Should Elizabeth II be Elizabeth the Last? At least allow Britain a debate | Polly Toynbee

Reports on Queen's consent have revived the republicanism question - and regional and generational shifts are emerging

The Queen is less of a constitutional monarch than we thought. This week the Guardian revealed how she has used her Queen's consent powers to vet more than 1,000 laws before they reach parliament. Memos unearthed from the National Archives show how she applied pressure over transparency legislation in the 1970s to ensure her private wealth stayed secret. Successive governments bent at the knee, showing how those weekly private meetings keep prime ministers in awe.

I'm not sure why she is at such pains to keep her money secret: everyone knows she has astronomic wealth beyond her subjects' imagining, and a few noughts more or less makes no difference to monarchists. But the true scale of her wealth is never disclosed: Norman Baker, monarchy monitor, this week estimated it at 1bn. Forbes put the monarchy's worth at 72.5bn, but that's not all hers to keep. The Sunday Times Rich List puts her down for 350m personally.