Britain should dump the monarchy

Originally posted by redbadger
£80 million public purse/340million duchy Lancaster/728 million duchy cornwall/1.5 million parliamentary subsidies/her private wealth 400 million/crown estates 8 billion ( estimated) & that is probably the tip of a very large iceberg.

So when you say they should live off "their own money" you need to consider what that means. If you or I lived off our own money without earning a wage we would soon spot the difference. Their own unearned, inherited wealth is rather greater than our wages have achieved. You can be sure there is more than enough salted away in tax havens and secret jurisdictions to survive even a socialist republic.

Originally posted by finnegan
My observation was, from memory, really confined to the point that it is not necessary or even probable that England / Britain would replace its queen with someone like Boris Johnson (who is such a fabricated personality that he is himself only something like Boris Johnson).

You'd have a point if the English themselves hadn't already proved you wrong by voting him mayor of London, precisely because of that fabricated personality. I have no delusions that the rest of the Mostly Fools are any more sensible than the Cokeneys.

Originally posted by moonbus
This is a spin-off from another thread. The motion: Britain should dump the monarchy and get themselves a president. Reasons for and against, please.

Pro: Countries with presidents know so much better than countries with monarchs how to run things.

Contra: “God save the president” has the wrong number of syllables for the tune.

Pro: England would fi ...[text shortened]... upt.

Pro: Without the royals, the tabloid press would have nothing to report and go bankrupt.

As an American, I believe America should tend it's own affairs and not tell other countries how to run theirs. If Britain wants a monarchy, why should this concern Americans??

Originally posted by bill718
As an American, I believe America should tend it's own affairs and not tell other countries how to run theirs. If Britain wants a monarchy, why should this concern Americans??

Well, this is a debate forum, if we all restricted ourselves to commenting only on the conditions of our own countries then the whole thing would stall. Although I appreciate the recognition that it is fundamentally our affair.

But what about the violence inherent in the system? You don't vote for Queens. You need a watery tart to dispense scimitars.