royals will be axed. Big deal. Making the boss of a caste of state-supported hereditary billionaires Britain's head of state is not just a bad joke. It is a serious restraint on democracy itself. The monarch is an integral part of the bourgeois state which can appoint and dismiss governments at will. All socialists should be unconditional republicans by definition. We argue for a democratic socialist republica workers' state. But we recog nise that even a republicon the basis of capitalism would still be a step forward for democracy. Even the Queen's belated and doubtless grudging concess. THE TAXPAYEK Is pıcking up the £60 million tab for the fire at Windsor Castle. In return, the Queen and Prince of Wales are to start paying tax on their private income from next year, and £900,000-worth of hand-outs to eight minor sions are an absolute con. She is reportedly trying to make out that her taxable wealth is a mere E50 million, and that after deducting "legitimate business expenses', it will take four or five years even to repay the latest handout. Bollocks, Ma'am. The Queen is the richest woman in the world, with the royal fortune widely estimated at £6000-7000 million. Phillip Hall, a leading authority on royal finances, estimates the Queen has investments worth £330 million, yielding E19 million a year. Sandringham and Balmoral castles are worth another £100 million, and the royals cop £56 Help the homeless - got £60 million for a cup of tea Guv? million a year in taxpayers dosh annually. Then there is the annual £3 million revenue from the Duchy of Lancaster, not to mention the antiques, jewels, racehorses and art collections, and an ocean-going liner passed off as 'the royal yacht. All this has been tax-free since 1937. Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes last year tabled a bill calling on the Queen to pay tax. Even thoroughly blueblooded Tory Michael Ancram MP - heir to the Marquess of Lothian and married to the Duke of Norfolk's daughter - has demanded such a change. Not a dickie Printed by Tridant Press, Edenbridge. Kent. Published by Idolare Ltd. PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU bird from the Labour front bench. Major's announcement of the latest measures came in response to a planted question from Labour leader John Smith. It was the sort of sycophancy normally displayed by backbench Tory toadies out to curry favour with the whips. The Queen last week remarked that 1992 had been an 'annus horribilis', or horrible year. Not half as horribilis as 1917 was for the Romanovs, your Majesty. Anyone know the Latin for 'year of revolution'?