I don't want to be 'reigned over' anymore

[Yubgftr]

While I totally respect the Queen and how she served the country, I think it's now a good time to end the monarchy as I think modern society has outgrown it.

Just the idea that someone inherits the job of head of state through birthright and reigns over us peasants is crazy in this modern age. Then all the ceremonies, titles, line of succession are remnants of a completely different era and tbh remind me of episodes of The Tudors or Game of Thrones, it's just so archaic and out of place.

I think having to bow and curtsey to people just because they were born or married into a special family also seems ridiculous. Why should I have to curtsey to any of them? Not saying I'd be rude or disrespectful but having to bend my knee to a set of people as if they were deities, it's just insane! I think I'd actually feel humiliated.

I also don't get the fawning and crying outside the palace - by all means be respectful and recognise her contribution but crying about someone you've never met? To me it's OTT

Back in medieval times when there was little education and religion was used to manipulate the masses, I can understand why all the peasants went mad for their sovereign and saw them as annointed by God etc etc but we're much more enlightened now (most of us!) so we need to make way for a new way of doing things.

Even a new national anthem - why is it all about the king or queen and god saving them? Why not about the people, the nation as a whole?

That said, I also hate the idea of someone like Boris Johnson being head of state and I bet that's a role he'd go for if we were a Republic. Swings and Roundabouts!

YABU - God save the king, monarchy forever
YANBU - time to end the monarchy

I am really on the fence. We’re always going to have a head of state and it’s always going to be expensive. Just because someone has been appointed on a hereditary basis doesn’t mean they won’t be a good head of state (such as the late Queen) and equally just because someone is elected doesn’t mean they will be any good (Trump).

I’m ambivalent really but I can understand the Republican viewpoint.

but there is no chance I’ll ever be curtseying to any of them if I meet them. It might be protocol but you’re hardly likely to be sent to the Tower of London for not doing so.

@PicturesOfDogs what revolution? People are discussing lawful change. How much are all these non-stop ceremonies costing up? Think of the police overtime bill alone? It’s the reason the football was cancelled - and football clubs actually pay their own policing costs. But there are not enough police for all this!

You aren’t a subject. You are a citizen

Why exactly is President Boris so bad? What would really be different in UK society if he were a president?

@TeenyQueen you ask who would attract world leaders to visit London in the way the monarchy does? What a non question.

How does France attract world leaders to Paris, or America to Washington D.C or Germany to Berlin?. World leaders will still come to London, on diplomatic business, regardless of who’s the head of state, as will all other kind of businesses, tourists etc - they will still all come regardless of who is the head of state. Given this, we might at least give the British people a chance to decide who that would be.

YANBU
I am fed up with the royal takeover of TV and government at this time.
The UK really does have bigger issues to deal with at this time than the death of an old lady, royal or not. I'm happy for anyone to mourn, grieve and pay their respects but government needs to govern.
I personally think all the cancelling of sporting fixtures/TV shows etc is way OTT.

Are you trying to suggest a very clearly neutral few words from the Queen was interference in politics?

It very clearly doesn't lean one way or another despite what Better Together might have thought.

Privately, I wouldn't be surprised if the Queen was not in favour of Scottish independence. But publicly, she never actually said a word about it!

Those few words is clearly neutral in message. So neutral you could easily put a Unionist or Nationalist spin on it. 🤔

The non stop ceremonies would be a drop in the ocean compared to an entire overhaul.
EVERYTHING would need to change.
I don’t think people who are arguing this in terms of how much the monarchy cost us understand how much it would cost to overhaul everything.
Again, who will be the worse off?

The argument that the Royals have too many houses is so pathetic, to be honest.

Tbh, in a country where there are approx 250,000 people homeless and tens of thousands more living in overcrowded, inadequate or otherwise unsuitable accommodation, I don't think it is "pathetic" to make that point.

It's indicative of how very unequal this country is, to the point where many do not have one of their most basic human needs met.

You're quite entitled to want change, but in a democracy you have to accept that if you are in the minority then that change won't happen. So you either have to put up with the status quo or move.

No! I 100% believe we should have stayed in the EU and I'm a Royalist.

