Reverse metamorphosis

What's with this 'Mr' shit? And 'Sir'; and 'Lord'? All are suffixes indicating honour or respect, and there are damned few people in public life who deserve either. The honours bazaar is a joke, and if we do away with 'Mr' then we won't have to resort to the irritating 'Ms'. This is a demotic society in which formal politeness is an increasingly ludicrous anachronism.

As to the hereditaries, most of their titles date back to male or female whores who got lucky, making them even less worthy of honour than those who buy their titles for whatever pleasure it may give them in life. Away with the lot of them, and if in time this means we shed the royals - well, they seem to have made the transition to 'Hello'-fodder quite successfully, and most of them will no doubt welcome being relieved of irksome public duties. A monarchy cannot survive as a tourist attraction; the buildings will do the job perfectly well.

There is no point in preserving the wings of the butterfly. The British state has passed back through the pupal stage and should shed the frills and furbelows with which it seeks to disguise its essential grubbiness.