Is it Time to Abolish the Monarchy?

[JayEmAy]

Nothing undercuts a strong argument quite like ad hominem name calling.

[DevonLegrion]

You had me until you started throwing out insults like "simpletons".

[tetleydidley]

Queen Elizabeth II had always respected boundaries and fulfilled her constitutional duties well. She understood perfectly that a misstep on her part could mean the end of the institution. Rest assured if her successors thought they could meddle in the affairs of the state, their reign would end and the sitting prime minister would promptly remind them of parliamentary supremacy. Simpletons might wish to read about Charles I or Edward VIII before making any comparisons with gun legislation in the US and realise how profoundly stupid that comparison is.

[JJMcCullough]

I think one of the weakest pro-monarchy arguments is that monarchy is "not divisive." Monarchy is a political idea and people debate it just as much as they debate anything else. Just because something is the status quo that doesn't mean it can't be controversial.

[dwarvensphere]

Thank you yank, I'm glad you are enlightened enough to tell us peasants what we should do

[EvdogMusic]

The constitutional monarchical framework has allowed Commonwealth nations to, in practice, function like Crowned Republics. Since the Bill of Rights 1689, the Crown hasn't acted outside the limited scope of the powers permitted to it by Parliament; when it uses the powers within its scope, it's almost always based on constitutional or conventional precedent, rather than personal or political will.

Thus, for many, the question is "why remove a nonpartisan hereditary executive that's not overused nor expanded its powers, in exchange for an explicitly partisan elective executive that's incentivised to exercise and expand its powers to achieve ideological goals?"

[RSaxon]

The monarchy is also critically important diplomatically with the Commonwealth and other nations outside of it. The Queen is a unifying head of state if people have a problem with royals being born into wealth we should abolish capitalism then. How many between us are privileged because they are born in a rich family or in the right side of the world? People want to abolish monarchy because they envy on royal family. Constitution monarchy is one of the best government system also the state we should defund the royals dosnt make as much sense when you bring in the statistics on average the Royal family gets 35 million a year on tax payers money but also brings in a whopping 550 million a year which 75% Off go back into government funded project and other projects

[redpointrana]

An american talking about what other countries should do, nice! I mean talk about privilege!
Btw, ever heard of the Commonwealth of England? A period of 11 years (1649 - 1660) where the UK was a republic. Besides this, ever heard about the Glorious Revolution? Where the English Parliament invited William of Orange to be their king (after deposing king James II). This laid the foundation for the constitutional monarchy, where the parliament has more power than the monarch.
And I want constitutional monarchies just to piss off fucking communists, the scumbags who said how much they cared for the common people and how bad kings were, and when they got to power, they were fucking monsters to common people.

[laggrenade]

The simplest and firmest argument in favour of the monarchy is this: once its gone, you can't get it back. Unless you can tell me what the monarchy is for, and why your alternative is better, and have really solid evidence, better to not mess with what works.

[TenTenJ]

I don’t think you’re seasoned enough to talk about this topic, particularly if you’re not British. The monarchy holds traditions that you may not understand or appreciate because of that.

[n.j.fogaca-lea]

The "simpletons" caught me off guard

[nivujas]

Are the people of UK courageous, intelligent and thoughtful to understand the reality of these monarchies who are surviving on people’s wealth?
Does the public of UK have power to stand for themselves, their children & their better future?

[timothymclean]

Look at it this way: Prince Charles has waited nearly his entire life to claim the throne. It would be _hilarious_ if the monarchy was abolished right before his coronation!

[vontosmagicmurderbag]

No, it's not time to abolish it. It was time centuries ago.

[LucidFL]

Imagine worrying about some powerless monarch when you’re ruled by billionaires and oligopolies.

[BunnyboyCarrot]

62% of Brits still support the monarchy, with 22% for abolishment.

[williamcfox]

People act like I’m dancing on her grave or something. I’m not. It’s reasonable to discuss an institution during its first large transition in 70 years.

[ianyoung]

If you think a nation should evaluate whether something in it‘s governmental structure is archaic and doesn’t fit in the twenty-first century, perhaps you as a US-American should look at your restrictive, codified constitution and consider that it’s time to get rid of that.

[Soliloquy]

From this kiwi's perspective, I hope we can have that conversation over the next year or so.

[mcguckin]

I believe it was your own "King" who said it best;
Clean up your own backyard
You tend to your business, I'll tend to mine