New book on the royals - first chapter especially interesting

[PoePoePoePoePoe]

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456305/abolish-the-monarchy-by-smith-graham/9781911709305

Interested to know if anyone is planning to buy it. The first chapter entirely debunks the tourism myth.

Tourism myth? So the book is totally neutral then? As the title suggests?

Why on earth should it be totally neutral? Where did I claim it was neutral? 🤷‍♀️

Seen as though Republic can never provide evidence to support their 'facts' or stats I'll give it a swerve thanks, especially if Owen Jones thinks it's good.

It declares itself to be polemic. And the writer is the CEO of UK Republic who already gave completely wrong costings of recent royal ceremonies. Lol. So there can't really be a debunking if (a) all sides aren't presented in an without bias; and (b) the author has been proven to get his facts wrong.

But I'm sure it'll be entertaining to some so good luck to him.

It’s interesting how royal “facts” = true and republic facts = false. I find it fascinating the unwillingness to explore an alternative. The book quotes conversations had with Visit England who themselves admit there is no evidence to say tourism would be in any way affected if the royals didn’t exist.

Personally I don't take positive facts as fact either, most are hard if not impossible to quantify and to measure. I dont think the royals themselves state anything much though do they?

I think the idea that before birth a child's future is decided is the issue. No hope of privacy, no chance to have a life of their own choosing, place in history decided. It's a gilded cage and it fucks up the Windsor family far too much. For their own sake it needs abolishing. The tourist argument is neither here nor there.

@Froffycoffee the Royal PR machine repeats ad nauseum thé tired figures on tourism - it’s repeated constantly and with absolutely no evidence to substantiate it, it’s repeated in every argument about the royals too.

It really is incredible how this urban myths slip into the narrative unchallenged.

It got quite a harsh review from Yuan in The Times which I thought was quite funny so I wasn’t intending to read it 😆
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abolish-the-monarchy-by-graham-smith-review-ptg8fsksr

(Although note it’s not actually possible to ‘debunk’ the RF’s impact on tourism since it’s very hard to actually tell, since there are direct and indirect influences, and of course while they might be an attraction there would still be tourism without them. This is a much more balanced article: https://www.regionalstudies.org/news/blog-the-impact-of-the-uk-royal-family-on-tourism/ which estimates that royal tourism directly and indirectly contributes about 1.8bn every year to the UK economy with the obvious caveats. I don’t think it’s a major reason people support the monarchy either way)

I know it is always brought up in arguments, but where have the RF said it? Ironically there's zero evidence to back up the claims of Republic, and going by your own point if you don't believe one side surely the same applies to the other? Perhaps it should be discounted altogether.

The book is a polemic, written by someone with very entrenched views on the subject and with an obvious motive to encourage people to agree with him. Of course he is going to find facts to support his argument, and disregard those which do not. That doesn't mean what he writes should be dismissed, but it does mean that it needs to be read with caution, like any polemic.

For what it's worth, I don't think the tourism argument is very important one way or the other.

Oh FGS it's Friday, get back to the frocks, rocks and spats. That is what they have become notable for now.

Is that him? he looks like Ives, the little angry bloke in Porridge. Needs a tee under that sweatshirt, as well.

And they need to come up with a better slogan than #Notmyking.

And they need to come up with a better slogan than #Notmyking

Such a juvenile slogan, the sort of thing a teen would shout in an argument.

Yes, it's a bit 'You're not the boss of me!'

Why should anyone care if someone considers Charles 'their king' or not? Give me a better argument than that!

Having read one of their articles linked here by a poster, republic has an incredibly weak grasp of financials and economics. I doubt this book is any better

Surely he's not looking to make money out of writing a book about the royals? wouldn't that go against all his principles?

Yeah he’s not “debunking” any “myths”, he’s just offering a differing opinion

He looks unhinged in that yellow shirt. Don’t ever trust anyone who doesn’t wear proper undergarments.

How do you know the first chapter "debunks the tourism myth"? I can't see that it says that anywhere.

estimates that royal tourism directly and indirectly contributes about 1.8bn every year to the UK economy

Those figures derive from reports by Brand Finance which is a brand valuation firm. There are strong links with the royals (BF got a royal warrant shortly before their 2017 report and various bigwigs were I think - memory a bit hazy - at the time associated with royal gong and cloak orders)

There is no clarity on who if anyone commissioned these reports and therefore no clarity on whether an agenda is being promoted.

If Graham Smith's figures are to be greeted with scepticism it's only fair to look at the opposition too.

There are strong links with the royals (BF got a royal warrant shortly before their 2017 report

If they did they didn't hold it very long (not on the list on the Royal Warrant Holders Association website). According to Brand Finance they found that royal warrant are associated with trustworthiness and superior quality

https://brandfinance.com/press-releases/new-research-finds-royal-warrants-drive-british-brands

Report tttached at the top of that page if anyone wants to read it

Oh. My bad.

It was actually a royal coat of arms.

The 2017 report was launched ten days after the coat of arms was awarded and the speakers at the launch event included Clive Cheesman of the College of Arms and Ben Marson director of partnerships at the Prince's Trust.

We are left to make of it all what we will...