Letter: It's time to rid ourselves of this royal embarrassment

YOUR coverage of issues raised by the Panorama scoop appeared to me to treat your readers as zombies (19 November).

It is true that of the range of constitutional issues, the monarchy presents special difficulties - the personal position of the Royal Family, the power vested in the Establishment and an unfortunate history relating to the control of monarchs - which may make people anxious.

What is needed is a debate on how to end, or maybe amend, an anomaly that has survived, against the odds, into a modern age and has become a source of embarrassment to at least a large minority of the population.

Ian Jack points out the failure of any left-of-centre newspaper to come out in favour of republicanism, in part for fear of losing readers ("The royal show that none of us can bear to switch off", 19 November). The Economist recently published a lengthy and worthwhile series on constitutional matters including the abolition of the monarchy. Did their circulation decline as a result? Their articles were analytical and compelling, avoiding personality and sentimentality.

No one wishes the Windsors harm, simply that we move on and cleanse the psyche of the British people of coronation mugs and the other sentimental junk which obsesses them as subjects of the House of Windsor.

Jane Hoadley

Eastbourne, East Sussex