As a concept, th royal family are good for tourism and boost invisible earnings, but as individuals I tend to agree they are past sell by date.

That said, I have to say that, dysfunctional or not, they, from the Queen onwards, are fairly representative of this country's general population. Philandering, mostly divorced and remarried, intolerant and bigoted.

I'm not sure I understand why we would have higher expectations of them than we have of ourselves. I believe they live down to our societal norm.

I don't think they do a lot of harm, am basically neutral, but would back the institution ahead of the two gold diggers that have signed up in my lifetime.