The monarchy is apolitical referee, not a political player, and there is a lot of sense in choosing the referee by a different principle from the players. It lessens the danger that the referee might try to start playing.
Earl Russell, The Spectator, 11th January 1997
The UK is undoubtedly the most politically stable nation on Earth over the last 300 years. We have not been subjected to civil war, military coup or revolution. The monarchy costs us individually about sixty pence per year. Compared to several hundred pounds per year per person we pay for our membership of the EU. Moreover, our royal family more than pay for themselves by generating billions for the country through tourism and the patronage they give to business conducted in the aftermath of international visits. Our royals are the greatest possible ambassadors for everything that is great about Britain. Prince William, like the late Princess Diana before him, carry immeasurable global influence which triggered endless moral and financial support for good causes. Former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas Home underlined the fact that “the Queen’s appearances abroad do more in a day to gain good will for Britain than all the politicians and diplomats lumped together could achieve in years”.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip carried out more work engagements in 2014 than in 2013 and are anticipated to carry out even more duties in 2015 than in 2014 in spite of their increasing years. A monarch is above politics, commercial and factional interests which divide people. We are truly blessed to have a monarch which we share with 16 other independent countries and indeed with the 54 countries of the British Commonwealth. The anathema of a republic would deprive our people of a common inheritance of unmatched heritage and legacy. I genuinely shudder at the thought of a carrier politician, celebrity or business tycoon replacing Her Majesty as head of state. Monarchy represents neither the majority or a minority of the people, but all the people.
A monarch as prescribed by Plato in his great work ‘The Republic’ is trained from birth to reign. I wander if constitutional monarchy were to come to an end in Britain whether parliamentary democracy would survive it. After all, parliamentary sovereignty is itself expressed through the royal assent. Our world would have been spared of many tyrants including Hitler, as Winston Churchill pointed out if the Hapsburgs were not driven out of Austria and the Hohenzollerns out of Germany.
Monarchy safeguards not only tradition but democracy and social justice. It’s only vested interest and legitimacy bring the love of its people. Baroness Thatcher famously said “those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians”. How much more politically stable would European countries like Italy and Greece be if they were led by a benevolent monarch? Aristotle exclaimed that “monarchy is the one system of government where power is exercised for the good of all”.
When you walk through the great deserted palaces of Vienna and Paris you begin to realise just how much soul monarchy gives to the body of a nation. Maybe ego can stop men and women honouring monarchy but by a turn of fate they then venerate in their place billionaires, athletes, pop stars, actors, and career politicians. Upon the sacred foundation of monarchy many freedoms, the values of fair play and people power. Monarchy serves the people to no lesser degree then the people serve the monarchy.
