How will the Royal Family end?

[JoyousGreyOrca]

The Royal Family will end. Not yet obviously. But within the next generation.

People often assume institutions like this fall slowly and gradually. We see a bit of that already happening with the reduction in "working" Royals, far less favourable poll results than when Queen Elizabeth reigned, and the willingness of the media to be more critical of the Royal Family.

I have seen people commenting assuming this means the Royal family will end soon. I think they misunderstand what is happening.

But society is changing and the deference that Queen Elizabeth attracted can no longer be taken for granted. Colonies are no longer happy for the Royals to carry out cosplay colonial tours on their soil, and increasingly they will remove the King as their Head of State. But I think when the end comes it will be sudden and unexpected. Similar to the fall of the Soviet Union. A clear weakening of the institution, but then a sudden, and shocking fall.

The aftermath will be very messy though as the Royal family try and fight for as much of the states wealth as they can, using the courts if they need to.

Surely this thread is about the Monarchy in general? Of course certain members will be referred to but it's an interesting question in the OP and it can be asked and discussed by others.

We don't all have to love everything about the royal family.

Please do not lie. I am not a "fan" of the Sussexes. They are simply rich celebrities, and I am not interested.

So there's no plan? I would expect people on this forum supporting the idea of a republic to have an idea of what it is they support and what they want persuade others to support, yes. Otherwise, we get a mess again like Brexit, don't we? It's not as if it's a new question/a novel proposal. How long has Republican existed as a campaign group? I'll answer that for you, over 40 years. Have they no experts?

No different to many other threads on the RF board which serve a different purpose! And they are all allowed to stand!

As I say, there would be a lot of unravelling of the constitutional monarchy and it is not something that can be answered just like that.

To be fair to Republic, now that the popular and respected Queen has died, they are getting quite good at shouting "Not my King" at every opportunity.

I would have more respect for them if they had shouted it at her though. Have the courage of your convictions!

Yet if you look further into both those examples you'll see large crowds in Aberdeen for him. So again probably not indicative of his visit. If memory serves me correctly the 2nd one you've linked - to an Australian publication rather oddly - his arrival hadn't been announced and he wasn't expected by the wider public. Who soon as they knew he was about were out in their droves

This has been answered many times in other threads. You start with the abolition of the second chamber. It's really not that difficult.

The reason William and Catharine's popularity matters, is because they Will be King and Queen. But unpopularity or indifference will not be enough to end the monarchy. I think it is their response that counts.

Are you reading the articles you are posting? Or just searching and plopping them down from the headlines?

The reason I ask is ...
1 the first two are from two different news sources ( one Australian which copied the first one )
Both about the Aberdeen visit .
2 the last one was nov 24 and it was the students at the uni he visited who booed ( no mention of the crowd joining in ) and it was all about Gaza and Palestine !
The students apparently were shouting 'free palastine'

I'm afraid to say that supporters of everything to do with the Royal Family really do not like threads that go against that support.

We should be able to discuss this.

I think William and Kate get away with a lot just because they are not Harry and Meghan. When as willvsurely happen, the comparison is not there anymore, then scrutiny will fall on them. William is lazy, but whatever he says about his 'life's work' being to end homelessness or bring peace to the Middle East, his life's work is to keep the Windsors on the throne. At any hint of Republican sentiment growing or his advisors saying there is a risk he will have to give up some privileges, he will get his ribbon cutting scissors out and start doing overtime. They are also hugely protected by the entire establishment. That will keep them clinging on, I think.
Apathy could do for them, but it could also mean people think it's easier to just have someone doing a job that is essentially of no consequence than change it and have to elect someone.

His arrival was announced in a tweet as it was announced at other places as part of Homewards Bound. The locations were only announced on the day, but other places had a good turn out.

He does still get decent crowds most places, but not all. And my other link was about Belfast, not Aberdeen where the crowd was very small.

They are popular, even with the 18-24 age group, as this poll from Dec 2024 shows. Apologies if it takes mumsnet a while to approve the photo for everyone to see

Great. Keep going.

For those who are interested:

https://www.republic.org.uk/a_new_british_constitution

I always find these polls a bit weird.
I have never been polled , no one I know has.

It will end. No institution lasts for ever.

You can't "end" the royal family.

Unless you chop off the heads of all of them, including cousins, second cousins and several generations, there will always be a royal family.

You can, however remove the role of head of state from the monarch. But then, who would be head of state? Would you like our HoS to be Kier Starmer? Or Liz Truss? I like having an apolitical HoS.

If you read the article you would see that it was due to the Palestine-Israel war rather than anything personal against William and the monarchy.

”One reporter at the scene said William faced a "less than warm reaction" as he made his way to a car. Shouts also appeared to demand more action from the future King on "Palestine and Gaza", with the social media clip finishing to chants of "Free Palestine".”

That is very pertinent and I agree.

William talks of being Royal with a small 'r'. What does that mean? Do even less than he's been doing?

It's a shame really because it is going to be rather hard to shake off the lazy label. He's never done more than his father as far as engagements, and now his Dad is 76 with health issues, it just does not look good.

For now, yes, they are protected by the establishment.
However, families are odd... who knows what goes on behind the scenes as far as inter family relationships.

@KnickerlessParsons You can end them. They would no longer be Royal, but simply minor celebrities.

Agree it does not look good that his elderly father with cancer does more.
That will not bring them down though. But it does weaken them.

Have you looked at their website? Of course they have a plan. It’s right there in black and white.

I’m sure Republicans in 1649, 1789 and 1917 thought the exact same thing, yet here we are 🤷🏻‍♀️