected to show excessive deference or observe demeaning protocol when meeting members of the royal family. Such outdated practices perpetuate the delusion of their inherent superiority to the rest of us, which is both insulting in principle and manifestly untrue in reality. When the Queen moves in the public sphere, it should be as ‘first among equals’, not as ‘first among inferiors’ as currently. As head of state she should be accorded respect, but not servility.
  2. NO INAPPROPRIATE MILITARY UNIFORMS No members of the royal family should wear military uniforms in public, unless they are currently full-time members of the armed service concerned and have achieved by their own efforts the ranks being displayed. Their outdated practice of dressing in the military uniforms of the most senior ranks, bedecked with medals of dubious worth, is an insult to the professionalism and bravery of our modern armed services. Members of the royal family who are full-time members of the armed services should be subject to exactly the same terms and conditions of service as their peers.
  3. LIMITATION OF ROYAL ENGAGEMENTS Members of the royal family shun NHS medical services and state education for their children. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy for them to participate in engagements involving either NHS hospitals (which are sometimes named after them) or state schools: royal events of this kind should cease. Although much is made of the numerous engagements carried out by the extended Windsor family, many of these events are of questionable worth and thus a poor use of vital police resources and taxpayers’ money. In general, apart from the Queen, members of the royal family should be occupied in real jobs or left to live off their considerable private wealth – not spending their time patronising the rest of us.
  4. NO MORE POLITICAL INTERFERENCE No members of the royal family should be permitted to interfere in the political arena. Prince Charles’s practice of making regular public pronouncements and actively seeking to influence public debate on such highly politicised areas as GM crops, organic farming, climate change, education, nanotechnology, alternative medicine, etc, skews the political process. It is a blatant abuse of his unelected position, is unconstitutional and should cease. He should either end his political interference, or he should relinquish his claim to the throne.
  5. PROPER ACCOUNTABILITY The present convention that neither House of Parliament is permitted to debate the monarchy or any of the activities of members of the royal family is unacceptable. As it is, British citizens have never been given the right to determine whether they wish to have a monarchy. It is an insult to our system of representative democracy to make our monarchy virtually unaccountable, as well as a gross infringement of the rights of free expression.
  6. OPENNESS REGARDING TAXES The Prime Minister should provide an assurance to the British people that, in respect of all their private income, assets and benefits, the Queen and all other members of the royal family pay all taxes at the same rates and subject to the same regulations as every other UK citizen. Where this is not the case, the details should be made public. The resolution of the current economic crisis will impose an enormous burden on UK taxpayers, both now and especially into the future. There can be no special treatment for royal family members.