A new book reports what we’ve known for a while - that Royals such as Meghan Markle “hate every second” of having to go on tour to promote the British monarchy. Recent disastrous Royal tours to the Caribbean - where most states visited are now talking openly about making the transition to republics within the Commonwealth - only underlines this message.

It’s nothing new for British Royals to hate having to conduct Royal tours - to smile and wave at us and pretend they’re interested in New Zealand. Over 100 years ago the future King Edward VIII (the one that abdicated, and had an all-too-close relationship with Nazi Germany) expressed his disaffection with the tour and his frustration in private letters, while the newspapers reported he had “conquered” the country with his charm. His public speeches of course were full of praise of New Zealand, yet he privately described New Zealand women as “ham-faced” and said that a Royal tour is a rotten way to see a country.

All of this would be irrelevant to our campaign for a New Zealand head of state - since tours by British royals would happen regardless of whether we’re a republic or not - except that the New Zealand taxpayer has to pay for these expensive tours. We know from William and Kate’s last tour of New Zealand that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are spent on public relations alone. Taxpayers also have to cover accommodation, security, and transport. For any other visiting foreign VIPs, the taxpayer only has to cover security.

Royal tours are so poorly justified that they are now paid for out of the budget for promoting tourism to New Zealand. Even so, this justification relies on very flaky calculations claiming huge benefits for tourism to New Zealand that don’t hold up to scrutiny.