The Queen presides over a table of shame.

The Queen will be wise to close her eyes at the royal lunch she is throwing today for all the World’s reigning monarchs in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. She might be wise to hold her nose too because there is a bad odour hovering over too many of her guests. There are nine kings in particular who shouldn’t have any place at any celebratory table in this country and who certainly don’t represent anything about monarchy worth celebrating. These unsavoury characters. all abusers of human rights, are living it up in London today at the royalty bash leaving their nations suffering under their repressive rule.

Instead of invitiing these men to lunch, Her Majesty would have done better to have had baked beans on toast alone in her bedroom.