It's the royal wedding today. (Wow, really? We hadn't noticed. Thank you so much for telling us, Sam, otherwise we'd have been in the dark all day!)
*ahem*
The presence of the wedding has given a lot of people the opportunity to say "oh em gee, why do we even have a royal family, it's sooooo undemocratic and oppressive and stuff". Which is silly, because the Royals don't actually get involved with the government in any way. If you want to attack an institution which is manipulating the government without our consent, then pick your favourite out of the trade union's congress and any huge investor from the business sector.
Lots of countries have heads of state which act as figureheads and don't really do anything, and lots of those heads of state are appointed, not elected. Among them is Spain, Canada, Norway, Japan- some of the most famously liberal and/or well-run countries in the world. The royals aren't the problem. Don't distract us from the real democracy-leeches by getting all hot and bothered about Liz, Charlie, Will and Kate. It's pointless and annoys me.
*ahem*
The presence of the wedding has given a lot of people the opportunity to say "oh em gee, why do we even have a royal family, it's sooooo undemocratic and oppressive and stuff". Which is silly, because the Royals don't actually get involved with the government in any way. If you want to attack an institution which is manipulating the government without our consent, then pick your favourite out of the trade union's congress and any huge investor from the business sector.
Lots of countries have heads of state which act as figureheads and don't really do anything, and lots of those heads of state are appointed, not elected. Among them is Spain, Canada, Norway, Japan- some of the most famously liberal and/or well-run countries in the world. The royals aren't the problem. Don't distract us from the real democracy-leeches by getting all hot and bothered about Liz, Charlie, Will and Kate. It's pointless and annoys me.
Good point on Canada especially as we share a head of state (the queen) so no excuse for us not to be as democratic as they are. But I do see why some people want to abolish the monarchy. I don't think the fact that they don't get involved in politics is important, but more the fact that they do have power, and it is at their discretion as to whether they use that power. It's the fact that they get to be our head of state whether or not the majority want them to be so. I have a particular problem with the fact that if I ever met the queen I would be expected to bow. The queen just happened to be born, the same as everybody else yet we have to bow, salute and sing a national anthem asking god to "save her" as if she is special and better than us. What about when we get a king or queen who we hate, maybe more people would have a problem treating them this way. Personally I don't care too much and I think most of the royal family probably wish they weren't royal but I do see why many people do have an issue with it.
ReplyDeleteGood points; but all these problems are one's that can be solved without abolishing the family altogether. We can get a constitution written which limits their power (like Japan's), change the national anthem, etc. if you met the queen and didn't bow, I'm sure there wouldn't actually be much of a fuss. :L We the People of Britain have done far more offensive things regarding Liz and her family than walking past her without bending over.
ReplyDeletetrue these things can be solved in various ways, but you can only reform a monarchy so much before it stops being a monarchy at all, and therefore you indirectly abolish it anyway. Also another big issue is over what they are paid for. I'm not going to be one of those people who try to make out the royals don't work, because they do and many of them work very hard indeed, but the problem is that if a politician doesn't do his/her job right, then we can sack them by not voting for them. If a member of the royal family does something wrong or corrupt or embarrassing(que prince Andrew)then we don't get to say, 'we don't want this person representing us and being paid by us', and the decision is put into the hands of a handful of officials. I am personally fairly neutral but I just want to put another side of this argument across as I don't think that everybody who thinks we should abolish the monarchy is ignorant or annoying. I think many have valid reasons.
ReplyDeleteI don't hold that opinion of anti-royalists either; sorry if it came across that way.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what else I can add to this argument which I haven't already said. But essentially, I still maintain the conclusion that the royals are harmless, not least because if they ever tried to convert their ceremonial power into real power, they would be disposed of fairly swiftly.