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[allisquietontheleftistfront-blog]

A Royal Referendum

Happy Birthday Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This is a day of great national celebration and it genuinely warms the heart when you see the unified British people out on the street to see their Queen in all of her glory. I remember working at Royal Ascot and completely downing tools to go and catch a glimpse of The Queen. If you've seen Lisa vs Malibu Stacey, you'll know the scene when the doll goes on sale and Smithers is apart of the malaise to get one; well that was me. But isn't this all just wrong? Isn't there something wrong about fawning over hereditary wealth, influence and power. Do they not represent an established order that was supposed to be replaced after the 1960s cultural revolution? And yet they are still there. Fresh from the scandals of the late 1980s and 90s, fresh from Diana, fresh from Blair, new, improved and more popular than ever. 

But there are serious questions to be answered about the relevance of the Royal Family.

You may say that the Royal Family pays for itself in income from tourism but this is an argument that is not logical. People pay thousands to trophy hunt in Africa, this does not justify it. Furthermore the evidence for the income benefits of the Royal Family is simply not there . Only two of the top 10 tourist attractions in the United Kingdom boasts a direct royal connection in the Tower of London's Crown Jewels. According to the Daily Mail website (hardly a left-wing republican rag) an average of 2.8m people attend the Tower of London year on year. Museums  and art galleries far out weight the Royal significance for tourism with the British Museum and the National Gallery standing at a proud number 1 and 2 respectively. The alternative attractions take in about 39m visits per year and although there are not specific figures for the income that generates, there is no doubting that the United Kingdom's tourism industry would continue to be healthy without Her Majesty's involvement. Then you look at the £35m per year that tax payers give to the Royal Family in hand outs; the hypocritical discourse from successive governments about the welfare bill is utterly rank. 

You may say the Royal Family represents the best of British values (certainly the kind of rhetoric I've been reading today). Like stoicism. Stoicism in the face of what? Hereditary wealth and power. And duty? Would you quit your job if you were fawned over by millions of people across the world for doing precisely nothing? It is not duty that compels the Monarch, it is a sense of entitlement. 

And then there is the peculiar issue about representative democracy. Our elected Members of Parliament sign an oath of allegiance to the Monarch. Now, this is not to suggest that Her Majesty is anything more than a figurehead, I do not doubt her impartiality. But an oath to the Queen and not the people who elected them? This will not do, at all. We are facing a crisis of democracy for the United Kingdom. If we lived in a more representative democracy with a appropriately representative electoral system, an elected upper chamber we might just about have the right to preach about democracy. How dare the British patronise the American people for potentially choosing Donald Trump as their Head of State as we devote ourselves to Kings and Queens, crown jewels and royal banquets. This is not Narnia, it is not The Lord of the Rings, it is the 21st century. For that matter, the very same people who bang on about sovereignty in EU debate are frothing royalists, support FPTP and support the House of Lords. They're unrepresentative and unelected. But at least they're British, unrepresentative and unelected.

Don't get me wrong. Harry and William seem like decent people. Charles is bang on about the environment and I get caught in the pomp and ceremony as much as anybody else but I just think that a serious debate needs to ensue about the relevance and need for a royal family. They do make people feel a sense of national pride and unity. But isn't that a serious problem? Aren't the Royal Family just a really useful distraction because successive governments have been unable to instill a sense of pride and unity by good policy initiatives, local investment, community leadership, successful schools, hospitals and transport? No. The only thing to which we have any sense of belonging is a group of people, that most of us will never meet. 

But I am a man of action and I care to make a suggestion. I believe, passionately, that the British people deserve the right to make the decision after the current monarch is laid to rest. So I am calling for an IN/OUT referendum. To settle this matter for generations to come. Let the people decide. I have little doubt it would be a complete landslide in favour of the Royal Family but surely some day the British people should be allowed a say. After all, it has been a while.