30 DECEMBER 2006, Page 15

A symbol of our identity

From John Papworth

Sir: Robert Stuart, reviewing a book on monarchy (Books, 16/23 December), says, ‘It survives as the fount of class pride and snobbery’, indicating that he understands little of either the monarchy or of the country which in name it governs. Our monarchy is the symbolic and immensely popular expression of our identity as a nation. If the monarchy were simply confined to the attributes he seeks to bestow on it, it would not have survived from one Christmas to another.

John Papworth Purton, Wiltshire