[Politics] Is it time for the UK to become a republic?

[Live by the sea]

Back in the 1600s the 'UK' was a Republic. Entitled dysfunctional family now worth billions . Its time to stop subsidising the family. Last year the tax funded Sovereign Grant was £85M. Is the family worth that much? Personally I don't think so.

Actually it’s worth a lot more than that because of the huge pull especially of the Queen for business . A monarch also helps keep the country stable . You are lucky to have one in England . Absolutely must be kept it’s essential for the country plus will and Kate will do a great job when it’s their turn .

 

[beorhthelm]

But his wealth and Title came from a Monarch, gifting land to an ancestor, passed to him in the manner of first born son of the previous Duke. I am up for stripping the assets from all those who own their land and wealth by dint of a fiefdom granted by some or other Monarch, usually for some butchery or murder on that Monarchs behalf. They are welcome to the title Duke, Queen, Prince etc.
If we remove the Monarchy, but leave in place the structures Monarchs created to allow certain families to own land no one in their family ever paid anyone to own, we might as well not bother, which is what will happen.

thats about everyone then. if you go back far enough all land was seized/stolen/claimed and then distributed out and sold off over the centuries.

 

[BBassic]

Actually it’s worth a lot more than that because of the huge pull especially of the Queen for business . A monarch also helps keep the country stable . You are lucky to have one in England . Absolutely must be kept it’s essential for the country plus will and Kate will do a great job when it’s their turn .

Stable!?

What about the UK is in any way 'stable' right now?

 

[maltaseagull]

Back in the 1600s the 'UK' was a Republic. Entitled dysfunctional family now worth billions . Its time to stop subsidising the family. Last year the tax funded Sovereign Grant was £85M. Is the family worth that much? Personally I don't think so.

How would the UK elect a head of state?
Or would the elected government choose one?
I wouldn't trust the British electorate to make any rational decisions after Brexit and Boris.

 

[maltaseagull]

Yes - because the whole thing of having anybody unelected in a position of authority - even if they have no real power - is wrong and perpetuates the class system which means we get a government of the sort we have at the moment……

The government was elected by a majority. Not by a class system. Blame the idiots who voted for them. I agree the class system is totally wrong but getting rid of the monarchy will not get rid of elitist schools etc.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Yes - because the whole thing of having anybody unelected in a position of authority - even if they have no real power - is wrong and perpetuates the class system which means we get a government of the sort we have at the moment……

The right answer.

I’d like an elected president to lead an elected House of Lords (we would need to change that stupid name).

The President would get a 5 year term and would need to be independent of political parties (but not politics in general). They would need to be nominated rather than throwing their hat in. I’m thinking of people such as Sir David Attenborough taking the role, the best of us rather than the worst of us (Boris Johnson for example).

The President would lead the new elected house of peers in examining laws passed in parliament and then do all that ceremonial stuff.

 

[A mex eyecan]

I vote NO. Not because I give a toss about the Windsors, but because the British public are ****ing idiots, and would vote an absolute **** like Johnson in as head of state.

end of post really.
not much else to say

 

[A mex eyecan]

How would the UK elect a head of state?
Or would the elected government choose one?
I wouldn't trust the British electorate to make any rational decisions after Brexit and Boris.

they’re mostly so dumb that they would vote in whoever was the most recent TV ‘celebrity’ as they have not much more than a 7 day memory.
Probably someone who had just won the latest version of ‘Britains got a love island strictly come get me out of here’

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I was listening to a radio interview the other day with a couple of ex soldiers, their view was that when fighting, they were fighting for " Queen and Country " ...they said that if the likes of Johnson had ordered them to fight they probably wouldn't have.

The Armed Forces serve the Crown, which is why the Queen is called the Boss.
The way Johnson is going, he should beware. He said it will take a tank regiment to remove him from Downing Street. It may even come to that.

 

[lawros left foot]

The government was elected by a majority. Not by a class system. Blame the idiots who voted for them. I agree the class system is totally wrong but getting rid of the monarchy will not get rid of elitist schools etc.

The Government was not voted for by the majority.

The present Government garnered 43.6 % of the total vote, therefore more voters voted for alternative parties, but due to our archaic FPTP electoral system, they were gifted an 80 seat majority.

It may be advertised as democracy, but it’s nowhere near it.

 

[maltaseagull]

The Government was not voted for by the majority.

