I'M surrounded by anti-royalists who rant and rave when the news makes a fuss of our premier family.

But though I'm neither for them or against them, I am interested in what they get up to.

It was pitiful to watch the 101-year-old Queen Mother on Saturday, being carted around the crowds in The Mall to greet her daughter's subjects.

Not herself, but the crowds who were daft enough to waste their cash on cards and gifts, which were passed straight through her hands to a flunky, probably never to be seen again.

Now I do call that silly.

However, it must be heartbreaking for the determined old Queen to witness the condition of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, wheelchair bound and bloated after a series of three strokes.

No parent, no matter who they are or how old they are, wants to see their children suffering. Life's not supposed to be like that.

But it was brave of the once-attractive Princess, who wowed us all with her appearance, when she opened Astley St Stephen's School in the '60s, to show herself in public in such poor condition.