THE Queen's Jubilee Tour hit Yorkshire, once more, last week. Leeds was visited on Thursday, amid much celebration. It is difficult for committed royalists such as me not to have been pleased with almost everyone's reaction.

The genuine warmth and affection in which large numbers of the British people hold Her Majesty is clear to see. There will always be those who, for perfectly good reasons, wish for a change in the constitution. At the moment they do not seem to be holding sway.

Friday was the day on which the Royal visit to the East Riding was scheduled to take place.

The East Riding has one of the highest percentages of population involved in agriculture and the countryside of any county in the nation. Hull is not within its boundaries, and so there are no large industrial cities in the county.

In the days before the reorganisation of the local government structures in the early 1970s, Beverley was the county town. It was to Beverley, where the county's council is once more based, that the Queen came, on Friday morning, in the Royal Train.

The object of the tour was to celebrate the rural nature of the county. Its main components, therefore, were a service of thanks-giving in Beverley Minster, a visit to Bishop Burton College of Agriculture, and a visit to Beverley Racecourse where a Jubilee Race was held with the Queen presenting the prizes.

These were interspersed with Royal walkabouts from both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, a tour of the country fair that took place on the racecourse and lunch for representatives of different parts of rural life in the county.

I am delighted to be able to report that I was one of those invited to lunch. I was one of a good many representatives from the various walks of rural life. I felt that it was a great honour.

The menu was basically lamb, although basic was one thing it was not. It was a very pleasant occasion with, in the circumstances, a minimum of formality. Those who were in charge of the organisation of the visit are entitled to feel pleased with them-selves. Even the weather co-operated. The heavens opened just as Her Majesty left the racecourse.

The appeal of the institution of monarchy is interesting. Much of the world has, as head of state, an individual who is not in position as a result of birthright.

Parts of the world have free and fair elections every so often for the post. Sadly, quite a lot of the world does not have free and fair elections, even for heads of government.

For almost 200 years, since the Reform Act of 1832, an increasing proportion of the population has been entitled to vote for MPs. At some elections a good number of those entitled have, for whatever reason, decided not to use their vote. I have always thought that if I did not vote I could not complain, so I vote.

However enthusiastically one supports any party at election time, history teaches us that after a period in government, politicians start believing that they can do no wrong.

They believe they can walk on water and forget they are elected to provide a higher standard of living, in the long term, for as many citizens as possible. They think they are there to provide themselves and their cronies with jobs and money. This applies to both major parties.

The Queen is above party politics. That part of the constitution works pretty well. It does not need fixing.

Updated: 12:39 Tuesday, July 16, 2002