If we only do things that are worthwhile and effective, the world would be an utterly dull place. You're happy to use the palace as an art gallery, when the traditional guards and uniforms are performing a similar function now.

There is a perfectly acceptable scenario where we don't have a royal family, but keep the guards. There would be no hypocrisy there.

I said I'm happy to scale back the costs because of some of the reasons you have said, but I'm not going to demand an end to the whole circus because the costs involved just aren't as significant as you may want to believe, especially when looked at as part of the annual £1.3t budget.