Contributed by Paul Myles
The country may have celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in spectacular style this year, but is everything really happy and glorious with the monarchy in 21st Century Britain — or is it time for Britain to become a republic?
A committee member of the Thomas Paine Society UK was asked to join in this live debate in front of a 160 strong at the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre in November 2012. Paul Myles agreed to join in the Question Time style event. There were four panellists, all of whom gave a 5 minute opening and closing statement. The audience joined in either by asking questions or taking part in the snap opinion polls via the electronic voting system.
The opening theme was : What can we learn from monarchies that have become republics in the past? Does the issue even matter in the modern world?
The panel of 4 experts included:
Graham Smith, who heads the campaigning organization Republic , and has been outspoken on issues including Prince Charles’s lobbying of Government departments, and which is calling for an honours system decided by the people;
Rafe Heydel-Mankoo , historian and royal commentator. One of North America’s leading royal commentators, he is an expert in monarchy, protocol, honours and British traditions, Rafe is the former editor of Burke’s World Orders of Knighthood & Merit. He is a trustee of the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust and a Research Associate at the leading public policy think tank ResPublica;
Richard Whatmore, Professor of Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought at the University of Sussex, whose interests include the history of democracy, the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.
Paul Myles of the Thomas Paine Society UK, which promotes the revolutionary thinker’s contribution to democracy and freedom;
Graham Smith opened with a clear republican argument, that the monarchy is an outdated and quirky establishment, which does not add to the nation, not even in tourism terms.
Rafe Heydel-Mankoo was clearly pro monarchy, and took the familiar pro monarchical argumentative line, stability, 1000 years of history, glorious in the reigns. His later arguments were nuanced, acknowledging the need for some change.
Richard Whatmore brought gravitas and accuracy to the debate, and argued that the European Union is much more important over the long term than anything the UK may struggle with locally.
Paul Myles took the position for disestablishment of the Church of England. Paul suggested that this was an achievable aim, and would re-balance our society into a modem state over time. He pointed out that on the world map of secularity the UK was showing as yellow meaning “ambiguous” on this matter. Rafe agreed with Paul that England and Iran were the only two nation states with unelected clergy in their legislative chambers.
The first vote was 75% in favour of England becoming a republic, this showed the republican leanings of the mostly local audience. In conversation with Graham Smith and Rafe Heydel-Mankoo this was markedly different to many previous debates in the UK where these two regularly lock horns.
The debate was very lively with a lot of audience participation, the panellist’s cut and thrust was matched by audience intervention and the passion really showed at times, both sides of the debate. Chillingly there was a moment where a young student member of the audience claimed the absolutist monarch from his home country in Africa was good and benevolent for all and he did not understand why we were debating authority. After a comment by Rafe that the polls had never shown such a high rating for the Royal Family in comparison to the leading politicians Myles riposted that that was like comparing the BBC “Eastenders” with “Question time”, that one was emotional and frivolous and the other a serious attempt to deal with the issues of the day.
One of Rafe’s arguments was the continuity of glorious monarchs in England over a thousand years, this point was efficiently dismissed by Myles and Whatmore pointing out the enforced interruption by Cromwell and by bringing up Thomas Paine’s comment about William the Conqueror being ” a bastard son of a whore”, as the start of that thousand year history. . Whatmore also pointed out the Royal System had placed a crown on more than one ” idiot”.
The evening went with a real swing, and notwithstanding the heat ended amicably, with the final vote showing no change in the audience position. The feedback from this event, one of a series of topics, was very favourable, perhaps showing that there is an appetite for a debate of this kind.
The Sussex Salon is a roundtable event where academics, practitioners and commentators share their views on hot topics. The Sussex Salon Series is organised by Dr Ruth Woodfield, a University of Sussex sociologist and Director of Widening Participation for the School of Law, Politics and Sociology.