Should Monarchy Be Abolished in the UK?

From tradition to accountability, Britain confronts an uncomfortable constitutional question.

MANY VOICES ARE being heard in the United Kingdom, after the recent developments relating to Prince Andrew (now Mr Andrew Mountbatten Windsor) and his despicable and degenerate friends Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, that the UK should be made a Republic.

The debate over the future of the British monarchy is not new, but recent controversies have revived it with renewed intensity. Questions are increasingly being asked about whether hereditary privilege can coexist with modern democratic values.

Across Britain, intellectuals, commentators, activists, and ordinary citizens are engaging in discussions about constitutional reform and the desirability of replacing monarchy with an elected head of state.

One of the main figures advocating abolishing the monarchy is Graham Smith, CEO of the organization ‘Republic’. Many others are also of the same opinion. The republican movement argues that democracy must ultimately rest on equality of citizenship, and that no public office — even a symbolic one — should be determined by birth rather than merit or public choice.

A Renewed Republican Question

Monarchy is a feudal institution, which is totally outdated and anachronistic in the modern age. Then why is it being continued even today in UK, which is a modern, industrialized country, and claims to be a democracy?

This question strikes at the heart of constitutional theory. Democracies are founded on the principle that sovereignty lies with the people. Yet monarchy represents continuity of hereditary hierarchy, a remnant of medieval political structures.

Supporters of monarchy often invoke tradition, stability, and national identity, but critics argue that tradition alone cannot justify institutional inequality in a society that otherwise claims adherence to democratic ideals.

Monarchy in a Modern Democracy

It is estimated that about 107 million pounds every year are spent by the British government on the royal family, and this money comes from the taxpayer’s hard earned income. Apart from that, the royal family has huge landholdings, castles, mansions, jewellery, and other assets.

At a time when economic pressures, rising living costs, and widening inequality affect ordinary citizens, public expenditure on hereditary institutions has become a matter of increasing scrutiny. Critics contend that democratic accountability requires justification for every use of public funds, particularly when such expenditure sustains lifestyles rooted in inherited privilege rather than public service.

The ‘royals’ do no productive work, unless it can be said that mere existing, or living off the labour of other people, is productive work.

Yet they live lives of great luxury, in huge palaces with hundreds of employees catering to their every need, eat the best food, fly to foreign countries or islands (like Little St James Island owned by the notorious Jeffrey Epstein) on jets, paid by the government by taxing the people, where they often do debauchery with young girls, etc.

They are like drones who do no work, or parasites (like Bertie Wooster in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories), or like vampires who suck the people’s blood (by living off the people’s money).

They pay no taxes on their huge unearned incomes (whereas the common people are heavily taxed), like the French aristocrats before the French Revolution of 1789, many of whom were guillotined in the Revolution.

History repeatedly demonstrates that institutions perceived as unjust or excessively privileged eventually face public resistance. Political legitimacy depends not merely on continuity but on moral acceptance by society. When citizens begin to question fairness, even long-standing institutions become vulnerable to change.

Privilege, Wealth and Public Accountability

Their private lives, which are often scandalous, lecherous, and full of debauchery, like the lives of Andrew (who had sex with minor girls supplied to him by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell), Princess Margaret, Sarah Ferguson, King George VII, etc., are usually shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and cover-up techniques are employed by the royal family in hiding them (as the late Queen Elizabeth II and the present King Charles reportedly did in protecting the corrupt and depraved ex-Prince Andrew for long).

So there is little transparency and accountability in the behaviour of the royal family. How is this acceptable in a democracy and in the modern age?

Transparency and accountability are the foundations of democratic governance. Public officials, judges, ministers, and civil servants are subject to scrutiny, criticism, and legal responsibility. Critics therefore ask why hereditary institutions should remain insulated from similar standards. In a democratic ethos, legitimacy flows from accountability, not lineage.

Changing Public Opinion and the Future of the Crown

While a majority of Britishers still want retention of the monarchy, this majority is rapidly dwindling, and is at a historical low, while the number of those wanting its abolition has grown rapidly in recent years, and is nearing the halfway mark.

Generational change appears to be playing an important role in this shift. Younger citizens, raised in an era emphasizing equality, transparency, and meritocracy, increasingly question inherited privilege. Public debate has therefore moved from the margins into mainstream political discourse, suggesting that constitutional transformation, once unthinkable, is now openly discussed.

It is almost certain that the British monarchy will be abolished in the coming years, and the UK will then become a UR (United Republic). It is time for Britishers to get rid of these parasites and leeches who have been living off their blood for long.

Also Read:
The Billionaire Republic: When Wealth Concentrates, Democracy Contracts

The future of the British constitutional system will ultimately depend on the will of its people. Whether reform comes gradually through democratic debate or through a decisive political moment remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that the question of monarchy versus republic is no longer theoretical; it has become a living issue within British public life and democratic consciousness.
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