Liberty and Monarchy

A little discussion of libertarianism and the monarchy has broken out on the Longrider's blog. I will admit that any positive feelings that I have for the Monarchy are like my, diminishing, dislike of the Death Tax. It is more emotional that logical. The pomp and pageantry is a bit of a pantomime. But a pantomime is harmless and fun, unlike the less showy but far more intrusive areas of the state.

A monarchy is potentially dangerous because it places a lot of power into the hands of one person with no checks and balances. However our monarchy no longer has much power at all, that having transfered to the Prime Minister. The only check on his power is that in our train wreak of a constitution is that it comes to him from us via his boss, the Queen. The pressing need is to limit the power of the Prime-Minister, and the State in general. So for the time being there is no reason to throw away a potentially useful life belt before we have plugged the gaping hole in side of the ship of state.

Unfortunately the Royal Family does have to be paid for by the state, money which would be much better spent had it never been extorted from people pockets. On the other hand if you think that keeping a president going would be any cheaper you are misguided. At the moment campaign donations can be bought with a little ermine for whatever weasel is being bribed. Compare that to a multi-million pound defense contract.

Then there is the more emotional appeal of the way the Queen conducts herself compared to the rather distasteful attempts at rallying public opinion of the Jelly Bellied Flag Flapper. Having the Prime Minister acting as head of state and therefore even more easily able to wrap the flag around his ample waist whenever he gets into trouble would be even worse. Going against the Prime Minister would be twisted as going against the country. However having the Queen as a powerless and nonpolitical head of state takes that leaver on public opinion out of the hands of politicians, this is a good thing considering that history has shown how powerful a leaver this can be.