This op. is more worthy of a crown than the Queen! (Should the monarchy be abolished?)

Member Name: theanarchistkid

Product:	Should the monarchy be abolished?
Date:	01/03/01 (559 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Take all of my money and spend it on food!

Being of a fairly young age I have never really been too impressed with the monarchy. I'm sure that many centuries ago the empire belonging to our own fair state was huge and impressive and no doubt the monarchy took the credit for this. In today's society however, you have to ask the question 'Do we really need the Monarchy?'.

Now, seeing as this is a contentious topic I will try and remember my A-Level English guidelines for argument essays from a couple of years ago and structure this in the form of an argument.

Some people believe that the Monarchy represent all that is good about the UK. Wealth, honesty, honour and heritage. This is a fair point, but looking at the Monarchy from a neutral point of view, what have they done to deserve any of this? Why should the next King of Britain be Prince Charles? Why shouldn't it be me? I'm sure that I'm just as intelligent as he is, I'm an interesting individual, I'm well bred and I even have perfectly normal sized ears! I'm just as well qualified as he is for the post. So why does he get it? The simple answer is because he was born into the right family. If our country is so politically correct, isn't it politically incorrect to discriminate against someone just because they aren't part of a certain family?

The same people argue that the Monarchy is attracting lots of tourists into the UK and therefore gains revenue for the Government to spend on us commoners. But surely it's a sad state of affairs when all our country has to offer tourists is a big building and some old wrinkly people inside it! Our country has enough history and tourist attractions without actually needing a monarchy. How many people come to London to visit the Queen? Not many. How many people come to London to see Buckingham Palace? Probably a whole lot more. Why not leave the palace there and abolish the Monarchy? This way we're not going to lose revenue and we're
also not going to have to put up with a load of grumpy old people sipping from tea cups in their palaces.

What does the Monarchy actually do? Well as I see it, and I'm by no means an expert on the daily lives of rich people, all they seem to do is visit other countries and eat big fancy meals with their fellow 'leaders'. Why do we, as taxpayers, have to subsidise their eating habits. As a student, I can quite happily survive on a diet consisting of Sheperds' Pie and Baked Beans, so why can't they?! They are living it up at our cost. The only reason they go and visit other leaders of countries is to maintain PR and keep on their good side but the truth is, would we really have any problems if the Prime Minister did this instead? I'm sure MR Blair wouldn't mind eating nice meals every night and flying around the world on fancy holidays every so often. If he's too busy to do it, I would quite happily accept the post.

Many people believe that the Monarchy represent honour and generally goodness but over recent years this hasn't been the case. I've lost count of the number or royal divorces over the last couple of decades but this only goes to show that they're no better than your average family. I don't want to insult Princess Diana or anything, because what happened to her was tragic, but right up to her death, the Royal Family was totally surrounded by sleaze. I don't believe it was her fault, instead I would blame it on Charles. With Charles galavanting with Camilla, is it any wonder that people are fed up with the Monarchy?

Well, here's my thoughts on what's happening. My proposal is that the Monarchy should be totally abolished. They have no power, little influence and they do nothing. They're not even allowed to vote. I believe this is because any vote that they make could influence the voting decisions of countless other people and as such would make the vote unfair. I also
understand that before any law can be passed, the Queen has to sign a piece of paper to sign it. From what I've been told though, she's not really going to say no to any laws. What would happen if she did? Would the Government collapse? It's interesting to think that the Queen does have power, but she doesn't want to use it.

Even if the Monarchy was abolished, its dubious legacy would still live on so there would be no loss of revenue in the tourist industry. If anything, it would increase tourism because you would get flocks of tourists coming in to see where the Queen USED to live, rather than seeing where she does live. Other historical buildings where Monarchs used to live still attract tourists so why shouldn't Buckingham Palace? If they opened it up to the public I'm sure it would be much more popular with the tourists.

I don't think that the original idea of a Monarchy was inherently flawed, instead I think that is has evolved into a very weak thing. For the Monarchy to be of any use, it needs political power, which it certainly doesn't have. I also don't think that it's a good thing for one or two people have too much power however so it's a bit of a no win situation. The only real solution is to get rid of the Monarchy all together because currently they are doing very little.

English A-level students take note - If you write an argument essay like this, you will probably get a nice grade because you've obeyed the standard structure of introduction, others' views, your views and resolution.

So in short, abolish the Monarchy because they're a drain on resources and they do very little.

Summary: