No Paper Crown

As the last notable member of the German Royal class that once reigned from Spain to Russia and from Britain to Greece, Prince Philip was by far the most Royal thing about all future British monarchs. Even the Queen is only half-Royal. By the end of the century, there will be a King who was the same number of generations from a miner in Hetton-le-Hole as he was from George V and Queen Mary.

As a sovereign state with its own free floating, fiat currency, the United Kingdom could have both a new Royal Yacht named after Prince Philip, and the reversal of the cuts to youth services so that more young people could participate in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

And as a sovereign state with its own free floating, fiat currency, the United Kingdom has no economic, rather than political, reason to levy any tax whatever. The political reasons are compelling. But that is what they are. Even inflation could in principle be controlled by purely monetary, rather than fiscal, means.

Nor does there need to be a Parliament in order to elect, or at least confirm, the Prime Minister. What were the parliamentary voting figures on Boris Johnson in July 2019? Well, there you are, then. A Prime Minister could be appointed, and sometimes has been, during a parliamentary recess. If a Prime Minister were appointed while Parliament was prorogued, then it could never sit at all until the monarch, meaning that Prime Minister, chose to summon it.

And as we have seen, there is no argument that Parliament would have to sit in order to levy taxes. The Bank of England could just issue currency to the Treasury, as it already does all the time. By the way, since the Bank of England and the Treasury are both the State, then there is no debt. A sovereign state with its own free floating, fiat currency cannot be in debt, and it certainly cannot be in debt to itself.

It is the opposite of the truth to suggest that the monarchy occupies a space that a politician therefore cannot. Wresting and then holding the office of Prime Minister effectively makes you an absolute monarch. Orders in Council are primary legislation unless they are superseded by Acts that Parliament would have to sit in order to enact.

But if you are serious about your political philosophy and programme, then you have to be serious about wanting power. And if you were serious about wanting power, then why would you want to change any of this? On the contrary, you would want to control it. After all, what would you have instead? An elected Head of State? We all know who wins elections in Britain. And we all know who does not.