More on the monarchy

This week I spent a little time on the UK Debate forum and participated in a debate on the monarchy. Sadly it descended - as so many debates do when people have a PC to hide behind - into name calling, shouting and playground style decelerations of self victory.

As usual when discussing our the British system of rule, I challenged anyone to name me a country that has enjoyed a longer system of stability without civil war, mutiny or coup. My opponent could only manage the micro state of San Marino (all twenty thousand or so of them) as a country with longer stability (not including their rule by fascists last century apparently) and as proof of the instability under our monarchy he managed the uprising by a few hundred people over one hundred and fifty years ago, as though any nation of millions of people could sit for centuries without a single incident. An incident of twenty deaths, while tragic, hardly approaches a threat to our constitution does it? Still, my opponent was not even aware that we had a constitution so perhaps my question was unfair.

One worthwhile point was raised though - the ongoing unrest on Irish shores. Putting aside the fact that Ireland is not our monarchy's or government's country of origin, and also forgetting that many of the problems in Ireland stem from the days of Cromwell ("Cromwell" is used in Ireland as a swear word), it is fair to say that British involvement in Ireland has been mutually destructive. One of the few true achievements of Tony Blair was to instigate peace agreements that appear to be holding together. Certainly though, Ireland has never slipped anywhere near civil war since the divide, despite the tragic events that have occurred.

My other challenge in these debates is to ask anyone to state which system they think wold be better for the UK and why. My opponent this time, not to be out done in his ignorance of our constitution (he also thought that our empire was still in its seventeenth century state) claimed that the Swiss "direct democracy" system was an "alternative", apparently not understanding the difference between a head of state and an electoral system.

There is no reason whatsoever why the UK could not use more involvement in its democracy and indeed, this is exactly what Popular Alliance want. The party pledge a referendum on issues such as EU membership and the death penalty and any other issues that are emotive and important.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I' not some arch-royalist that bows to y toes when Her majesty appears on TV, I'm simply a realist. I've lived in other countries with other systems of rule (my opponent's sensitivity began to get the better of him and he called the entire nation of Thailand 'stupid' at one point) and seen the pros and cons. I've learned to appreciate what many Brits take fro granted and I'm all the better for it.

There's no perfect system of rule because there are no perfect people. But the day that we throw away centuries of relative safety and stability and history for the "improvement" of president Blair and PM Cherie will be a sad one indeed.