I've long had a generally low opinion of royalty, seeing its remnants around the world as relics of a long-gone and largely unlamented pre-democratic era.

Not that I've ever been an advocate of decapitating the nobility, as the French so enthusiastically did during their revolution, or of shooting them down like dogs, as the Russian revolutionaries did the last Czar and his family almost a century ago.

But I confess I've been happy to see most of the world's hereditary rulers driven by their former subjects into impotency and irrelevance, as has happened most recently in Nepal. And I question even the validity and value of their survival, as in England, for example, as publicly-funded figureheads, curiosities and tourist attractions.

I also have to admit, however, that my democratic sentiments sometimes become an embarrassment. As when the current, long-reigning and much-revered King of Thailand rescues his nation from danger or disaster by issuing one of his rare but very reasonable decrees.