The present Government garnered 43.6 % of the total vote, therefore more voters voted for alternative parties, but due to our archaic FPTP electoral system, they were gifted an 80 seat majority.

It may be advertised as democracy, but it’s nowhere near it.

If you want to be really picky perhaps you should also consider that only 67% of the electorate bothered to vote.

 

[clapham_gull]

If you want to be really picky perhaps you should also consider that only 67% of the electorate bothered to vote.

But that is probably a very fair representation, if you think how may people polls are based on.

 

[lawros left foot]

The absolute contempt of the average British voter on this thread is astounding.

Some of the electorate has very rarely voted the way I personally would like, but I don’t really blame the voters. It’s the system that is at fault, as I said in my last post, 56% of voters voted against the Conservative and Unionist party in the last election. All the time we have FPTP as our electoral system, we could get Governments with huge , unearned majorities.

The posters criticising the average voter, who do they think these people are,some sort of sub human species who can’t manage to tie their own shoelaces? Our gutter press has to harbour a lot of the blame for the current state of affairs,as should our education system that has taught people not to question the accepted point of view. If the British public is guilty of anything, it’s naivety,and the willingness to accept without question the establishment narrative.

 

[Baldseagull]

thats about everyone then. if you go back far enough all land was seized/stolen/claimed and then distributed out and sold off over the centuries.

40% of the land in UK is still owned by the descendants of Norman overlords.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

The silent majority beating the noisy minority

I suspect if this poll had been made public

The results would be very different

 

[kentgully]

I vote NO. Not because I give a toss about the Windsors, but because the British public are ****ing idiots, and would vote an absolute **** like Johnson in as head of state.

The British people are complete ****ing idiots....

 

[lawros left foot]

The British people are complete ****ing idiots....

Who?

The people who post on here?

The people you socialise with?

Those you work with ( if you work)?

Your family?

Or just the people who didn’t vote the way you want?

Every country has stupid people,and I suspect we have the average number in this country, but it doesn’t mean the whole population is mentally lacking.

 

[faoileán]

I vote NO. Not because I give a toss about the Windsors, but because the British public are ****ing idiots, and would vote an absolute **** like Johnson in as head of state.

That is the most convincing argument I have ever heard for keeping the monarchy, but I would still vote republic to begin dismantling the class system in this country.

 

[Shooting Star]

I am probably the opposite of some posters on here it seems: I used to be a republican, now I’m just about pro-monarchy.

I remember having a heated argument on FB (where all great debates are held, of course, second only to NSC) with my pro-monarchy friends on the day of the Royal wedding in 2011. A year later I was in London protesting the jubilee with the group Republic. In truth, it was quite an embarrassing protest: there were roughly a couple of hundred of us, in contrast to the tens of thousands of people who travelled to London that day to celebrate the jubilee. If the million who marched against Brexit couldn’t change that, there’s not much hope for republicanism being able to make much headway, irrespective of the voters on polls such as these.

Ten years on and my republicanism has waned and I’d vote to keep the monarchy if there was a referendum today. I still empathise with many of the arguments of republicans and if you created a country today, it’s almost nailed on that you wouldn’t establish a monarchy. However, there’s too many other issues that loom larger in the public imagination at the moment that just seem more important than changing our system of government, and as this thread goes to prove, electoral reform and reform of the House of Lords would come higher up the list than looking at who should be Head of State. Additionally, the argument for a monarchy that has swayed me in recent years is the realisation that a Queen/King usually spends his/her whole life preparing for the role from childhood, and then the rest of their life perfecting and performing it until they die (or abdicate). That just couldn’t be said if it was an elected position (unless you had some REALLY pushy parents). The Queen is a model of this in my opinion.

Charles’ reign could sway me back to republicanism, but I reckon I’ll spend all of it waiting eagerly for William to become king.

 

[faoileán]

Actually it’s worth a lot more than that because of the huge pull especially of the Queen for business . A monarch also helps keep the country stable . You are lucky to have one in England . Absolutely must be kept it’s essential for the country plus will and Kate will do a great job when it’s their turn .

"...because of the huge pull of the Queen for business" Really?

My employer which is a massive international business has shed 900 jobs in the UK in the last year as it reduces its presence in our now non-EU country, Being in the EU was good for its business...it doesn't give a monkeys about whether the UK has a monarchy.