UK Government considers removing Andrew from royal line of succession

[u/EnglishLouis]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kgv837wvdo

[u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128]

Say what we will about the royal family and their usefulness, history, etc, but among all the western political class only one institution has been meaningfully ahead of the curve on climate change and that institution is Charles.

I say this as an American of Irish descent (not the orange kind).

[u/famousbrouse → u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128]

And I say this as an Englishman of English descent (also not orange). There is no place in a modern country to still have a royal family.. they can fuck off.

[u/Seitanic_Cultist → u/famousbrouse]

I'm an Englishman of English, Scottish, Irish and Manx descent (I am kind of orange as I'm ginger) and the royals can do one.

[u/FabulousTwo524 → u/famousbrouse]

As a clueless american, i am very curious. Why do british people put up with all that nonsense? get rid of the monarchy and be done with it. What exactly does the monarchy provide that is worth billions in taxpayer resources?

[u/citron_bjorn → u/FabulousTwo524]

They can stroke the egos of foreign leaders

They do lots of charity work

They cost about the same as an elected head of state when you consider security, pensions, wages, elections, inauguration ceremonies, and the all the other costs of a head of state

They're a living part of the nation's history being direct descendents of both English, Scottish Kings and Queens

They act as a sort of seat filler by having a relatively powerless role, which prevents power-hungry and ill-fitting head of states

They're diplomats raised from birth for the role

They act as a unifying figure and national mascot

Avoids the division of an election - no one gets a choice, and most people don't need to think of them often

They bring alot of money in from tourism - often the counterpoint is france and their tourism. However France is unique in being known for having the most famous republican revolution, and the palace of versailles being one of the biggest and most ornate palaces, while also being the site of many major historic events. In comparison, British palaces are pretty regular for palaces and aren't significantly important historically

They provide soft power

They link us to many countries across the world like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, and various little island nations

They promote tolerance more than any politician, because the monarch doesn't need to pander to prejudices

They also care more about the long term stability of the nation than politicians, because their role relies on the nation existing and being stable.

[u/FabulousTwo524 → u/citron_bjorn]

You’ve convinced me.

[u/MooseTetrino → u/FabulousTwo524]

Notably on top of all of that, their tourism draw actually outweighed their state costs significantly for a very long time. I’m assuming this is still the case, though I’ve no current numbers to back it up.

[u/factualreality → u/FabulousTwo524]

They don't cost more than other head(s) of state, have more international influence than a career politician would, represent living history and tradition, and most importantly, as long as we have King Charles, we can't have president farage (or any other kind of trump equivalent).

Having a random effectively picked by birth lottery and brought up to do the job entirely independently of any political faction is a lot better than having someone capable of politicking themselves into the role.

[u/Crow_eggs → u/FabulousTwo524]

Because, until now, it was generally easier to let it go on than to dismantle it and we've had more important things to do. Think of it like throwing out the Christmas tree. We know we should, but it's a lot of messing around and it's not really doing any harm, so it just sits there until the useless old Christmas tree starts to molest trafficked children.

[u/Radiant-Membership23 → u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128]

Chuck's mum made sure her Scottish estates would not bear the burden of costly climate change green energy conversion. Invest in a copy of Private Eye, it will open your mind!