Abolish the Monarchy: Why we should and how we will

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I intend to try recommending it to reflexively pro-monarchy people who might be intrigued by the uncompromising title. At just over 200-page the shortest polemic which effectively dismisses all the arguments for the monarchy. Although he is committed enough to the republican cause to lay down his freedom for it, there is something not altogether serious about the book he has produced.

Smith believes that monarchy’s failings are so self-evident that it is unnecessary to treat it seriously as a system of government.If there is a weakness, in my view, where Smith can be attacked, it is in the presentation of an agenda for change and how our constitution can be prepared for a republican democracy. The Queen was their heat shield, able to deflect even the most serious questions and accusations, unable to do wrong in the eyes of much of the media and political class and, if she did, not someone many dared to criticise publicly. Too often we Republicans get stuck hit with the usual freak examples of presidencies, usually from the US, Russia and occasionally France. No self-respecting country should base it’s governing system on how many tourists it is likely to attract.

This excellent guide made me want to engage in the Republican cause more, as the book is so hopeful and champions strengths of our country. However, I did feel that the book started to lose it’s way when it was talking about the House of Lords, seemingly ignoring concerns that a fully elected chamber runs the risk of having some of the same issues and the Commons. He described a country of thousands of villages, where each village had it’s own unique belief systems, festivals and micro-cultures. Erudite Graham Smith shows what fools our rotten constitution makes of us, with a monarch as emblem of a country beset by nepotism, backhanders, chumocracy and inherited privilege.The result is a very timely work, though it is doubtful how relevant this book will remain outside of this year, let alone the coming decades. I mean, I was always going to enjoy a lengthy diatribe on why the UK should get rid of its outdated and expensive monarchy.

Reading this book will give you the confidence to speak up, and to understand that we, the British people, (and I must say, those in the land of my parents), deserve a fairer society. He sets out a vision for the future that I could see easily dismissed by critics because he isn't a politician and so can't possibly know how the parliamentary machine could work. g. 'a Queen is better than a Trump', 'the monarchy isn't ideal but we're stuck with it now', and 'they represent tradition and stability'. I bought the book because I am a member of Republic but felt that I should at least make the effort to read it although unlikely to be persuaded by the arguments therein.Whether you're in favour of abolition or a more slimmed-down monarchy in keeping with modern Britain, Graham Smith puts the case for reform eloquently and forcefully.

Meanwhile the uglier institutional undercurrent is often, conveniently for the British Monarchy, left out of most conversations. For those who think we should just leave them to be as they do no harm, read this book s it may just change your view. Nevertheless, nobody should be arrested for advocating what should really be common sense in this day and age. The author fails to provide any credible evidence or logical reasoning to support his claims, and instead relies on cherry-picked anecdotes, biased sources and emotional appeals. One of the stronger passages examines the prorogation affair of 2019 and the paralysis that overcame the queen as she struggled to reconcile her role of constitutional backstop with the expectation that the monarch do nothing to impede an elected government.Both in principle and in practice, he states repeatedly, monarchy contravenes the ‘values’ of the British people: it is undemocratic, expensive and impractical; it enthrones privilege, nepotism and inequality. There is no engagement with the writings of the German historian Ernst Kantorowicz, who exposed the sophistication of monarchical conceptions of the state.