18. The Republican Monarchy
The solution to Britain’s core political problem, is to write a constitution that includes and empowers all citizens.
Before that, however, there is another step to be undertaken: to acknowledge that the ancien régime is at least 200 years past its sell-by date and to replace myth with plain history.
The notion that the United Kingdom’s political institutions have a long, unbroken history is built on a deliberate misrepresentation. If we understand the disjointed chronology of England-Great Britain-the United Kingdom that became a EU partner state and then a withdrawn, non-European archipelago still deluding itself about the value of its traditions we can make some intelligent choices for the future.
Other countries have their numbered republics and monarchies but Britain pretends to have a continuous political history: a single monarchy that suffered an interruption. We in the 21st century, however, do not live under the First and Eternal monarchy. We live under the Sixth Monarchy.
The First, or Norman, Monarchy (absolutist and Catholic) began before 1066 and ended in 1534 (the break from Rome in the Act of Supremacy).
The Second, or Reformation, Monarchy (absolutist and Protestant) ran from then until the death of Charles I.
The Third, or Protectorate, Monarchy was a confused experiment which began with republican ambitions but ended with Cromwell ruling as a king without accepting the name and passing the “crown” on to his son as if the successor in a new dynasty.
The Fourth (the Abortive Stuart Restoration) Monarchy lasted from 1660 to 1688.
The Fifth, or Compromised, Monarchy (the Crown-in-Parliament; with later the token extinction of the royal veto) began in 1689 and is still with us.
If there is to be radical evolution, that is modernisation in the UK it would have to be towards a new settlement, the Sixth, or Republican, Monarchy. This would be based on a written constitution which invests sovereignty in the people, who are also equipped with inalienable rights. The government would become the people’s – as it always should have been – not the king’s. The monarchy, much reduced in scale and importance, would become a symbolic figurehead entirely divorced from the political system. It would be left with no power at all, including nominal powers. No politician would be able to claim to be acting with the royal prerogative. As part of the settlement, there would be a clear dividing up or properties: what belongs to the royal family as private citizens and what belongs to the state ie the people. This would be a fair, humane settlement for the citizens of the country and the royal family who would enjoy residual status and no loss of living standards. Monarchists would be able to maintain their rituals and ceremonies but republicans would not be obliged to participate in them: the constitution would have an opt-out clause that respects the individual conscience.
There will be complex questions associated with the move to the Republican Monarchy. New constitutional arrangements would have to be negotiated for the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the Church of England and so on but the result would be a mature democracy and a free society based on equality. transparency and fairness.
The Cavalier Constitution 