Peter Rhodes on student voters, toxic masculinity and the pointless slogan 'Not My King'

“Not My King” is the slogan of the hour as the republicans gear up to spoil the Coronation. They still don't get it, do they? Love him or hate him, His Majesty Charles III is my king, your king and everybody's king, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. And, more to the point, why would we want to? The fact that we have absolutely no say in who is our head of state is a good thing. It demonstrates the sweet power of powerlessness.

Instead of being forced to vote for a president, a process which would assuredly throw up candidates who are narcissists, power-crazy, or both, we subjects are simply delivered a new monarch, warts and all but with no real powers, when the old one dies. It's simple. It works. If the new king or queen turns out to be wonderful, we love them. If they prove to be rogues, we sigh heavily, look back pragmatically at 1,000 years of monarchs, and hope for something better next time. And as we never voted for him/her, we are spared any blame.

If the republicans got their way, and the monarchy were scrapped and the first UK Presidential Elections held, I guarantee the winning candidate by a landslide would be one Charles Mountbatten-Windsor of Buckingham Palace, London. And what slogan would they wave then?

In Monday's column I wrote that the Apollo space program's moon buggy was known as the LEM or Lunar Excursion Module. In fact it was the LRV or Lunar Rover Vehicle. Apologies all round.

A student leader on the radio was banging on about how unfair it is to ask students to produce some form of ID at the polling stations for the May council elections. Two points. Firstly, since when have students shown the slightest interest in council elections? Secondly, having been given detailed instructions on how to cast a ballot and months to prepare, if the kids can't figure out how to vote, are they fit to be trusted with a vote?