What is your background?

I grew up in Darlington, County Durham and went to a local comprehensive. At 16, I got a sixth form scholarship to Barnard Castle School and from there I went on to read English at Oxford.

I've lived and worked in South Africa and the United States, and once spent a year travelling Europe as a busker. I'm currently studying in Sheffield.

Have you always been confused about your opinions on the monarchy?

Dougald describes himself as "not a natural flag-waver"

I've always seen the monarchy as an anachronism. I used to think that this was grounds in itself for getting rid of them. These days I'm not so sure. I'm beginning to think we could do with a few more anachronisms.

The whole consumer culture is so tied up with the present moment and the latest thing: from cosmetics to politics, we're constantly being told that 'new' is better.

Against this, it's oddly comforting that something as unfashionable as the royal family retains a hold over the imagination of so many of us. In a way, it's almost subversive.

Do you think it will be easy to change your point of view on the monarchy?

I can definitely see both sides of the argument, but, while I'm not a natural flag-waver, I can't see myself being persuaded that we'd actually be better off without the monarchy.

If nothing else, taking part in the debate should give me a clearer sense of what I do believe.

Elizabeth II became Queen aged 25 years old, the same age as you are now. How would you feel to have inherited so much responsibility at your age?

Quite daunted. It's hard to imagine what it would be like if all that responsibility landed on you out of the blue.

I guess in reality you'd have been groomed for it all your life - looking at Prince William, he's almost like one of those chess prodigies whose entire upbringing has been geared to preparing him for his eventual role.

Mind you, George VI didn't grow up expecting to be King, but it would limit your ability to make your own choices about your life. Look at the mess some of the younger royals have got into trying to have 'ordinary' careers.

Tell us more about your experiences and how you formed your opinions on the royal family?

I was nearly four the summer of the Royal Wedding and I had a postcard of Charles and Diana on my wall. Not that ours was a particularly monarchist household.

Dougald had a postcard of Charles and Diana on his wall

My only memory of the day itself is of watching The Sound of Music while my mum was in the kitchen making jam. I�m not sure I ever fully separated Princess Diana and Julie Andrews.

It's hard to say when I first thought of myself as a republican. My dad's a United Refromed Church minister, and I grew up in a house full of books and ideas. Everything was open to question, and I always saw the monarchy as an anachronism.

When Princess Diana was killed, the public response just disturbed me. Half the country seemed to be out of their minds.

I arrived at Oxford that term, and it was a time when I became very political, getting involved in the anti-globalisation movement, finding inspiration in radical republican groups like the Levellers and the Diggers.

It's hard to plot exactly how my view changed.

I remember a friend's father asking me whether there was anything I'd fight for, and having no answer and over time I've understood that part of what I hate about this consumer culture that tries to dictate our lives, is its contempt for the past, for the utterly different ways in which people have seen the world.

From this perspective, I find myself becoming almost fond of the monarchy: that something so unfashionable should retain the power to move us gives the lie to a lot of what we're always being told about the importance of the latest thing.

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