Countries can ditch monarchy and become republics ‘calmly and without rancour’ says Prince of Wales

Just mention a change and all hell lets loose! and that's just on here. Talk about calm and no rancour. Sorry Prince of Wales but really? Good changes come gradually: no coups, no civil war, no bloodshed please. We are British.

I agree DaisyAnne with your post. I only hope we lose many of the outdated trappings of monarchy and properly modernise it. I see signs that it is going in a better direction. Why are you so angry Volver? you can't possibly think that the American dream works better than our system.

As a republican (which is not the same as a capital R Republican) I resent being associated with a mob who are trying to overturn democracy. We’re not advocating a coup, we’re trying to explain why we think a republic would be better than an inherited monarchy. We’re not trying to impose anything on anybody else, just have our own view on how a modern democracy should be constituted.

Now you are perfectly entitled to think we should stick with a monarchy. Perfectly entitled. And I am perfectly entitled to tell people that power based on who you dad was is a pre-medieval concept beloved of non-democratic countries and governments around the world.

It’s rather silly to suggest that we might think having a republic would solve all our problems with everything at one fell swoop. But you can’t hold up examples of bad things happening in republics and use that as an example of why we shouldn’t have one. If you want to have examples of bad things happening in monarchies, Google the Thai monarchy. Or the Spanish one under Juan Carlos.

As for our current monarchy meaning we have held on to democracy and saving us from the worst…what about the illegal prorogation of parliament, the government trying to engage in illegal people trafficking and the proposal that we will withdraw for the ECHR? That’s what our remarkable constitutional monarchy has allowed to happen recently. And only Charles has made the slightest comment.

Queen Elizabeth is probably too old to do much about it these days, and William is too busy selling the Big Issue and having his portrait painted. Many in this country seem to think that the purpose of a Head of State – which is what the Queen is, and what Charles and William will be, unless things change – people seem to think the purpose of HoS is to look good and work for charity. We’re missing out on so much.

What an insulting post DaisyAnne. I'll come back with a response when I'm less angry about it.

Of course. It would be foolish to think we could not choose to do so. However, hopefully, we would choose to do it constitutionally, by vote. Although, we have seen this far-right government attacking our democracy and making a mockery of it so who knows. With 61% of the British public still wanting a constitutional monarchy, I can't see a vote being carried out at the moment but I suppose a mob could try.

Sadly, you only have to listen to Johnson to hear any proportion of voters described as "the people" and the carrying out of what he wants - not what the majority want, as "the will of the people". I hope we are all more aware now of what can happen if we allow ourselves to be swamped by a minority. I am not sure that we are.

Just looking at the Religious Courts they seem to have managed to set up in America, with frightening overtones of the Taliban, I wonder why anyone thinks a republic is so great. Nothing we have seen here, under a constitutional monarchy, compares with what the minority has just inflicted on that country. They are not doing this via the government but through courts; courts politicised in favour of the minority. It's like watching the Handmaid's tale played out in real life. So far, their much-vaunted "republic" seems unable to stop them.

I would rather the far-right, at the most a quarter of the population, with the extremists many fewer, were not in a position to inflict their views on me in this way. History is repeating itself. So far, having a constitutional monarchy seems to have just about held on to our democracy. Hopefully, it would do the same with any other extreme minority.

When someone can show a system that works better than our imperfect one maybe the country will want to listen.

When people write things like "the problem with a Democracy such as America is.." you know they're not really hot on the details here. We're a democracy. I think you probably mean "republic".

The Queen is also Queen of New Zealand, incidentally.

Will RF accept living on less public money though?
Heard that jubilee cost about £28m and that came from
Public funds. Shameful at the mo-RF should pay for this out of their own wealth.
And stop this Duchy nonsense too!

We need a different monarchy now, excellent as Her Majesty has been, it's now dated. I do think William is proving to be Just what a we need as a country.. Get rid of all these grace and favour apartments, the hangers on, just have working close members of the family.
The problems with a Democracy such as America, is you don't get people that can stay the distance, it's open to corruption and manipulation and a lot of ignorance. The Icelandic countries have successful ones as does NZ, they tend to be lower populated. With monarch comes that long schooling into protocol and talking to people on all levels, they cannot by nature if the rol be politically motivated. Not sure about Charles but he will do his best to leave things stable for William, I wish Diana could have lived to see him with his lovely family and her grandchildren.

We can but hope Volver

I saw a bit of his speech on the news. We're no different to any other country where he's going to be head of state. Fingers crossed. Perhaps he'll become king then abolish the monarchy. ?

Scotland too, if it votes for independence
calmly and without rancour

I dont think the RF could force us to keep them if we decided otherwise .Scotlands people are sovereign NOT parliament or monarchy .