Wednesday, December 05, 2012



Why stop at half-measures?

So, the announcement of a possible royal heir has finally pushed the British government to end a thousand years of sexism (and ~350 years of religious bigotry) in their royal succession. Its a slight improvement, but at the same time, it changes nothing: their "modern and equal" head of state will still be neither. No-one unelected can be considered modern, and no-one who inherits a position can be considered equal. Instead, it will still be the same old absurd anachronism, a last vestige of feudalism which should be swept away with the rest of that odious system.

As for New Zealand, this will apparently necessitate a law change to our local version of the Act of Settlement 1700. But if we're going to go to that much effort, then we might as well go the whole way and abolish the monarchy completely. Why should we continue to accept rule by unelected foreign inbreds, who neither represent or are representative of us? And why should we continue to maintain a constitutional arrangement so deeply incompatible with modern New Zealand values? We shouldn't; instead we should do away with the whole rotten institution, and elect ourselves a figurehead president to host the garden parties and sign the paperwork, in place of the current appointed one.