Letter: Elected monarchy

Sir: Quite apart from the literally nonsensical suggestion that a "monarchy" could ever be elective or anything other than strictly hereditary, the unthinkable thinkers of Demos have come up with a real peach with their idea that we must "break down the barriers" between royalty and the people so that they can not only symbolise the country but actually "become part of British life rather than just... observers" (The Independent on Sunday, 6 September).

This is ahistorical, unconstitutional tosh because the only thing symbolised by the British Crown is the Establishment and all those who gladly accept their own undemocratic subservience to it. So what Demos has omitted completely from its proposal is any sense that this monarchy survives as the apex of an entrenched British class system.

The monarch reigns over us; we cannot pick and choose about this or who that monarch should be. There are no half-measures, least of all the moronic system proposed by Demos, which requires us to go on voting until we can find a royal that most of us are happy with. On the contrary, we retain the institution until we are ready to drop it lock, stock and double-barrel.

The burning question is: why does anybody pay Demos any money to do anything? They couldn't think themselves out of a paper bag.

TONY WALTON

Hove

East Sussex