Abolish the Monarchy: Why we should and how we will

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Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then? It will be achieved, says Smith, by forcing the public to come to its senses about the chasm between its own values and those of the crown, perhaps by giving everyone a copy of this book. He described a country of thousands of villages, where each village had it’s own unique belief systems, festivals and micro-cultures. A crucial, riveting polemic in support of one of the most precious things humanity has built - democracy itself.

When the police clapped him in handcuffs, Graham Smith was preparing to perform that most fearful of treasons: shuffle around Trafalgar Square waving a placard bearing the words ‘Not my king’. Graham Smith shows what fools our rotten constitution makes of us, with a monarch as emblem of a country beset by nepotism, backhanders, chumocracy and inherited privilege. Thus many of the pro-monarchy arguments mentioned sounded very familiar from discussions I've had, e. He offers up a familiar list of royal peccadilloes – King Charles’s petulance, Prince Andrew’s promiscuity, Prince William’s indolence – and slays sacred cows along the way: Queen Elizabeth II was a tax evader; her mother was a racist; their Tudor and Stuart precursors were slave traders.They aren't accountable to anyone, and yet between them they are privy to more government secrets than many cabinet ministers. This book, written by Smith in the lead-up to that coronation, lays out concisely and with great precision his argument for abolition of the British monarchy, and how a republican system of government could work in Britain. There is no reference to Thomas Hobbes or Edmund Burke, let alone other, less famous, theorists of monarchy. No self-respecting country should base it’s governing system on how many tourists it is likely to attract.

Royal Consent laws allow for senior Royals access to legislation at the drafting phase to make sure they don’t compromise their private interests. He commented on the rather sad assertion put by Royalists that the British Monarchy cannot be abolished because it represents the best of our country. If this book changes at least one person’s mind, then Graham Smith has indeed done what a real democratic President does - win over the people not because of the family they are born into, but because of the integrity of their character and consistency of their principles.The book also sets out a clear blueprint, not just of what kind of republic we should aspire to be – something that is often lacking in other republican texts – but also of the road to that republic. Transworld have bought world rights in Abolish the Monarchy by the Chief Executive of Republic, Graham Smith, and publish next year. Most worrying is the way in which we have created a ruling elite that can bypass the elected Parliament. But in most cases too, they accused him of offering no alternative - again showing they hadn't read the book - but also showing his outline for the future isn't a weakness at all.

Constitutional reformers who demand an elected upper house, or electoral reform, are often missing one of the main fault lines in our political system: founded on monarchy, we are still governed using the outdated toolkit of a monarchy, regardless of whether or not it is the King himself who wields power. The accession of King Charles has fundamentally changed the monarchy and the public’s relationship with it.

With Charles on the throne, that first line of defence is gone, in her place a man few would hesitate to criticise if they felt it was warranted. But due to their protections from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, yet again the whole picture is not easy to obtain. While he does admit that the Union may not survive long enough to see a republic, he does appear to, ultimately, want our current political and economic system to stay mostly the same, but with the royal cyphers filed off. If you were hoping that the fall of the Windsors would at least mean no more tampon metaphors, think again.