A Day of Celebration (?)
The latest version of Private Eye (the cover of which is shown above) arrived in the post yesterday. I thought I’d leave it until today to read it. Apparently there’s some sort of event happening in London which appears to be causing some disruption to traffic. I’m not watching RTÉ One, the main TV channel here in Ireland, but it seems to be showing a special four hour long episode of Coronation Street. I’m surprised there’s so much interest over here in what’s going on in Poundland.
I’m told that today’s events are a celebration of “British values”, which means locking up peaceful protestors who disagree with the Establishment. On the bright side, taunting the population with a conspicuous display of wealth in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis while the rivers fill with shit and the country crumbles all around will do wonders for those campaigning for a Republic.
I already live in a Republic, of course, and today I’ll be celebrating not the Coronation but the end of teaching term. I’ll be doing a bit of gardening, watching the URC quarter finals, cooking myself a self-indulgent dinner and of course doing the Private Eye crossword. Oh, and toasting the Tories’ resounding defeat in Thursday’s local elections…
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
May 7, 2023 at 11:02 am
My concern about a republic is that the post of President might be grabbed by some recycled unsavoury politician. I’d sooner have King Charles than President Johnson or Blair. It seems the Australians share these concerns: they voted years ago to go in the Republican direction, but could never agree how to do it in practice. This problem doesn’t seem to arise in Germany or Ireland (yet), but maybe the key is to make the position 100% powerless – and not sure I’d trust the UK to do that.
May 7, 2023 at 11:47 am
Well, the President would presumably be elected as in Ireland and if you don’t like the one you get you can vote for someone else next time.
I have to say that I really like Michael D. Higgins, the current President of the Republic of Ireland. He will reach the end of his second (and final) term in 2025 and will be a hard act to follow. Some of the candidates at the last Presidential election were a bit grim.
May 7, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Are you missing some history? Germany in the early 1930s had a ceremonial president whose main job was to apppoint the Reichskanzler (=Prime Minister), but after repeated elections in which nobody could form a coalition commanding a majority in parliament (the Bundestag), he appointed Adolf Hitler, who was leader of the largest party, as Reichskanzler. The rest is, unfortunately, history.
Democracy is better than any other system NOT because it means you can vote for people who will promise what you want – they won’t deliver – but because the people in office fear being voted out.
It’s a dark world.