Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I think the air must be a little thin in Brighton

Do you realise the mess you would cause if you tried to turn Britain into a Republic? How would you handle Scotland? it would have to break away from the Union because there would be no Union, same with Wales and let us not get started on Northern Ireland.

We would lose all of our rights that we are assurred under the Magna Carta and instead would have to replace it with an American style Bill of Rights and a constitution.

But then, any Bill of Rights or constitution we make would have to fall in line with Europe and infact the EU would have a major say in the construction of any Bill of Rights or constitutional document.

Then you have the House of Lords but under your Republican system you would not have a House of Lords nor would you have a Parliament because MPs are subserviant by their very nature to her majesty and as such we would have to invent a whole new way of dealing with our electeral system similar to the way Zimbabwa did. Remember they had a monarchy and decided to go down the route of Repuplicanism.

By the way you would have to do all this with between £5 and £8billion pounds less because that is what you would lose in tourist income when you get rid of the Royal Family each year plus you would be going against a great many Royalists myself included. Anarchy does not even come close to what would happen. Good Luck hope you enjoy America.

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

Wrong direction Cate darlin' I am not about to advocate being the 51st state of America.- Both the French and Russians got rid of their aristocracy and turned themselves into Republics. Many European Countries have also successfully copied and turned themselves into Republics too - the Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Rumanians, Greeks, Italians - etc, etc.

As I said earlier, there is no need to abolish the pomp and ceremony, that still remain and it will still attract the tourists. As for Scotland and Wales, yes they WERE separate countries and if they want independence they are entitled to have it.

As for our own constitution - yes another Bill of Rights would be good, but we don't have to rely on the Americans for that either, subsequent to Magna Carta, (1215) there was a second Bill of Rights (1688), We also have the Human Rights Act (1998) which was based on the European Convention of Human Rights (which incidentally the UK Government of the day substantially wrote).

There is already moves to reform (abolish???) the House of Lords and replace it with a directly elected second chamber. As for the 'Commons' that too will need reform in so far as MPs will in future be 'delegates' as opposed to 'representatives' which they are now - there is a subtle but very distinct difference between the two.

With regard to your suggestion about loss of income, that too can be very easily replaced by incorporating both the Isle of Man and the Channel isles into English tax system and thereby eliminating two important tax havens for English citizens.

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

Cate darlin' - especially for you:


Republic: campaigning for a democratic alternative to the monarchy.

Dear Geoff

This year I want you to be part of something really historic: a major challenge to the Queen’s jubilee that will kick-start a national debate about the future of the monarchy. The royals want to use the jubilee to boost their popularity and secure their future – I want to ensure it’s a turning point for the republican cause.

That’s why I’m now asking you to make a donation of £35 in support of our Jubilee £20k Appeal.

Making a donation is easy, quick and secure: simply pay via our website at www.republic.org.uk/jubileeappeal.

The great news is that we've already raised half of our target since we launched the appeal before Christmas: I want us to do even better in 2012!

With the help of my colleagues I’m currently organising and promoting protests that we'll be staging right at the heart of the jubilee events being held in June. I’m also working on ways we can challenge the monarchy through the media, to recruit new supporters and get people talking about the future of the monarchy. We've recently been featured on the BBC website, interviewed on Radio 4 and reported in the national press. And I’m supporting members around the country who want to actively campaign where they live, with events taking place or being planned in Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Plymouth, Leeds and elsewhere. If you want to see this continue we need to raise at least £20,000: to ensure I can get all this work done to make Republic’s jubilee campaign a huge success.

That's why I'm asking you to donate £35 today!

Make no mistake, the jubilee is a celebration of hereditary power and privilege – and that’s not something anyone should be celebrating in a modern democracy (and it’s not something you should have to pay for!). If, together, we can hit our appeal target of £20,000 we can stage a significant challenge to the jubilee and really get people talking about the future of the monarchy.

I urge you to make a donation today – please give whatever you can to help us reach that £20,000 target so we can really challenge the jubilee. A donation of £35 will make a big difference, helping us to organise more events, distribute press and parliamentary briefing packs and stage a series of protests against the monarchy.

Making a donation is easy, quick and secure: simply pay via our website at www.republic.org.uk/jubileeappeal.

My promise to you is that I’ll be doing everything in my power to ensure our jubilee campaign makes the headlines, recruits record levels of supporters and really sets us on the road to success. In return I'm asking you to make a donation today of just £35, so together we can really challenge the royal jubilee and bring the end of the monarchy one step closer.

We can win this campaign: please visit www.republic.org.uk/jubileeappeal today and make your donation.

Thank you for your support.

All the best

Graham Smith
Chief Executive Officer

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I support the Royal Family, I think the Queen is a lovely hard working lady and I love all the pomp and ceremony that goes with it. No other country can put on such displays as we do with our Royals ..... people come from countries far and wide just to see them. I also like Philip, even though he often puts his foot in it, he is the Queen's strength. Princess Anne does a lot of hard work out of the limelight and in my eyes, she comes second to the Queen. One thing for sure, the Queen will definitely be a hard act to follow..... until Prince William succeeds the throne.

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

Uncle Joe, anyone asking me to donate £35 four times in one letter/email wouldn't get a response from me...

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

Mags darlin' - £35.00 is a small price to pay in comparison with the £millions we've paid Mr & Mrs Windsor over the past 60 years. Unless he abdicates in the meantime - do you REALLY want Charles the Third (say that with a Northern Irish accent and see what you get) as the monarch???

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I would prefer William!

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I truly believe with all my heart that the our beloved Queen has the right to the Golden Jubilee. For all the years she, her mother and father before her have worked to assist and support her people.

The Queen had to become a woman with great responsibilities at a very young age because she had lost her much loved dad who never wanted to be king but who gave his 'job' 100% and died early because of it.

The comfort that HRH The Queen Mother gave to her people when we were being bombed by the Germany that you are happy for us to be in bed with was quite amazing and unforgettable.

You obviously have given no thought to the fact that about 70% of us want a royal family why would I give money to an organisation who just want to make unrest and more discomfort for the Royal Family. Just like the conspiracy theory around Diane's death.

The vast majority of people in this country are happy with a Monarchy however, you and people like you i.e. your organisation who actually make up significanly less than the remaining 30% want to impose upon us a political system and fundamental changes to our human right regardless of our wishes.

Have you never heard of apartheid? Where the vast majority were subjugated by an absolute minority who wanted political power.

You obviously have not given thought to the billions of pounds that the Royal Family generate your talk of taking away the tax havens of the English would not even touch this amount and the idea would not be a favourable for people who think that we are taxed until we squeek.

The very fact that an organisation such as the one begging you for money to get rid of the Queen exist is a sadness what a pity you don't put your energies into taking us away from Europe so that we can be Great Britain again and not puppets to Europe.

By the way the countries you mention that got rid of their monarchy, they would have been better looking after their soverenty because the European Union have put them to the point of bankruptcy.

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I agree with you Cate.

Also from what I gather we pay 65 pence a person per year to the royal family

Re: Thought's About The Royal Family.

I'm a HRH fan as well, God bless her and all that she has done for Great Britain over the last 60 years. The only constant in politics, always on duty and always above reproach. What a fabulous woman. There has, and never will be, a politician that could match her stature on the world stage and it's a shame she isn't running the country, which I'm sure that she could do single handed...

As ever the republican argument just turns out to be left wing dogma which seeks to destroy a proven system that works, using the politics of spite and envy.

God Bless you Maam....Long Live the Queen..