In response to Jim Dawson (The Queen must always be above politics, Letters, October 15), it’s true many bodies should be politically neutral. The Supreme Court, John Bercow and the BBC demonstrate how these conventions have collapsed.

The Queen is expected to be impartial, not idle. Confronting Parliament to get its houses in order and face the electorate would not undermine democracy, it would preserve it.

In Europe surviving monarchs are regularly called on to arbitrate between the factions produced by proportional representation. Britain needs the same kind of political referee.

I blame politicians for causing the current crisis, but when they fail it’s the monarch’s duty to restore order, and the Queen hasn’t. If she serves no practical function then what is point of retaining the monarchy?

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe