If we demote the monarchy they will still exist, they will still be wealthy and influential. They will still own large areas of the country unless we have a Bolshevik October revolution.

Republicans say we shouldn’t have a small elite privileged group of people at the top. But that is exactly what we

have voted in.

The royals do not have a choice, they are born into it. Yes they can choose to opt out but the majority do their best and their duty. When I look at the countries who have replaced their royal families I do not think their heads of state are any cheaper and do not have a real sense of duty towards their nation or its inhabitants.

They seem to be mainly interested in their position and making money for themselves.

Our Royal Family are real value for money. They support so many jobs. The staff they employ for the many

properties, their security staff and their personal staff must account for several thousand. Many of these people would be unemployed. The working royals only have one job unlike so many of our politicians who seem to have many

directorships and fingers in other pies.

When you look at many of the members of the House of Commons they are anything but commoners. Our present government is made up of multi-millionaires who don’t seem to have any care or understanding for "the people" unless it is election time.

The royals spend their lives meeting the people. It is the politicians who choose their mates to get honours bestowed upon them. Although the monarchy is probably the highest form of nepotism, we know this, and it is far more transparent than the political system. Another form of national income is that the royals have so much written

about them, truth and supposition and they have the dignity to soldier on through it, however embarrassing or untrue. They are a family, like yours and mine, with black sheep, wayward children and members who turn up even when you really don’t want them to. This makes us interested in them.

The royal events, although costing the treasury a great deal of money, probably bring a huge amount of income for

the state. Why should we go down the same boring political road as so many? We have a unique Royal Family, which we should cherish. It is part of what makes who we are. I feel that if we became a republic, that would fade away.

We would have thefat-cat nobodies as premiers, costing us a fortune, living it up with no real sense of duty, leaving office with huge pensions and no care about the chaos they leave behind. They will not have to answer for anything. At least with a monarchy, there is a continuity. The only thing I have in favour of an elected head of state is, if I don’t vote them in could I elect not to have to pay for them?

Caroline Scragg

Kingston Close

Shoreham