AFTER all their efforts to secure the monarchy's future by improving its standing, the royal family is rocked today by an in-house blow - with one of the Queen's chaplains throwing doubt on the value of an hereditary monarchy.

The logic of Canon Eric James is inescapable - the hereditary system is a lottery.

But his alternative of an "elected" monarchy is, surely, unworkable.

For if royal blood is to be a condition of candidature, one form of hereditary monarchy would only be replaced by another.

And if that is not be a proviso, then, the country would be choosing an un-royal head of state - and having a president and a republic instead.

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