Pride and Industry

Who can blame Barbados? What good did being loyal subjects of the Queen do most of the victims of the Windrush scandal? Not to put too fine a point on it, what did the Queen for them? And in that case, what is the point of the monarchy? If not to protect the monarch’s subjects from nefarious politicians, then what is it for?

In general, what has the monarchy ever done for any of its strongest supporters? Do they prefer the Britain of 2020 to the Britain of 1952? If the Queen has to sign whatever is put in front of her, then why bother having her at all? 

Even from the point of view of the people whom the monarchy kept sweet, it would be better to transfer all non-ceremonial exercises of the Royal Prerogative, including Royal Assent, to six, seven, eight or nine of nine Co-Presidents, with each of us voting for one candidate, and with the top nine elected to hold office for eight years. As much as anything else, that would enfranchise the people who inexplicably looked to the monarchy to protect conservative values.

As for the Commonwealth, it organises a sporting tournament every four years. There is nothing more to it than that. We give the citizens of its other member states the right to vote and stand in elections to our Parliament, but very few of those countries reciprocate; two of the last five Prime Ministers of Australia have had to give up their natal British citizenship in order to sit in the Australian Parliament.

Countries join and leave the Commonwealth quite frequently. None of them has any more, in the sense of any more recent, connection to Britain that any member of the EEA has. By any measure, many have less. Some fairly recent additions to the Commonwealth have no more connection to Britain than anywhere else on earth has. 

The present system enfranchises Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, but not Americans or Israelis. Is that what those who write above the line in the Daily Telegraph want? It says that Ghanaians are more “like us” than Germans are, and that Swazis are more “like us” than Swedes are. Is that what those who write below the line in the Daily Mail want?

Parliamentary candidates should have to be British citizens in Great Britain, or British or Irish citizens in Northern Ireland. But there should be no nationality requirement for voting.