Now that the country has been carpet-bombed by the media with a seemingly endless pro-royal narrative, I wonder when we will be clear-headed enough to hold a rational debate over the monarchy.

Granted Queen Elizabeth was widely admired and conducted herself with dignity, but at some stage we will need to separate our memories of the Queen as an individual from the wider institution of our archaic and dysfunctional monarchy.

We have seen harmless anti-monarchy protesters arrested and have been deprived of essential goods and services with NHS services cancelled, parliament adjourned, foodbanks closed, schools closed, reduced forecasts from the Met Office and London Airport cancelling flights.

Recreational facilities such as Tapnell Farm and the Isle of Wight Steam Railway were closed and the Isle of Wight lost its leg of the Tour of Britain cycling race.

What should have been a matter of individual choice as to whether, and if so how, to mark the Queen’s passing turned into an unseemly spectacle of orchestrated sycophancy.

It will not be till this disproportionate obsequiousness abates that we will be ready to consider monarchy in its true light.

In the monarch, we have a head of state who is unelected, unaccountable and above the law.

Accepting as our head of state whoever is born at the opportune moment into a particular white, aristocratic family flies in the face of democracy and meritocracy.

Being the subjects of a monarch rather than fully free citizens places a question mark over our rights and civil liberties.

I look forward to the debate when it comes.

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