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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to wonder if it's time to abolish the monarchy?

143 replies

MyBeloved · 06/10/2019 13:47

Having grown increasingly tired of their shennanigans, I think the monarchy should be abolished. AIBU?

OP posts:
chomalungma · 06/10/2019 14:33

They have little impact on our lives.... Couldn't care less either way

Did you miss the prorogation debacle?

heath48 · 06/10/2019 14:33

I have been a Royalist all my life,until now.

Served as an Officer in the QARANC for a number of years and was proud to do so.

With all that has been going on lately with Prince Andrew and Prince Harry,I believe it is time to get rid of the Monarchy.They seem so out of touch with the feelings of the General Public and treat us with contempt.

Have a feeling it won’t happen in my lifetime,but would be delighted it if did.

Dapplegrey · 06/10/2019 14:36

Vive la revolution?

Tyro could you enlarge please on what form this revolution will take? The French Revolution? The Russian Revolution?

Lockheart · 06/10/2019 14:39

YABU. The "abolish the monarchy" threads have been done eleventy billion times already.

Pardonwhat · 06/10/2019 14:40

Tyrotoxicity

I was born and raised the ‘grim up north’. Still fairly northern. Have also lived on a council estate. I still value tourism in London Smile

chomalungma · 06/10/2019 14:41

The "abolish the monarchy" threads have been done eleventy billion times already

These are interesting times for the Monarchy.

I can't imagine what the Queen's Christmas day address to the nation will be about.

Blackdog19 · 06/10/2019 14:42

Definitely not abolish the monarchy while the Queen is alive. After that, I don’t know.

PurpleDaisies · 06/10/2019 14:42

Definitely not abolish the monarchy while the Queen is alive.

Even if she abdicates?

Tyrotoxicity · 06/10/2019 14:43

Dapple I was thinking of something with rather less decapitation. More of a phasing out than actual bloodshed, with the official dissolution taking place post-Queen.

Mollymoo01 · 06/10/2019 14:48

Yep absolutely time to get rid.

Give Queenie a decent payoff and maybe a small property for Charles and Camilla, William and Kate, Harry and Meghan and Edward and Sophie. (Basically the working royals)

Then time for a massive overhaul of our government.

Chloemol · 06/10/2019 15:11

RAther the royal family than a president which is the other option can you imagine President Blair, , Cameron, Corbyn or Johnson?

chomalungma · 06/10/2019 15:23

RAther the royal family than a president which is the other option can you imagine President Blair, , Cameron, Corbyn or Johnson

And yet plenty of other countries have apolitical Heads of State..

Ireland being one.

It's not a binary choice between a Monarch or an elected President to rule politically over us.

Heartburned · 06/10/2019 15:33

It's long overdue. The monarchy is a ridiculous and expensive anachronism in a supposed democracy. Have a considerably cheaper elected head of state with largely ceremonial powers -- give them no political power and cap their salary at the top of the civil service salary grade (as in Ireland) and you will rule out professional politicians.

Alas, it will not happen while large numbers of British people still like the soap opera side of the royal family, or maintain an incredibly silly, slavish devotion to the institution or to individuals within it, manifested by camping out by royal wedding routes and buying souvenir teatowels.

Surely the prospect of the queen's long-rehearsed-for death, and accession by a venal, emotionally illiterate man whose entire life has been spent waiting for his mother's demise, is enough to convince anyone that an institution where you get absolutely no say in who's next on the throne could be someone admirable, could be a Nazi sympathiser has no place in 2019?

You can't say, 'Oh, I like the monarchy because I like the queen' -- the point of it being a monarchy is that it's hereditary, and you get no say over who your head of state is.

Heartburned · 06/10/2019 15:36

RAther the royal family than a president which is the other option can you imagine President Blair, , Cameron, Corbyn or Johnson

Sigh. These threads suggest that many royalists simply can't understand the difference between an elected head of state within the UK political system, and a US-style president with huge political power. Blair, Cameron, Corbyn and Johnson are professional politicians who were, are or want to be prime minister. An elected HoS after the abolition of the monarchy but within the UK political system would have very little.

Tyrotoxicity · 06/10/2019 15:43

You can't say, 'Oh, I like the monarchy because I like the queen'

Agreed. Which is why I say I'm not keen on the monarchy but the Queen herself doesn't draw my ire.

There is still a part of me that suspects she intends to outlive Charles out of sheer spite. Fair play to her, I say.

SilverySurfer · 06/10/2019 16:29

No - see otterturk's pos

SilverySurfer · 06/10/2019 16:30

...post for further comment.

MyBeloved · 06/10/2019 16:32

Thank you all for your replies so far. Fascinating. Seems the poll suggests more leaning towards getting rid...

OP posts:
flyingspaghettimonster · 06/10/2019 16:35

I like having a monarchy and I don't have any problem with them or the fact that they get a small portuon of taxes to keep up their estates and palaces. I don't see the point in getting rid of something that has very little impact on our daily lives and that carries such a long tradition of our cultural history.

PurpleDaisies · 06/10/2019 16:37

I don't have any problem with them or the fact that they get a small portuon of taxes to keep up their estates and palaces.

I would rather my taxes went to an actual deserving cause, like educating children with special educational needs and disabilities properly. Keeping up some rich person’s palace shouldn’t be compulsory.

chomalungma · 06/10/2019 16:37

I don't see the point in getting rid of something that has very little impact on our daily lives and that carries such a long tradition of our cultural history

You did notice the prorogation recently?

The Queen has the power to open and close Parliament.

If she merely follows the whim of the PM, who is there to check the power of the PM and to ensure that they don't exceed their powers?

MyBeloved · 06/10/2019 16:38

What about when they seem to be above the law? Prince Andrew? It has all gone very quiet on that front.

I really hope the RF are doing their swansong.

OP posts:
JenniR29 · 06/10/2019 16:39

Been saying it for years. Sadly the media have somehow convinced the masses that we ‘need’ them and that we must pay to keep them in a life of privilege.

chomalungma · 06/10/2019 16:40

Did you hear Rees - Mogg explaining that is impossible by definition for the Queen to break the law?

I want to live in a country where no one is above the law.

Oh - and a country where birthright doesn't get you to be the Head of State.

AtomicSquirrel3 · 06/10/2019 16:40

They need to go. Off with their heads!