[southern rock]

Of course not. Being a royal in Britain is to be in the most scrutinised position in your life. You can't even go down to the pub and have a quiet drink and not have it reported in the papers. Ask Prince Harry.

Then why do they do it? Why don't they just quit? put an end to it all? Why doesn't Harry just say "screw this", and get a factory job?

Living well at taxpayer expense can be addictive.

[MadIvan]

Then why do they do it? Why don't they just quit? put an end to it all? Why doesn't Harry just say "screw this", and get a factory job?

Some actually do - Edward tried, with patchy success, to get into producing television programmes. He is still apparently attempting it. The Civil List has been cut down substantially. But the main reason why we maintain the monarchy is tradition. How would you feel if someone said, "George Washington is so passe and out of date, like dude, you need to put Kurt Cobain on the 1 dollar bill." You'd laugh that person out of the universe.

Similarly, the monarchy is a tradition that survives at our pleasure. It is no more extravagant than the perks your politicians enjoy. Though I dare say Her Majesty's perks are under far greater scrutiny than all the Carribean junkets your politicians get, tax free.

One final note, I say that the monarchy is a tradition that does survive at our pleasure. We have dumped monarchs when the cause was sufficient - Charles I, James II, for example. The ultimate arbiters are our representative institutions.

Ivan