Queen prepares to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee; support for Royal Family is at its highest

Support for the royal family is at its highest for more than a decade as the Queen prepares to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, a poll indicates.

           Sixty-nine per cent of Britons think the country would be worse off without the monarchy compared to 22 per cent who would like to see it abolished, according to an ICM poll. The 47 percentage point margin is the widest since the same questions were first put to Britons by the research company in 1997. Despite the support, the poll suggested people are more divided over who should succeed the Queen.
            Asked what should happen when the Queen dies or if she abdicates, 39 per cent said the Prince of Wales should become king, while 48 per cent believed the it should skip a generation and his son, the Duke of Cambridge, should be crowned William V. The research, commissioned by The Guardian, also suggests royalist attitudes spread equally among the social classes, and across the regions of England and Wales.  
            However, in Scotland 36 per cent said the country would be better off without the monarchy, while 50 per cent supported it. Support is stronger among the older, and among Conservative voters, in whose ranks it reaches 82 per cent.