Off with her head
In a shocking occourence, I’ve changed my opinion about the monarchy. Obviously, for as long as I can remember I’ve thought this country ought to be a republic; but previously I’ve not really thought it to be a matter of much importance. But no longer; maybe it’s the Charles and Camilla bollocks, maybe it’s the denoument of the McLibel trial or the absurdity of Charles Clarke’s manic invention of new anti-civil liberties measures. Whatever it is, it made me realise that we do need a written constitution and a proper post-Napoleonic republic, rather than the current situation which has more in common with a school mock-parliament. Not that this would immediately fix anything, of course; but as with everything, it’s a matter of the terrain of struggle. A juridical order which was based on something more than memories of etiquette at the Union Society would strengthen our position on those ocassions when law impedes our flight from capital.
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Why do we need the written constitution? I don’t see why we can’t just get rid of the monarchy and carry on written-constitutionless as normal. That’s what we did last time.
(This is the stumbling block which has always stopped me signing Charter 88: I think I agree with all of their platform apart from the written constitution bit of it.)
Comment by Chris Brooke @ 2/27/2005 7:53 pm
I worry that without a written constitution, we’d still be left with politics being based on a nod and a wink. The handwaving use of royal prerogatives seems a pretty central part of the unwritten constitution, and that would be no better if they were called republican prerogatives.
Obviously a written constitution doesn’t prevent shady dealings on the part of a clique of judges or whoever turns out to be the head of state occouring in the last instance. But part of what made change my mind about the monarchy was the thought that most politics doesn’t happen in the last instance, so a written constition might be handy much of the time. Besides, the change to a republic would require a certain amount of constitutional reorganisation - why not introduce a written constitution while we’re at it?
Of course, we do run into the problem that a constitution written by New Labour and the contemporary civil service would be a horror of some magnitude.
Comment by Tim @ 2/27/2005 10:32 pm