Given my American birth and upbringing, I suppose it would not be surprising that I am not sentimentally attached to monarchy as an institution. All the same, I do have a favourite member of the royal family. It's Prince Michael of Kent, grandson of King George V and first cousin to the Queen.
Photograph © Anthony Crickmay
Why do I like him? He devotes much of his time to the support of charitable organizations and undertakes the heavy schedule of public duties expected of other members of the royal family. Yet he receives no parliamentary stipend and is self-supporting, relying on the income from his own successful consultancy business. Given his own blood relationship to the tsars, he also has an abiding interest in Russia, devoting time to charity work in that country, in addition to facilitating Russian-British trade relations. In short, he appears to be a conscientious public servant costing little if anything to British taxpayers. What more could you ask?
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