Reasons to end the monarchy: Charles Edition
Well it’s the coronation so you know what it’s time for.
The entire concept of a monarchy is actively undemocratic. The head of state should not be someone who is only in that position because they were born into a certain family.
Having a monarchy upholds classism as a specific family of great wealth and power are viewed as superior to others.
They stand for a history of racism and imperialism. This country has done some truly terrible things in its history and the monarchy are a symbol of that. In order to attempt to begin to undo the harm that we have done, we need to remove this symbol of oppression.
The royal family have previously lobbied the government to hide their own personal wealth. Despite this, we are obviously aware that they have a large amount of wealth.
Prince Charles has himself lobbied the government on a number of occasions. His ‘black spider memos’ show that he has repeatedly pressured ministers on a wide range of topics from the Iraq war to badger culling to alternative therapies. He has used his power to lobby the government on subjects that would affect him.
The monarch does not occupy a ceremonial role as is frequently claimed. Ministers and civil servants have to consult the monarch. Civil servants have to get the consent of the royals on pieces of legislation, which can cause delays on implementation.
Even if the monarch did occupy a purely ceremonial role, as a literal billionaire he wields a ridiculously high amount of power over people.
Windsor Castle brings in less money than Windsor Legoland does. The many castles that are owned by the royal family could be used to create spaces for the public to enjoy or to be used as a shelter for the homeless. The Louvre in Paris used to be house of the French monarchy and gets over twenty times the tourists. Edinburgh castle hasn’t had the monarchy live in it for centuries and yet still brings in tourism.
Prince Andrew is widely known to be connected to Jeffrey Epstein; yet he has not had to face any repercussions for his actions despite blatantly lying when being asked about his actions. The royal family have defended him and prevented him from facing the consequences of his actions.
They cost around £334 million per year. This money could be used to help the poor, given to the NHS, to repair and build infrastructure, to support small businesses that are struggling, pretty much anything.
The royal household publishes a much lower figure about the cost of the royal family, so they are actively trying to cover up their cost.
Charles has had access to confidential Cabinet papers, undermining our democracy.
He has publicly championed alternative medicine and has repeatedly promoted it. He sent at least seven letters to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, that then shortly relaxed the rules governing the labeling of herbal products, ones he as part of Charles’s Duchy Originals produces.
He lobbied the health secretary regarding greater provision of alternative treatments on the NHS.
In 2018, 46% of Britons wanted him to abdicate immediately after Elizabeth died. He’s barely wanted by the country even with the sheer amount of pro-monarchy propaganda going around. Charles specifically is very unpopular.
In order to speak to him, broadcasters had to sign a 15-page contract, which includes Clarence house attending the rough and fine cut edits of films and if unhappy can remove that contribution, as well as stipulating that all questions directed at him must be pre-approved and vetted by his representative.
His personal wealth is £1.8 billion. He inherited a large amount of this from Elizabeth, with it being exempt from inheritance tax. Having an immunity from this tax when others don’t is ridiculous.
The Duchy of Cornwall was named in the Paradise papers.
The coronation is going to cost £100 million during a cost of living crisis.
People have been banned from protesting Charles with official warning letters were sent to anti-monarchists.
Protestors who block roads, airports and railways could face an entire year behind bars. Locking yourself to others, objects or buildings could go to prison for six months and face an unlimited fine. Police are allowed to head off disruption by stopping and searching protestors that they suspect.
The public were encouraged to swear allegiance to the new King when he gets sworn in, this is a deeply disturbing suggestion.
He’s a billionaire who’s going to use the public’s money to celebrate himself.
The monarch has sweeping immunity from many laws
He owns business parks and small rented cottages, six of the ten top residential homes, 285,000 acres of mineral rich land. He’s ridiculously rich in a country where so many people are facing extreme poverty.
List of Sources:
A lot of this is the guardian apparently. This was supposed to be in the initial post, but in order for it to be posted in time, it had to come later. There are likely better/more cohesive sources out here, but I don’t really have time to be looking for them right now.
Royal family lobbying to hide their wealth, also ties into the monarch not being just a ceremonial role. [X]
Black spider memos [X]
Not a ceremonial role. The UK is a constitutional monarchy at the end of the day, where the monarch is straight up defined as exercising their authority in accordance with a constitution but is not alone in decision making. I’m not claiming that the monarchy has nearly as much power as they used to, just that it’s not exactly true to claim they have no power, and again, they’re incredibly rich and under our current systems, that gives them an incredible amount of power. The monarchy also have a very large amount of social and cultural influence because of that position, which makes it untrue to dismiss any arguments against the monarchy by saying it’s simply a ‘ceremonial role’. It should also be noted that most official publications have a tendency to refer to the monarchy as being ‘mostly ceremonial’ or ‘broadly ceremonial’ which feels telling.
The fact that the monarchy holds ‘royal prerogative’ means that the Prime Minister can declare war or sign treaties without a vote in Parliament and the Privy Council can enact legislation without a vote in parliament. This is more about how the monarchy undermines democracy.
The monarch generally holds a lot of theoretical power, where in practice this doesn’t happen but it’s still deeply concerning that they do actually have this power.
Anyone who accepts significant public office may do so without swearing allegiance to the monarch. [X]
Windsor Castle vs Windsor Legoland [X] [X] Legoland gets 10 times the amount of visitors.
Windsor Castle vs Louvre [X] I do appear to be wrong on this one, the figures actually seem to be more like 6 times, as this part comes from the original list close to a year ago, I do not know where that number came from. Either way, the Louvre brings in many times the amount of tourists.
Edinburgh Castle visiting figure, I got curious on this one and apparently Edinburgh actually gets a little more visitors than Windsor Castle. [X]
Andrew being defended. I mean, he’s still out there and free. This one is more about the power and influence that the royal family has in general and the repercussions of that. All of the so-called ‘punishments’ that the royal family have given out to him are pitifully small. He’s not carried out any royal duties since 2019. Charles is still set to pay for him to have some private security guards, for around £3 million. [X]
Cost [X] So the Sovereign Grant is paid to the monarch and in 21/22 was £86.3 million. There is an unknown amount paid by the government for security. The overall estimate is put to be between £300 million and £500 million.
The royal family does generate money, that is true, but it’s true that none of that money wouldn’t be generated anyway, see the figures about visitors to Windsor Castle vs other places. The £334 million figure is from Republic, an anti-monarchy group, who did their own research on this, however the actual report where this figure comes from has since been removed for reasons I am unsure of, but can be viewed using the internet archive. Regardless, it is provably untrue that the monarchy’s only costs are from the sovereign grant. [X]
Charles accessing confidential papers, the Queen was also being sent these papers [X]
Alternative medicine [X][X][X]
Charles lobbying [X]
Abdicating. I don’t know where that figure came from right now, this one shouldn’t be as difficult to find as I saw the source within the past week and not last year. In regards to national opinion, though, it has generally been going down over time and the amount of young people who still support the monarchy has decreased rapidly. [X] Just in general, people do not like Charles very much. The Queen was vastly more popular with people and William is seen more favourably than Charles.
Contract [X]
Personal wealth [X] Some sources suggest it may be more when taking into account all assets, but the main takeaway is that he is a billionaire.
Paradise Papers [X]
Coronation cost, also gives additional information that most people didn’t actually want the coronation to be funded by the government [X]
Protests banned, warning letters, jail time, police powers. One from before the coronation and one from after. [X]
Swearing allegiance [X]
Law immunity [X] This is called the Sovereign immunity. Employees of the monarchy cannot pursue anti-discrimination complaints under the equalities act.
Land ownership [X]
