Should we abolish the Royal family?

[HattonTheHammer]

Now is as good a time as any. I suggested earlier that the end of WW2 would have been a good time.

Power? What fookin power? They have none? They are just mouthpieces for what the populace wants to hear.

They are to millions the echelons of everything that represents this great country

No they dont neccesary throw their weight around like a dutch monarchy. Far from means they are useless.

Youve spent far too long away from our great isles. Come back to the light and you`ll realise this country cannot exist without our beloved royals

What a crock of shit.

I know enough to know that countries without dumbass royal families do just fine. And you want to pretend it means something. I've spent plenty of time away from home learning, you don't learn things from idiots in the UK.

Good for them

we havent all got paint from the same canvas have we?

What works for one country doesnt neccesarily for another!

[BIG H]

They were discussing this topic on Talksport last night

My opinion

1.) The Royals bring in a shed load of money from tourism... But that's a historical thing, it's about buildings and history, not about the actual people - who come here thinking they will actually see the queen France hasn't had a monarchy for centuries and Paris has far more tourists than London

2.) They do a lot for charity - Correct, but it's us that pay the money into the charities and we would still do it if Deavid Beckham was the face of the charity instead of Prince Charles

3.) It's our history! - So what, are the Royals throughout history really people to look up to and aspisr to? Rapists, theives, murderers!

4.) They have no executive powers are not elected - we need to get with the times and kick them out

[Wayne]

They are to millions the echelons of everything that represents this great country

No they dont neccesary throw their weight around like a dutch monarchy. Far from means they are useless.

Youve spent far too long away from our great isles. Come back to the light and you`ll realise this country cannot exist without our beloved royals

What a crock of shit.

I know enough to know that countries without dumbass royal families do just fine. And you want to pretend it means something. I've spent plenty of time away from home learning, you don't learn things from idiots in the UK.

Good for them

we havent all got paint from the same canvas have we?

What works for one country doesnt neccesarily for another!

HMH, what exactly does the Queen do for you? I might not agree with all my elected officials, but they are doing SOMETHING that makes an impact on my life and thus they draw a salary for it. But what does a figurehead with no power do for you that she should remain?

There are plenty of things that are tradition that don't have a place. For both our countries, at one point, slavery was tradition. And why all of a sudden should it be ended? Because there is never a better time than right now to upright the upended, to fix things that do not work. As a capitalist, I'm surprised you would be in support of something that doesn't make money. And you should never be satisfied with being on the bottom rung of the ladder because someone says so. Think about how hard you work for your money and how you give it away to someone who does nothing for you or anyone. How upside down is a society that values people who do nothing and devalues the working man?

[Gandalf]

They are to millions the echelons of everything that represents this great country

No they dont neccesary throw their weight around like a dutch monarchy. Far from means they are useless.

Youve spent far too long away from our great isles. Come back to the light and you`ll realise this country cannot exist without our beloved royals

What a crock of shit.

I know enough to know that countries without dumbass royal families do just fine. And you want to pretend it means something. I've spent plenty of time away from home learning, you don't learn things from idiots in the UK.

Good for them

we havent all got paint from the same canvas have we?

What works for one country doesnt neccesarily for another!

They are still inherently stupid arguments that you are making and I will pick you off whenever I can be bothered...which will be most likely tomorrow when I tuck into this thread proper.

[Kirkland Laing]

The problem with getting rid of them means you have to replace them. Right now the Queen does the job of President, she's our official head of state. If you look around at other heads of state, you see the former French prez Mitterand recently was found to have had his hand in the till for hundreds of millions to bring his influence to various legislation, the former president of Germany Kohl pocketed over two billion with a b the same way. The Prez of a third world country like Mexico got caught doing over a hundred mil of crooked lobbying for a Mexican telecom billionaire, that allowed the billionaire to gouge his customers. So the Queen as somebody who OKs legislation but doesn't get involved in it removes an entire layer of corruption from the very top of the country that would otherwise be there.

If we booted the royals tomorrow who would take over? The front runner would be war criminal Tony Blair, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of British soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis so that he'd be guranteed millions in post-number 10 earnings. He's already been caught taking money to lobby for companies in the Middle East through his office as official peace envoy out there. He's a total scumbag, and he'd be the most likely choice had we got an ongoing presidential system. And he's be living in Buckingham Palce too, and it'd still need its roof fixing. Tony wouldn't be paying that bill either.

So yes, they represent the class system and yes, they're originally German/Greek, but they actually save the average Brit money every year and they do bring in the odd tourist or two. Plus you have integrity and class in Buck House representing the country versus a hideous war criminal who should be in a cell in the Hague. No question that on balance they should stay where they are.