Quote Originally Posted by miles View Post
I think you make some interesting points as usual. In comparison to the costs of what the alternatives have been in other corrupt countries the cost might seem quite reasonable, but corruption is corruption. No system should be allowing those kinds of things to be happening in the first place. Political systems need to be more vigorous and the dirt should not be enabled to rise to the top. Like I say, I have nothing against the Queen on a personal level. Out of the entire family, she is the only one to have carried herself with any sense of decorum. And I respect her for that, but I still cannot justify the excess of money that goes towards her and her entire family. Putting a cap on her income would be a good thing to do, and it wouldn't be an act of spite. It would be an act of fairness. Nobody is forcing her to be Queen, she likely does it because it provides her and her family with a quality standard of living, no questions asked.
It's alright saying no system should allow corruption but every system does. A constitutional monarchy is the least worst system available, QED.

And again, there's no excess of money going to anyody, there's a massive net saving with a monarchy. Arguing against the monarchy on cost grounds compared to other systems guarantees you lose the argument.

Eventually in a decade or three our system of government will be superseded by a Euro government in which the head of state takes Euro-size bribes and costs us even more so there'll be no saving at all by having a monarch, but the British people will still cling to the monarchy, even more when we're governed by Europe and are looking to preserve national identity as much as possible. London may be very liberal and republican but if you go to the provinces you'll find incredibly strong support for the crown and that's before we end up run by Europe. A sure way to end up in Accident and Emergency is to go into a pub in Sunderland and start badmouthing the Queen.