Time for a Republic

Hello and welcome to my little space on the web.

If you've come here out of curiousity, you'll probably want to learn why I believe a British republic is a better alternative to the monarchy.  Well, I'll get straight to it.

First and foremost, it is unnatural in this day and age in the 21st century for some people to be born superior to all others, with an inherited right to be ruler.  This is completely unacceptable.  Also, being born into a monarchy automatically condemns the individual to an unusual childhood which results in an unusual individual as our head of state.

Obviously a system that allows people to vote for a head of state, is by definition, a far better and democratic alternative to the monarchy, where the position is inherited.  I must stress however, that this does not mean a "President Gordon Brown".  The role of president in a republic would be ceremonial and unafiliated with any political parties.  Our current system of parliament would remain the same.  Furthermore, under a republic, we would not be the Queen's subjects.  Subjects are second class citizens (a bit like pets), while the Windsors are first class.  The Queen is even above the law and cannot be held accountable.  Surely no-one should be above the law?

If you think the Queen has no powers, think again.  True, most of her powers are handed down to government but she retains the rights and privileges, or the ownership if you like.  What are these powers I hear you ask?

Dissolve and open parliament.
Give bills the "Royal Assent" before being made law.
Pardon or show mercy to criminal convicts.
Conclude treaties.
Declare war or make peace.
Annex and cede territory.

She is colonel-in-chief.  An honorary title which she did not earn.  She is also head of the Church of England.  This would appear to mean that all other beliefs are officially false, even atheism.

As a conservative voter, I was surprised to be impressed by Gordon Brown's speech.  He has proposed opening the debate on removing some or all of the powers from the monarchy and giving us, the people, a bigger voice.

Our national anthem is anything but national.  It's not even patriotic.  There is absolutely no mention of our country or our people.  It is exclusively about one person and one person only.  So how about an anthem that would make us feel patriotic and British?  The are plenty of alternatives from the "Last Night of the Proms" to choose from.

The Queen would have us believe that we have a "good deal" when it comes to paying taxes to the monarchy.  What she has done however, is to divide the figure up among not only the tax-payers but also those who are either too young to pay or have retired.  Also, the sum total quoted does not include hidden costs, lost taxes, unpaid taxes, costs to local councils and the police forces and not to mention a huge security bill.  Currently the amount the palace claims to charge, stands at around £35m to £40m but take away the spin and the reality is quite astonishing.  The real estimated total cost of the monarchy is around £150m per year.  Elected heads of state in other european countries cost less than £10m a year.

With £150m you could pay for almost 9,000 new nurses every year, or over 7,500 new police officers, or 15 new schools, or over 3,000 new GPs.  This rather puts it into perspective.

Charles' income of around £14m is paid for by the Duchy of Cornwall, which is exempt from capital gains tax and corporation tax.  And if that wasn't bad enough, he'll also save almost £100m in unpaid inheritance tax when the queen dies.  Annoyed yet?

Time for a change.. Time for a republic.