The abolition of the monarchy is an idea whose time has come

Britain’s Prince Andrew’s connection to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal as a friend of the billionaire sex trafficker and serial abuser — though not, it must be said, revealed as yet to have been party to the man’s crimes — further emphasises the need in Britain to take seriously the abolition of the monarchy.

Such a step is now not only desirable to those whose sensibilities have long been justly offended at the continuing existence of this semi-feudal institution at the apex of British society and public life; it is now necessary in order to allow the development of the UK into something approximating to a full and mature democracy.

The monarchy’s abolition is also required in order to end the huge outlay of public money devoted to its maintenance. In a time of savage Tory austerity and the ensuing disgraceful levels of poverty and despair it has inflicted on millions of British citizens, such an outlay and the obscene ostentation it supports takes on the character of a grotesque insult to our collective intelligence. Equally important is the need to liberate the Royal Family itself, whose members are forced to live a wholly unnatural existence in what amounts to a gilded cage, wherein their every word and deed is pored over and scrutinised by an evermore intrusive and aggressive media.