Republican Party

[showingup]

I can't remember when I first realised that it wasn't fair to have an aristocracy and monarchy. Early on. Before my teens, certainly. As a devourer of fantasy and sci-fi, though, that unequal, unjust social hierarchy seemed to be in my face all the time. Definitely by the time I was in my teens, I was a confirmed republican - in an entirely non-American way. There was always a strange double reaction to stories where The Good Guy gets a knighthood or the princess's hand in marriage or retakes his rightful place on the throne:

1. Hurray!
2. REALLY? Why doesn't he just abolish the system and let people vote?

I just renewed my membership of Republic. It'd lapsed. I'd had the best of intentions, but... things slide. And then a hideously wealthy, privileged couple down south had a baby. They're probably nice folk, and the baby's... well, it's a baby. Babies are good. And the nation's newsmedia just broke. I mean, they've always been horrifically, embarrassingly submissive and fawning about the monarchy. This was even more ridiculous than when that hideously wealthy, privileged couple got hitched. I was peeved about his parents' wedding turning people into basket cases when I was 11, but this was even worse. It didn't seem possible to get more disproportionate, over the top, and disengaged from reality. Oh, how wrong I was. Despite polls showing just over 50% of us don't give a hoot one way or the other about royalty, and under 25% having positive feelings about the institution, the media went off the deep end and are still snorkeling around down there. The BBC had so many complaints that they had to issue a generic statement instead of answering each complaint. The Daily Mail then did it's usual comedy act by berating a magazine for sensational coverage... and devoted 21 pages of the same edition to the birth and naming.

Just the kick up the backside I needed. Apparently, thousands of others felt the same, and Republic have been hit by a tsunami of Britons saying, "Nothing personal. It's just that the whole thing is outdated, ridiculous, unjust, unfair, costs a bomb, and increasingly we're becoming aware of how corrupt it seems to be."

Someone mentioned sea green sashes in tribute to the Levellers of the English Civil Wars period, and I'm quite struck by the idea.

Speaking of joining things and sci-fi and fantasy, I grew up with a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction and the emerging environmental movement. Having seen Natalie Bennett's speeches on a variety of issues lately, I've decided to do something I've been meaning to do for over 20 years: join the green party.

Social justice, sustainable living, peace, equality, and the simple idea - forgotten by the other parties - that the government exists as servant of the people and not to facilitate the easy transfer of career politicians to eye-wateringly highly paid directorships and public speaking gigs? And a lovely take on the recent royalty-based insanity:

22 July 2013

Following the announcement from Kensington Palace of the birth today of a son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,  Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said: "I congratulate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their son, and also the parents of the estimated 1982 other babies born in the UK today.

"I hope all of the children have a healthy, fulfilling, financially secure life."

Bennett added: "I hope that by the time this child comes of age, with the right to vote at age 16, that the hereditary principle will have disappeared from all aspects of the constitution. The new baby might then have the same civil rights and fiscal obligations as all other citizens.

"I would wish the baby the same chance to become a democratically elected head of state as any other individual."

I'm in.