Do you think monarchy will survive?

Published: 26 November, 2010

• CONGRATS Wills, but do we need a monarchy? 

Swoon, fawn and grovel is not the name of a bunch of solicitors for Cameron and Co.

It’s how the media have reacted to the announcement of the impending wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

We face months of wall-to-wall media speculation, with accompanying hyperbole and hysterical showmanship that will go along with an unelected future head of state getting wed.

In 2006 The Sun newspaper asked its readers how many supported a monarchy? Seventy-eight per cent apparently and that was a survey of only 1,097 readers. That’s 10 per cent down on the silver jubilee of 1977.

Opinion polls consistently put support for a republic at around 20 per cent and some have put it as high as 43 per cent (GMTV/ Mirror 2008). 

That means that at least 10 million people would vote to abolish the monarchy, the same number that voted Tory at our last general election.

There has also been a steady increase in the number of people who do not think the monarchy will survive in the long term. 

A 2002 poll showed that 70 per cent believe Britain will be a republic within 50 years.

The majority of British voters (63 per cent) believe our system of government needs improvement, with only three per cent believing it works “extremely well” (Source: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust State of the Nation Poll 2004).

We can vote for our government, locally and nationally, our mayors, our European MPs but not our head of state. 

No to deference, yes to democracy. 

PAT EDLIN, N1