Royalexit and BBCexit

Royalexit and BBCexit

July 2019

The UK would appear to going through a referendum phase, with Brexit [1st, 2nd, ..., nth votes] and Scottish "Independence".

I'm all for holding a referendum on the BBC - the BBCexit. But, at the same time we could easily append to the voting card a box to keep or kick into the rough the royal-imposters - Royalexit.

Referendums are interesting because the UK system of parliamentary-democracy means we elect representatives to make decisions for us. So, why do we need referendums in which we bypass them - or not as was shown to the case with Brexit. A referendum reflects a decision that government and MPs decide to wash their hands from making the decision, but again in the case of Brexit this proved to be a lie.

However, referendums are strange things and go against the system and constitution, again not that the UK really has one. But the idea is that it is a big decision. I think the BBC and royal-imposters are such big decisions and warrant referendums, and confident that people would vote to kick into oblivion both of them.


This article was motivated by the excellent article We need to start talking about the abolition of the monarchy that appeared in The Herald on the 2nd of July 2019. I was so taken by this article I wrote to the Editor [letters@theherald.co.uk], with the following letter:

Dear Sir

I greatly enjoyed the excellent article 'We need to talk about abolishing the monarchy' that appeared in The Herald on the 2nd of July. The UK would appear to be going through a referendum phase at the moment, what with Brexit [1st, 2nd, ..., nth votes] and Scottish "Independence" [1st, 2nd, ..., nth votes]. I'm also for further referendums on two other big topics; namely scraping the royal family and the BBC - let's call them Royalexit and BBCexit. If there is to be more referendums on either or both Brexit or so-called Scottish "independence" then let's append onto the voting cards the following two simple questions: Scrap the royal-family (yes/no), Scrap the BBC (yes/no). One never knows but I am confident the electorate would vote to kick both of these dinosaur institutions into oblivion.

gmseed