I suppose I should be grateful to William and Kate Windsor. Not for any grovelling reason. I’m certainly no monarchist. But for knocking the last vestiges of naivety out of me. 

Even in my mid-50s, I had a lingering innocent belief that the Prince of Wales might be different, better, more human than the line which preceded him.

Personally, I’d be happy if the monarchy fell tomorrow, but if it’s going to continue - which it is - then at least let it be ‘normal’. That’s the best accommodation I can come to with royalty.

I had a quiet hope that in William maybe the guy at the top would one day be vaguely similar to the rest of us.

That hope has turned out to be forlorn. For how can anyone be considered normal who wakes up one morning and decides to send their child away from them? 

Sending their son George to boarding school is a promise from the future king and queen that nothing will change about this dreadful institution. 

George is off to Eton aged 13. I think of my own children at 13, and wonder how the hell any human being can do that to their own flesh and blood.

With one stupid picture, Sturgeon has played right into her enemies’ hands

The BBC is dead, it just doesn’t have the wit to get into its coffin and shut the lid

Champagne, oysters and billionaire bucks: meet man of the people, Nigel Farage

It’s not the privilege that offends. It’s the cruelty. Any privilege which comes from attending such schools is tempered in the ice cold water of the psychological damage wrought on a youngster who is abandoned - because that’s the word - by their mum and dad.

Over the........

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