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Well the monarch isn't 'someone else' - she's 'as well' as the politicians we're saddled with - and indeed the monarch's role is that of a pathetic powerless puppet used by politicians and the establishment to hide behind and to rubber-stamp their own outrages and excesses. Indeed, contrary to the fond illusions of the monarchists the country is ruled by a president just as most other countries - he or she just happens to be called the Prime Minister here.Far from being a source of stability, security and continuity for the people, as is endlessly claimed and parroted, the monarch certainly throughout my lifetime has done nothing whatever to stop countless millions of her subjects (not citizens, note) from suffering insecurity, instability, poverty, privation and injustice, and indeed has often a source of it.In addition to the monarch being required to rubber-stamp any legislation, however flawed and repressive, there are monstrous legal devices such as Crown Immunity (which was even used to let NHS hospitals escape prosecution for poisoning their patients with contaminated food) and Orders in Council (the most odious of which in recent years was used to summarily overturn the legal judgement in their favour which the Chagos islanders - who had their whole country stolen from them and themselves expelled in the name of the British monarch) -  had finally gained after years of legal battles in the courts). Not to mention lesser but still irritating devices such as the Dutchy of Lancaster, the sinecure Chancellorship of which was given to a superannuated politician a few years ago so he could run the ruling party's re-election campaign at public expense.The 'constitutional' monarchy system is fundamentally riddled with corruption and deception, and frankly stinks imho.Having said all which, my original point was primarily about the arrogance, complacency and spurious statistical justification expressed in one pro-monarchy posting on here; not about the merits or otherwise of the system itself.

Chris Veasey ● 5078d

Is there anything or anybody you don't feel smugly patronising about? - if so I've seen no evidence of it from your copious contributions to this forum.How do you know that 80% of 'us Brits' have the will, democratic or otherwise, to keep (in both senses) a constitutional monarchy? I for one have never been polled for my views and I doubt I was the only one missed out. No, I guess your 80% is just another of the 93.487% of official statistics known to be plucked out of thin air.And how do you know that all or even most UK republicans 'refuse to accept the democratic will (of supporters of monarchy)'? I suspect most republicans perfectly respect the will of the majority in this matter (if it really is a demonstrable majority), but nonetheless regret the infantilising and corrupt self-serving establishment-bolstering impact of this Ruritanian lunacy and look forward to the day, probably well beyond their lifetime, when the country (or countries) of these islands grow out of it; meanwhile biding their time and not mounting futile public protests on the wrong occasions.Guess if you'd lived a couple of centuries earlier you'd have been just as condescendingly rude and disparaging about that minority of religious fanatics that wanted to put an end to the country's economically indispensible slave trade; in the 1830s and later about those troublemakers that wanted electoral reform and universal suffrage; a century ago, about those silly women that were agitating for the right to vote; etc etc ad nauseitum.And even if the choice of head of state was, extraordinarily, restricted to the four current, past or would-be presidents of foreign countries you apparently believe it to be, would any of them be necessarily any worse than some of the appalling monarchs the country has been saddled with over the centuries, including recent centuries?

Chris Veasey ● 5079d