WHEN John Tanner advocates the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of an elected president, what exactly does he mean?

Does he mean a figurehead or does he want a leader with more power but fewer privileges than the Queen?

While I am in sympathy with the proposition, I believe there are prior matters to be dealt with before our politicians become mature enough to break away from the Monarch’s apron strings.

Our forebears didn’t try to overthrow their Norman Masters. Instead the Normans stopped speaking Norman French and started to adopt English as their language of choice.

That is why we don’t celebrate independence and why the Norman institutions and their instruments of occupation remain almost unchanged up to the present day.

Replacing these institutions will mean the abolition of the monarchy whose authority depends on them.

In an age of religious tolerance we don’t need a Defender of the Faith, but we do need a written secular constitution.

We also need a system of proportional representation to replace the present corrupt system.

But, before all this, the chamber of the House of Commons, with its waiting-room benches should be demolished and replaced by one with a semi-circular layout of seats.

Alternatively, we could sell off the Houses of Parliament to an American hotelier and construct a custom-designed building – preferably in the vicinity of Birmingham, which is in tune with the needs of our representatives in what is supposedly a modern democracy.

G L Samson, Preston Road, Abingdon