A bird's eye view of the monarchy.

It was interesting to hear John Humphries' interview with Countess Mountbatten's blackbird yesterday on Radio 4's "Today" programme. Unfortunately the Countess herself kept butting in and at times her voice completely drowned out what the bird was trying to say.

However, I think listeners were able to catch the main drift of his song, which was in many ways at variance with the Mountbatten opinion. Briefly, he said he considered the British monarchy a manifestation of the rot at the heart of our society - a society in which people are honoured and respected for their inherited family wealth rather than for their own personal qualities.

PS - I am no ornithologist and the bird could equally well have been a bluetit, robin, sparrow, etc - we weren't told.