Letter: We're better off with a monarchy

Sir: How sharp the contrast between this morning's radio headlines and those of 40 years ago. Sadly, one answer to Bryan Appleyard's question 'what makes England our England now?' (2 June) may be inspected at whichever docks or airport the Norwegians return our 70 deportee lager louts.

These English, responsible by all accounts for causing one million kroners-worth of damage to a bar in Oslo, must have astonished the inhabitants of Norway - also a monarchy - that such barbaric behaviour is so consistently repeated: remember last year's World Cup? Could it be that, rather than something being wrong with the English monarchy, there's a good deal adrift with the English themselves?

Yours truly,

PHILIP H. H. NELSON

Sevenoaks, Kent

2 June