Hey Joe Blow, nice to meet you.

If I ever met the King of Sweden, I think we'd have a real problem on our hands, since I would refuse to address him as 'Your Highness' and supposedly that's some sort of offense. I would extend the same politeness as when I meet Joe Blow. No more, no less. I will not, nor will I ever, bow to royalty. Were James Stewart to come to live, and I actually met him, I think I'd rather bow to him. Or J.D Salinger and Astrid Lindgren. These people truly deserve to be bowed to. Adulation and privileges of this degree should be earned, not inherited.

For me, the question of putting an end to the system of monarchy isn't a matter of money. A lot of people who are pro-monarchy think that we anti-monarchist are mainly opposed to it because of the costs that the royal family mean to the tax payers. It isn't really about that. It's a relatively small sum apparently. Naturally it would do a lot more good were it spent on education or health care, but let's put that issue aside. For me it's about the equal value of all people, regardless of ancestry. It's absurd to bestow these privileges on people who have done nothing do earn them other than have a claim to a certain last name. How can we claim to have a free, equal society and still maintain this absurdity?

Some people use the tired, old tradition argument. 'We have to maintain this nice, old tradition, it's noble and fine and even a little romantic'. That argument doesn't really fly either though. There are many traditions out there, some not so wonderful. Slavery used to be a tradition in the South in the U.S, does that mean it should never have been abolished, since it was a tradition? Just because something is a tradition, we don't need to maintain it, not if it's degrading to certain people.

As for a royal family being a noble, fine tradition, it's not really if you think about what it's based upon. It's based on the premises that these people are superior to you. How can you play along with this farce?

And let's not forget that the royal family cannot be punished for any crime. For instance, they can push that posh Mercedes up to 220 km/hr and get away with it. Now does that sound like something that belongs in a democratic society?

It really ticks me off when I hear old, mossy royalists belch out statements like 'A princess should never a man of the people, he doesn't have royal blood!' It just amazes me that some people still think this way.