Thursday 31 May 2012

A Right Royal Frustration (A Pro-Republic Article.)


So the Queens Diamond Jubilee is here and the streets are thronged with patriotic merriment, little plastic flags and cute triangle sandwiches but how many of the revellers are here for the monarchy rather then simply because the council deemed it appropriate to have knees up?

How many people have considered what it means to live in a country that clings with fantastical, unapprised vigour to the outmoded and tawdry tradition that is our constitutional monarchy?

Is this really how we wish to be represented both at home and abroad? True, the Duke of Edinburgh’s retro and retrograde humour and salty observations have kept our nation entertained over the years in much the same way that watching Benny Hill repeatedly slapping a bald man can certainly offer some second-rate entertainment but why do we not only put up with this arrangement but celebrate it? Or at least delegate it to our mental pile of amnesia destined debris?

How a country is represented, how it works, its very foundations are important. The details of today are the promoters of tomorrow.  What are the lessons of history as far as politics goes? Strive for liberty, justice and above all else freedom. The democratic system has so far been mankind’s preeminent achievement. Yes it is far from perfect but when compared to the alternatives it is unrivalled and an unaccountable hereditary public office simply is not attuned to the best of what we are capable.

Let us strive for a clean beginning divorced from the muddled remnants of the dark ages. Let us concentrate the power truly in the hands of the people. We all know in our bones that the days of the monarchy are fast approaching their weary conclusion. So let us reclaim our right as a nation to choose a head of state and then vote them out when they screw up and vote in a new one. This is the way of true democracy, this is the way of choice, the way of divine right is a sham that is not worthy to be uttered in this centaury and arguments for tourism, appeal, tradition and respect are all equally as tedious and misguided.  

If you were in a restaurant and they brought you a substandard meal you would complain, if you were then told that was the only meal you were allowed and that this was a tradition that had gone on for hundreds of years you would suspect that someone was losing their grip on reality. Well people, history has left us holding a cold bowl of gruel. For the sake of our future it is time to summon the maƮtre d', kick up a fuss and kick the Royal Family out of power.