An in-depth discussion of the future of the monarchy after the death of Queen Elizabeth II and during the reign of Charles III.
Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday 8th September 2022. Immediately questions have arisen about the nature and purpose of monarchical, non-elected government. The arguments for Republicanism now increase, shocked as many are by the expense to tax payers of maintaining a King, who is in his own right a billionaire and owns numerous palaces. Is this a monarchy fit for modern Western democratic society? Will the Commonwealth now disintegrate?
Overall, monarchs and members of Royal families these days get a bad press. Mention of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Prince Andrew is enough to guarantee this. Moreover, a recent poll showed that a vast majority of the UK population under 40 years of age had no interest in the royal family at all. We also know from polling that as Prince of Wales, Charles was extremely unpopular. So what indeed will happen now that the Queen is dead? Dr Owens has specialized in books on the monarchy but he is far from uncritical. He is fully conversant with the strong arguments in favour of republicanism.
In the post-Elizabethan Age, it is time to ask the question: does Britain retain its new monarch's reign? It is Dr Owens' argument that the great advantage of Elizabeth's reign was that people took the monarchy for granted - as something innate to public life. This was due in part to a very clever PR exercise by the Royal household. So only by weighing up both sets of arguments - republican and monarchic - will we come to a balanced conclusion as to what will be best for Britain.
