Tice Twice

Richard Tice has called for the abolition of the monarchy in favour of "President Farage". He has done so twice, once to Laura Kuenssberg on 26th November, and again last night on Newsnight. It is not a joke. Tice wants President Farage to face President Trump, meaning that he would have to be in office by January 2029 at the very, very latest, but really this time next year. I have been telling you for ever, and ever, and ever that the threat to the monarchy would eventually come from the Right, and here we are.

The monarchy simply does not embody the things that its supporters claim that it does, and they spend the rest of their time complaining that those things are not there. But nor can republicans point to any republic that does the things that they maintain that a British one would, so the case for change has not been made. Now, though, the Right has gone populist, if not noticeably popular, while the King's markedly different views are if anything the price of the monarchy's continuation in Canada and New Zealand, at least.

Therefore, in the way that we had better be prepared to make the most of a pointless change to the electoral system, or of reaccession to the EU without a referendum and on any terms that they EU might care to set (although those terms might well win a referendum by then), we had better be prepared to contest a Presidential Election when the King died, if not before. Yes, I would be a candidate. Why not? If not me, then who, exactly? And why that person in particular?