This is a very timely reminder of the constitutional absurdity of our taxpayer-funded Royal Family that is at war with itself. With accurate statistics, primary source material and interviews where he and his team have faced up to the relevant authorities and gleaned the truth out of them, Smith demonstrates how all the classic excuses for keeping the monarchy are not just mistaken - they're plain wrong.

Of the approximately 1,200 charities with a royal patron, 74% had no contact with their patron during the preceding year. I think it oversimplifies a bit for effect, especially when discussing constitutional reform, but is nonetheless a very good read.As with many books, I imagine, the publication timing is selected deliberately because it might benefit sales. When the police clapped him in handcuffs, Graham Smith was preparing to perform that most fearful of treasons: shuffle around Trafalgar Square waving a placard bearing the words ‘Not my king’. He commented on the rather sad assertion put by Royalists that the British Monarchy cannot be abolished because it represents the best of our country. A crucial, riveting polemic in support of one of the most precious things humanity has built - democracy itself.

I mean, I was always going to enjoy a lengthy diatribe on why the UK should get rid of its outdated and expensive monarchy. Indeed, perhaps to burst any preconception that he is a Cromwellian killjoy, Smith spends the first few pages chronicling a tour of Buckingham Palace he took with his nephews.I've never found Graham Smith particularly likeable, but I decided to neatly set aside my personal feelings and political convictions to read his much hyped release. If you accept the monarchy, you must accept the moral compromise that comes with it, from its erosion of the principle of equality to the secret interference in our laws. Reading this book will give you the confidence to speak up, and to understand that we, the British people, (and I must say, those in the land of my parents), deserve a fairer society.