Letter: In Brief

Sir: Jennifer Miller (letter, 11 June) assumes that by saying that the Royal Family was publicly funded (letter, 9 June) I was advocating sweeping constitutional change and republicanism. But the funding of a monarchy in a democracy should be transparent, not the smokescreen of Crown Estates, royal collections and dukedoms which obscures the distinction between crown and state. Nonsense such as "title to ancient royal possessions" belongs in the history books with church tithes and droit de seigneur.

ROGER HOUGHTON

Bath, Somerset