Queen and monarchy set wrong example over politics – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOU published (The Yorkshire Post, November 9) a letter from Hilary Andrews praising the UK’s monarchy in contrast to the “shenanigans” of the US presidential system.

I hope you will also publish this alternative view. First, there’s an asymmetry in the comparison. The USA (population 330 million) is more akin to the EU (population 448 million even after the Brexit tragedy) than to a small, single state such as Britain (or to an even smaller one if we consider England alone).

Let’s instead compare the UK (65 million people and £2.2 trillion economy) with California (40 million, £2.5 trillion). It seems to manage perfectly well with an elected governor.

Or Germany – very little shenanigans with their presidential elections. Or Ireland. California, Germany and Ireland also demonstrate a mature acceptance of the need to co-operate with a supra-national entity (be it the federal USA or the similar EU – the latter with a larger population and economy).

The USA presidential election process needs to be reformed in order for the president to be chosen simply by the popular vote rather than by the anachronistic electoral college.

I’m sure this will come, as will improvements to their ballot-processing systems which have caused a large part of the delay.

Here, instead, we have a part-reformed medieval system, a chaotic pile of contradictory documents instead of a codified constitution, a Government hell-bent on extracting the maximum advantage for its own party out of this creaking set-up, and a monarchy which for all its flummery, flunkies and Privy Council is incapable of keeping the Government honest.

We are infantilised by the current system of monarchy; 
it dazzles us and thereby distracts us from addressing the real weaknesses of our constitution.

With a bit more American-style shenanigans, we might spend less time hypnotised by monarchy and nostalgia, and more time building a better-functioning and more grown-up democracy.

On a final note: are Brexit and Scottish independence not already sufficient shenanigans?

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

JOHN Cole (The Yorkshire Post, November 4) says that “the public are twigging”.

They are indeed. Twigging at the utter nonsense that he has been spouting about Brexit for the past few years, and now on the coronavirus pandemic.

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