2015 UK General Election

[Jenny A]

Indeed France is the most visited country in Europe and famously beheaded their nobility.
People don't come to see the queen, they come to see Buckingham Palace.

To quote a recent handsome and wise fellow whose name escapes me:

The tourist argument is a bit like saying "well, we could remove the tumour, but the way it fills out your bra is very eye-catching. Also the bald/headscarf look looks so good on you."

These tourists only ever get to see the buildings, the palaces and whatnot. Are they really so shallow that they only show up because someone they themselves would most likely object to having in their country lives inside?

Having been to London on several occasions and never bothered with Buckingham Palace I wondered just how big a tourist attraction it really is.  It doesn't make the top 12 for 2013:

Total visits

British Museum

6,701,036 (+20%)

National Gallery

6,031,574 (+14%)

Natural History Museum

5,356,884 (+6.7%)

Tate Modern

4,884,939 (-8%)

Science Museum, South Kensington (SMG)

3,316,000 (+10.9%)

V&A (South Kensington)

3,290,500 (+1.8%)

Tower of London (HRP)

2,894,698 (+18.4%)

Somerset House Trust

2,398,066 (-)

St Paul’s Cathedral

2,138,130 (+19%)

Westminster Abbey

2,020,637 (+13.8%)

National Portrait Gallery

2,014,636 (-4%)

Old Royal Naval College Greenwich

1,803,477 (+1%)

National Museum of Scotland (National Museums Scotland)

1,768,090 (-7%)

British Library

1,475,382 (+4.3%)

National Maritime Museum (RMG)

1,437,725 (+27%)

Edinburgh Castle (Historic Scotland)

1,420,027 (+15%)

Chester Zoo

1,409,249 (-)

Tate Britain

1,378,272 (-10%)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

1,324,499 (+29.4%)

ZSL London Zoo

1,294,483 (+26.4%)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destin...tions.html

In fact it's not even close.  Only 558,000 people visited Buckingham Palace in 2012. http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/news/b...oup-visits That's a little less than half the number of people who visited the London Zoo.  It seems unlikely that anyone visits London for the purpose of seeing it.

Apparently we like beheadings better. The Tower of London in number seven.  My favorites didn't make the like:  The British War Museum, the Churchill Rooms, and The London Eye.

I think you can safely give up the monarchy and keep the tourists.  It's Queen Elizabeth I, Henery the VIII, etc. we care about.

[Pyrrho]

If you got rid of the monarchy, you would no longer be the United Kingdom. You would not be a kingdom of any kind, united or otherwise.

I do not mean for the above to be taken as a reason to not abolish the monarchy. But out of curiosity, what do you think you would be called if you did get rid of the monarchy?

[downbeatplumb]

Appleland with the advertising revenue everyone could get an ipad.

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I just want a free Ipad

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[Iroscato]

Man, if only we had a different, equally recognisable name that isn't suggestive of a monarchy like...Great Britain?

[Pyrrho]

Man, if only we had a different, equally recognisable name that isn't suggestive of a monarchy like...Great Britain?

Great Britain is the island that includes England, Scotland, and Wales.  It does not include anything else, though sometimes people misuse it as a synonym for the United Kingdom.  See:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defini...at+Britain

[Tiberius]

If you got rid of the monarchy, you would no longer be the United Kingdom. You would not be a kingdom of any kind, united or otherwise.

I do not mean for the above to be taken as a reason to not abolish the monarchy. But out of curiosity, what do you think you would be called if you did get rid of the monarchy?

Probably "The Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" or words to that effect, just replacing the "United Kingdom" bit with "Republic" or whatever you replace the monarchy with.

What you'd call the country in every day conversation would be complicated, since the British Isles would technically have two separate republics (the Republic of Ireland, and the Republic of GB + Northern Ireland). Having said that, since "Great Britain" is often used as a description of the Union and not the island (for example, our Olympic Games team was called "Team GB"), I think you could shorten the full name of the country to "The Republic of Great Britain" with no problems. That way we could still use the initialism "GB" and even "GBR" (which we also currently use), and even "RGB" if we wanted.

[robvalue]

You know, I never actually made the connection between UK and "kingdom". Wow! I just thought about it as its name.

[Iroscato]

Man, if only we had a different, equally recognisable name that isn't suggestive of a monarchy like...Great Britain?

Great Britain is the island that includes England, Scotland, and Wales.  It does not include anything else, though sometimes people misuse it as a synonym for the United Kingdom.  See:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defini...at+Britain

Indeed, but I see little reason not to adopt that as our official name if we did dissolve the monarchy. Or just Britain, a bit less big-headed

[Dystopia]

This lurker is still trying to see how Brits will overthrow the monarchy without starting a revolution. Is that legally allowed?

Portugal abolished the monarchy back in 1910, but that was a time of crisis, tension and civil conflicts - The mentality was different and it was considered rational to implement a republic and even regicide one of the throne's heirs... But now we are all part of the EU, the British monarchy is basically a representation of stability and continuity present in British society (this is specially important because Absolutism and other kinds of extremism didn't flourish so often there) and a certain degree of conservatism is representative of the UK - When was the last time there was a coup'd État, a revolution, a drastic change of values that wasn't implemented progressively with a more conservative approach?

[robvalue]

I just found out that conservatives only got 25% of the vote. They have a majority parliament with a quarter of the country behind them. This is a shit system. By some rough calculations they only got about 3 times as many votes as UKIP, who got 1 seat.