The royal family - should they still be there ?

Dark_Angel

Dark_Angel

Dark_Angel

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
12,631
What is your opinion ? I think they are good for a tourist attraction.... but they don't really have any power anymore do they ? I mean most of what they can do is really for show ?
 
I think they either need to be given more power or to be abolished. The situation with them now is crap.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I'd prefer to see them stay and have more power than be abolished.
 
Last edited:
Yes, the Queen has the power to dissolve parliament. Also has a lot of duties too, They bring a lot into this country, and the biggest reason, would you want the prime minister to be a president instead?

This seems to crop up about once a month.
 
Of course they should, they bring in so much money, give England so much respect and do so much work in the international stage for us.
 
I personally like the Royal Family, gives our country some identity and a feeling of being English, even though our country is rapidly becoming more and more multicultural
 
They do a lot of work for charity and tourism, and they don't actually cost a fantastic amount.

Paxman has written a pretty good book on the subject.
 
The day we get rid of the royal family is the day we turn into another generic european state.

The royal family is a reminder of our history and culture and we should be proud to have them.

People make me laugh when they say the royals are getting payed for nothing, but I know I wouldn't want to be one of them. Its not like they can go out and live any life they want. They're tied to the country by duty and history.

It will be a sad day for this country if they go.
 
Personally I want them to stay - I don't think it would be England without them... but a lot of the people I know say to basically nuke them from orbit :/

Just wondered if people agreed with them or I really.
 
They do a good job and I like them as a figure head for our country. I am more proud to have the queen representing the old values of Britain then gordon brown and his lack of charisma.

They are a huge tourist pull to the country and are in a position to bring public attention to lots of ecological and historical matters we should be interested in.
 
The Monarch has a lot more power than we actually think.

Dissolve Parliament or even start WW3. Although I now have mixed feeling with regards as to where they fit in now, they still should be here.

The trouble is, they just do not make any decisions anymore. I would have much preferred to have lived in the era when it would have to be the King & Queens final decision that would make or break something.
 
I'd like them to stay. As has been said, it would not be Britain without them.

Al Fayed would rather they were disbanded and expatriated to Algeria though. :p
 
If they didn't exist someone would have to take on many of the duties of the Queen (and the other Royals to a lesser extent), in which case they'd need to be elected (with all the issues that brings) or hereditary (which is what we have now but just selecting different people as a starting point).

As has been said they don't cost much, do quite a bit in terms of duties and diplomacy*, attract tourists and perhaps most importantly to me affect my life not one jot in general - so I can see no useful reason to abolish them unless you want to claim it inequitable to confer power for simple reason of birth. That however would be rather fallacious in that it assumes that everyone is born into an equal life, we aren't, we should have equal rights but that is not the same thing.

*possibly Prince Philip excepted but he is one of the best things about the whole lot.
 
eggyoke said:
The day we get rid of the royal family is the day we turn into another generic european state.
Click to expand...

Exactly my feelings, had this argument a few times before and this is always my first response!

The Royal family was a major player in shaping our country in to what it is today, for better or worse, getting rid of them would be getting rid of a large part of what England is.
 
Aaah it's the monthly Royal Family thread. Yes they should be there, for lots of reasons, including enforcing legitimacy of the government and a large generation of revenue and tourism. They pull in the punters, simply put.

Another way of putting their position is, that they use their power extremely moderately!
 
I think the royals are much better than the alternative of an elected head of state. President Blair, Brown, Major or Thatcher are all pretty unappealing, and far more likely to cause problems, not to mention cost vastly more than the Royal family actually do.

The Queen currently might also be the only check and balance on the government's power that the government cannot easily interfere with, after Blair neutered the HoL because they kept getting in the way of his dictatorial ambitions by asking him to actually either write good laws, or prove that the laws would actually be effective.
 
Of course they should stay, they are the royal family and as much a part of our national identity as anything else.

The Queen sees it as her duty to serve the country to the best of her ability, could that be said about politicians who seem to be more occupied with winning a popularity contest than doing good for the country?

As far as I can see there would be no benefit to removing the monarchy.

Long live the Queen!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom