this is the sort of debate that you would never be allowed to watch on tv or listen to on radio - within the uk (or read in a uk newspaper, i might add) and so it is quite important to highlight it, upon the web:
http://www.republic.org.uk/blog/?p=1965


T. Hughes
March 11th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
“I wouldn’t hate a black man for being black, or a poor man for being poor; and you shouldn’t hate the royals for being royals. I think you people need to realise that the monarchy has no real political power (fact), also, the honours system, whilst being dished out to royals, also goes to a lot of ordinary people who truly benefit their communities. What you people do not realise is that the monarchy in this country is a symbol of our history and our heritage, they are a link to our past that we should never lose, for it is from the past that we have arrived here as we are today.”
Tom, equating the royals with black people and poor people is a straw man; whenever anyone tries to reason why they are at odds with the monarchy, for any number of genuinely good and acceptable reasons, someone comes out of the woodwork appealing for fairness, and using, as you have done, exceptionally spurious and emotive reasons. Saying what have you said is trying to to say that the royals general experience of life is on a par with black people and poor people; if you believe this you are either extremely naive or lacking in basic intelligence. I suggest that you are neither, but you are being malicious in order to defend the indefensible.
Most republicans on this site and I suspect generally are more pro-republic than virulently anti-monarchist; but some are probably both, and if you have read any number of posts here you will find very good reasons for this stance.
If the monarchy has no power, then what purpose do they serve then in all honesty? Why is it still seen as scandalous even to mildly criticise them for any reason? They are protected, for their own purposes and benefit, not for our benefit.
The monarchy is a symbol of our history and heritage, like empire, racism, class division, wealth division, unelected elites riding roughshod over the rights of ‘ordinary’ people, people being transported to the colonies for stealing because they were starving and so on and so on. The monarchy represent unelected and unnaccountable power and elites who are only interested in preserving that wealth and power at any cost and at any twisting of logic and reality.