Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Monarchy
Specifically the ones like in Japan and the UK. Why would you pay people to be figureheads who don't have to do anything?
Comments
Tradition, and tourism.
In theory, I agree with you - I'm very anti-monarchy, but there's really no point in abolishing it in those countries if the majority of the population wants to keep it.
Why specifically these?
^ They don't do anything there.
^^ I don't know why you wouldn't, that's like, tax dollars and stuff.
But if the population wants to keep it (and very often they do), then that's tax dollars that are being spent in a way that the population likes, so there'd have to be more of a reason than just that it costs money.
That said, it's not really tax "dollars" since neither the UK nor Japan uses dollars... >.>
The Emperor of Japan does do stuff, even if it's not actually ruling related. He is a scientist, after all.
I have no issue with monarchic status being recognised, although I would expect those families to be financially self-sufficient rather than being paid to do shit all. Given we live in a capitalistic society where you can make money for having money, that shouldn't be an issue anyway.
When Australia was making significant strides towards socialist policy some decades ago, we abolished knighthood. That makes sense in context of the times, but now that we've pretty much given that up, there seems no reason not to reinstate it. <_<
They don't do anything in lots of other countries either. Such as Canada.
Anyway, the answer is: because tradition.
Edited the OP for that. Anyway, I forgot Canada had a monarchy.
All the Commonwealth nations are under the Queen of England.
Well, yes, but not in her position as the Queen of England. She is also the Queen of Canada, Australia, Jamaica, and so forth. I feel it's an important distinction to make given that we're talking about abolishing monarchies, because if the UK abolished the monarchy that wouldn't automatically mean she'd stop being the monarch of all those other countries.
Edit: Oh, and to be strictly accurate, the nations that she is the monarch of are the Commonwealth realms. As there are other countries in the Commonwealth that she is not (such as South Africa).
Admit it Alex, you want knighthood back.
I want knighthood back.
It is way cool.
She's called the Queen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. There is no "Queen of England". Anyway.
Here the Monarch does actually have a role, now I can't comment on the rest of the Commonwealth, but in the UK the Queen is responsible for choosing the government. I can't think of a time where the Monarch has went against the people's votes, but it's technically well within her rights to say "You want Ed Balls as PM? Fuck that, I pick ME! David Cameron"
(I was wrong, she can't pick herself, she must elect a Prime Minister)
Saying that, I'd rather we got rid of the monarchy. I equally dislike the British Monarchy because their right to the Scottish throne is actually debatable.
In other Commonwealth realms a representative of the monarch (called a Governor General in Canada; I believe it's the same elsewhere but I'm not sure) has that duty. It's equally ceremonial though.
In Japan, IIRC, the current government technically only exists because the Emperor says so. Though in practice, he probably wouldn't be able to dissolve it.
Yeah, it's the same in the Commonwealth realms (and most constitutional monarchies probably). I forget the details (I'm sure Alex can explain) but I remember hearing there was some clusterfuck in Australia a few decades ago when the Governor General actually tried to dismiss the Prime Minister.
Actually, I can't explain. Before my time -- hell, I'd never even heard about that before. How much I dis/approve depends on the Prime Minister in question.
In any case, clustefucks are a dime a dozen around here.
> corrupt state police chief (whatever the hell that title is)
> a knighted cop from the UK comes in, tries to clean up his mess
> ser knightcop of britainland is dismissed
That was pretty disappointing, and we were stuck with shitty police conduct for some time. It's not absolutely great now, but there's been improvements -- it sucks that a good man had to get dismissed for doing the right damn thing in a law enforcement job, though.
Found the Wikipedia article.
I actually heard about that one a few weeks ago on some television program that was playing at the airport.
Actually, the British Royal family pays the Treasury more than the Treasury pays them so in effect, the Queen pays us to be our figurehead.