In an editorial of January 1988 ("Modernize the monarchy"), Neil advocated the abolition of both the preference for males in the law of succession and of the exclusion of Catholics from the throne. Subsequent editorials of "The Sunday Times" called for the Queen to pay income tax and advocated a scaled-down monarchy that would not be class-based but which would be "an institution with close links to all classes. That meant clearing out the old-school courtiers...and creating a court which was far more representative of the multi-racial meritocracy that Britain was becoming". In an editorial of February 1991 Neil criticised some minor members of the Royal Family for their behaviour while the country was at war in the Gulf. In 1992 Neil obtained for "The Sunday Times" the serialisation rights for Andrew Morton's book "Diana: Her True Story", which revealed the breakdown of Princess Diana's marriage as well as her bulimia and her suicide attempts.