It's outdated now. Nobody has the money to visit the UK, and quite honestly, it's shit anyway. No proper rail service on the West Coast railway line. Outages on the tube. Shortages of hospitality staff. Empty shelves in the supermarket. Only the wealthy can come here and they mostly stay in London. Europe is your best bet if travelling from other parts of the world.

What the Royal Family should do is sell up and live in quiet retirement. Perhaps keep Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

You're quoting The National 😆😆😆

@Yubgftr I agree with you! And looking at the latest on the poll looks like we are in the majority. This is another issue which divides the country so I can understand the comparison with Brexit when this also split the country. And people who say live elsewhere should be ashamed..is that what you would have said to the suffragettes when they wanted the right to vote, go live elsewhere?!

I think Elizabeth II did an amazing job and a lot of respect for her. However the same cannot be said sadly for her offspring..(an adulterer and a paedophile anyone?). So far Edward and Anne look like they were the good ones, perhaps they should be next in line instead of Charles! To me the royal family party is over. They need to go through everything and rewrite it or face the (metaphorical) guillotine. We do not need them to have the ultimate say in the prime minister when we the people vote for the party of our choice and live in (at least in theory!) A democracy. We do not need to be paying towards their lifestyles they should be fully funding themselves like most other extreme wealth individuals. If they can't afford their houses at this point then they should be turned over to English Heritage or the National Trust and be assets that we can all enjoy! That's not to say I would do away with them all together as I do think they have an impact on tourism and like the history (well some of it, not the slavery, murder and aspects of the common wealth which went on!). Look what is happening with other countries dropping the royal family as head of state, good for them. Other countries (Sweden?) Manage to have a royal family without them needing to be quite so much of a drain. Our royal family should take their lead.

I'm with you. Hugely significant events are going on in Ukraine in recent days. The 21st anniversary of 9/11 barely received a mention in the UK media. Anyone would think the rest of the world had stopped.

That would depend on whether you were using the modern definitions or the original 😉.
And to the original pp, actually it was Roger Taylor on Sid Vicious

Apparently, we just had an unfunded Bank Holiday costing up to £2 billion where is that going to come from and this isn't a hypothetical spend some time in the future? Plus presidents would normally die when they are well out of office (like Maggie) so there isn't this huge expense and pause the nation at all cost.

Queen won that 1970s spat between Freddy Mecury and John Lydon.

You're the sort of person who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing

But what about the initial change?
I’m not talking about once implemented.
How much do you think a complete overhaul of how our parliament works and how our laws are made will cost?

At least we can vote out politicians we don’t like, but we’re stuck with the RF.

Interesting how the voting YABU/YANBU has panned out. Judging by the amount of royalists represented or interviewed on TV over the last few days, I would have assumed it wouldn’t have been more 80/20 rather than the 50/50 shown.

I agree with the OP. I had no particular issue with the queen herself. It’s more what she represents and that her son is intending on continuing with. An out of date hierarchical order that as long as it exists, will perpetuate the class system.

Does anyone else find it slightly laughable and a bit insulting to hear some of the public saying that she has steered us through troublesome times and been a figure head to look up to? I like to think I’m independent and quite capable of making my own choices without wondering what the queen would have done in my circumstances. A woman and a family who have been born into untold wealth, staff, privileges and dozens of properties has no connection or relevance to how I or most of the British public live. She may well have empathised but there is no way she would ever have understood what it is like to truly struggle on a day to day basis.

Parliament voted for it. And the vast majority of the British public were solidly behind it. The attempts to rewrite history on MN are insane.

I can’t really get upset about it. What harm does it do to have a Royal family?

I see them do a lot of social good (charity work) and contribute to the economy (tourism).

Yes, they’re expensive. But a lot of it is paid for by the Crown Estate. If the royal family didn’t control the crown estate, private institutions would. And instead of maintaining historic buildings, laying on pomp and ceremony that some undeniably enjoy, creating some history and culture, the profits from the Crown Estate would go towards buying richer people a bigger yacht.

I know which I would prefer.

I'd be very pissed off about that if I lived in Cornwall. In fact, I'm vicariously pissed off about it myself.

I wonder if that makes Cornish people more inclined to be republican?

I agree op. I want to be a citizen, not a subject.

and the CofE should be disestablished to better reflect our multi cultural secular society.

I find it odd in 2022 that people actually find these notions so revolutionary