It is always a sign of weakness in an opponent’s argument when he resorts to silly abuse.

Thus Keith Mitchell (Letters, March 18) calls John Tanner’s lucid letter advocating republicanism “a relentless thirst for self-promotion”.

The truth is that the monarchy, based as it is on the outmoded hereditary principle, promotes childish snobbery and is inconsistent with the creation of a classless and equal society.

Is it not a flagrant injustice, when so many people are desperately poor through no fault of their own, that one family should inherit prodigious, unearned wealth?

It makes no sense in a modern democracy to accord to a few ordinary individuals special status for no better reason than the accident of their birth.

Graham Butler, Banbury Road, Bicester