The 100-Year Life Health Education and Government
Despite the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right (1628), the Glorious Revolution (1688), the Great Reform Act (1832) and more than a trickle of scandal and embarrassment during the 20th and 21st centuries, the UK's royal family still commands extraordinary deference in parliament.
Standing orders and the book of parliamentary procedure known as Erskine May bar MPs from discussing the monarchy or anything to do with the sovereign or the royal family.
Lord Foulkes, a Labour peer, wants to change this. He’s asked for a meeting this week with the Clerk of the Parliaments to discuss the idea of changing the rules so Britain's elected representatives can talk about their unelected head of state.
The meeting, if it happens, will follow the disclosure that Prince Andrew continued writing to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after he said he'd broken off contact.
But Foulkes tells the Observer he's more concerned about public money paid to the royals, set to rise by 53 per cent this year to £132 million. How do they manage?
