The royal family is the original Coronation Street – a long-running soap opera with the occasional real coronation thrown in. Its members have become celebrities, like upmarket versions of film stars and footballers. But they have also become a byword for arrogance, entitlement, hypocrisy and indifference to the gigantic amount of public money wasted by them.

The monarchy itself is an important part of our constitution with considerable influence on the kind of nation we are. Yet you will struggle to find much in the way of proper journalism that examines the monarchy in the way that their position and influence merit. Instead, we are fed a constant diet of sickeningly obsequious coverage which reports their activities with breathless and uncritical awe.

In this book, former government minister Norman Baker argues that the British public deserves better than this puerile diet. 

'Norman Baker at his best — contemptuous of power and secrecy, delightfully indiscreet, pleasingly insulting and often very funny.' — Nick Davies, Guardian