To think the British royal family has had its day?

[Ladybugpolkadot]

I had a lot of respect for the Queen, may she rest in peace… But now she has passed away I just feel like the UK Royal family/ establishment should just be abolished.

The younger generations are not the same standard as Queen Elizabeth was. There’s so many rumours and so much scandal in recent times. And what have these people really done in order to justify leeching of UK tax payer money to fund their privileged lifestyles?…

Am I the only one who thinks the members of the Royal family should give up their royal roles and get real jobs and earn their own living like anyone else in the country?

She might have thought sauce for the goose.

It's like Joan Collins vs Katie Price. Joan (Queen) had a bit of old school glamour, decorum and mystique, whereas Katie (Charles) is a warts n all character. Charles is there with his affairs, his public tantrums etc and it doesn't quite have the same illusion.

Why would debate, debate that allows for informed views and choices, to be made, be horrible? Why can’t things be challenged? Everything should be opened up to scrutiny other wise how do people, how do societies, evolve, move forward?. Just because something has worked in the past does not mean that it’s right for right now on the future. Just because people disagree with your views it’s not “horrible”. Yes, challenging the status quo can unsettle people but it’s part of the wider, democratic debate , regarding the monarchy and our system of governance.

Absolutely. The monarchy should have ended with the queen.

Charles is a very weak man and he and the courtiers have made the same mistake with H&M that they made with Diana.

It makes no sense to have a family stuck in internecine fighting representing the country.

I agree

I feel the whole idea of monarchy is so outdated and needs to change. No one deserve power and leadership of a country just by right of birth.
However just the thought of the country voting and deciding on who should be head of state and how it would work gives me a headache. It will be Brexit ten times over.

i do think their privileges need to be reigned in. They need to pay tax including inheritance tax like the rest of us and their finances more transparent. Most people are struggling right now whilst they pay to heat massive castles. It doesn’t feel right that taxpayer pay so much to them.

FWIW I think they represent decent value for money in terms of soft diplomacy, tourism, raising charity awareness. Not a huge monarchist but do like a bit of tradition and it’s something that is unique to the UK.

I’m not any kind of fan of the royal family, especially after Her Maj checked out, but tbf she was an outlier if you hold her up to the shower of libertines, losers, sadists, egomaniacs and freaks who came before her.
So, abolish? Maybe not, the institution does have some sort of intangible cultural, social and perhaps political value, but certainly I’d be very happy to have things like the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Cornwall handed over to the state, purely for the benefit of the people, and public funds allotted to the Royals kept to a bare minimum. They are, at the end of the day, fucking minted, and taking public funds is a piss take.

This family is already splintering. All that privilege and they can't even behave with discretion and civility to each other in public: this goes for all of them, BTW. See how the nation feels once the honeymoon has worn off and it's endured 3-5 years of Charles III. William and Kate's reception in the US and Caribbean is also a clue.

They are fossils, and there's a definite sense they are on borrowed time.

The thing about institutions is that they are inherently corrupt. They prioritise the institution as the vehicle of power, which mean individual crimes within the are hushed up.

Can anyone name an uncorrupt institution?

The Royal Family aren't better than any other institution. But I don't actually think that they're worse either.

I'm not anti-change, but I am a realist. Human behaviour and human fallibilities do not lend themselves to the modern day level of media and big money control that we have at present.

The extreme left would want the removal of monarchy because they loathe inequality. The extreme right would salivate at the opportunity to exercise more power. Level heads prefer steady but sure reform. But that doesn't appeal to the emotions, and it's by winding up emotions that votes are bought.

I’d be very happy to have things like the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Cornwall handed over to the state

The Crown Estate was handed over to the state by George lll in exchange for an income which is a fraction of the money it receives.

Some things are inherently wrong, and need to be removed for that reason. We do not need to remove them just because they are corrupt. We need to remove them because we are a modern society that does not truly believe in divine right to rule. Without that belief the monarchy doesn't work.

I don't believe that one woman's vagina is blessed by God to bestow rulers upon us, and that we should bow our heads to the ones divined to rule us.

We should abolish the monarchy because the idea of a monarchy is alien to our beliefs as a society.

I like the Royal Family and I hope we keep them.

No, it wasn’t. It is no longer directly owned by the monarch, but they still get 25% of its income, which google tells me was £86 million last fiscal year, or the rough equivalent to the salaries of 2,500 NHS nurses.
Personally I’ve gotten a lot of value from NHS nurses of the years. I think they are great, work hard in a very hard job, and are saving lives every day, whereas I personally haven’t got a single fucking bean of value from any single “royal” ever. Unless you count supreme cringe as having some kind of value.

You would be hard pressed to find someone more remorselessly logical than me, but your point a) isn't very specific or accurate (who is "we" - certainly not everyone on this thread. And if so, why do the antis get to decide over the pros?) and 2) you haven't addressed any of the challenges related to enacting your opinion.

And if you pick up ANY history book you will see that humanity is pretty bad at regime change. You can't just ignore that, and you can't just ignore that many people are disposed to like, seek out and enjoy traditions and institutions without any rational justification.

Lastly, hierarchies are also found in nature. In prides of lions, in chimp communities, in elephant herds. It's not actually a given that these things don't have a function.

@thecatsthecats I’m guessing the OP hasn’t addressed how a change would be enacted because they are a) not a constitutional lawyer and b) it’s not really the point and c) not really a massive jump to imagine going from an unelected symbolic head of state to an elected symbolic head of state. Politically all the monarch does is sign the papers. They always sign the papers and in reality have no choice but to sign the papers. It’s not rocket science. Even the “soft diplomacy” aspect has become a bit of irrelevant as the U.K. in general and the monarchy in particular have squandered so much of their (very much in perception rather than deed) moral cache over the last few decades.

To answer the OP question - YES !

No, it wasn’t. It is no longer directly owned by the monarch, but they still get 25% of its income,

That’s what I said. 🤷‍♀️

I don't think they're going anywhere for a long time but if Charles is smart he'll keep a very low profile for the 20 years or so he has left before William takes over.

Well my point is that opting out of those other points renders any opinion trite.

I'd love to hear how an election would work in a manner that left us invulnerable to a bad selection.

And just to reiterate - I don't support the monarchy, and take a hobbit worthy, "you bow to no one" attitude in my life. I don't agree that it's as simple as replacing a hereditary head with an elected one.

My own vision of society is in fact much more radical. Doesn't mean that it's realistic.

He’s not smart though is he nor are the courtiers, he’s decided to declare war on one of his sons which can only drag the palace into the mire.

I think you’ll find one of his sons has decided to declare war on him. He’s being very smart in keeping schtum and turning the other cheek.

But it is kind of important. If we got rid of the monarchy, we’d need root and branch constitutional reform

Not waving but Frocking, or the other F word. And the G for gossip word, and it sells papers, and oh heck does anyone give a monkeys about them anyway really if not for the above.