If I give you a gift – be it a cake or a diamond ring, or, for that matter, a greetings card, it becomes your property. You can do what you will with it. You can keep it, throw it away, give it to someone else or burn it. It’s yours. All yours. You can even sell it.

Apparently, that doesn’t apply to royalty. Charlie Windsor has decided, in an act of crass arrogance, that he has control of something, even after he’s given it to someone else. That something (a Christmas card) was being sold to support a reputable registered charity, the Alzheimer’s Society, and he’s blocked the sale.

I want a United Kingdom republic, and I want it now.