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Comment by cja | Hacker News Reader

A partisan elected president? No thanks. Boris should be in the Tower for misleading the Queen on the prorogation of parliament. First rule of government: don't put the monarch in an awkward situation. Our fault for electing a nasty narcissistic clown. There is plenty to fix in our system of government before getting to the monarch/president question.

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Wait until you get a monarch that you don't like. I guess then you'll ask for a way of choosing one that you do. Or perhaps you're an obedient servant of the royals, no matter who they are?

Perhaps, but it is also possible to respect people one doesn't like and acknowledge that they may serve another role in society than being liked by me. The GP may enjoy being challenged by someone with other priorities than Tiktok (which optimizes for "liking"). I'm not arguing that the Royals are infallible, but I don't think we should dismiss the thought that having someone in a central position of society with other priorities than instant popularity and having to be liked can be useful

Then you live to serve them, not the other way around.

What do you mean with "live to serve them"? Why would I want them to live to serve me (if that is the other way around)? What does that even mean? I believe the Royals have a greater sense of duty and living in service of the nation than you and I have of living in the service of the monarch, wouldn't you agree?

Are you talking purely symbolically or about what people are actually doing and experiencing in their everyday life?

I don't agree with your statement at all. It seems to be largely based on faith, which I lack. IMO we all have own selfish vested interests and the system doesn't necessarily enforce good alignment between them. Put it this way, if you were to design a democracy from scratch for a given nation, I doubt (and I could be wrong) that you would try to recreate the British system. Now you might say that the UK is exceptional, but I would not.

You might think I'm overly reductive, but I feel if you have an exclusive ruling class, implicitly the role of everyone else is to support (serve) them.

I'm not in the UK and so I'm free of the powerful UK media bias towards the prevailing system (I would speculate that there are a lot of vested interests in keeping it as it is). How do you feel about other monarchies around the world? Are they equally great systems? Would you advocate that all countries should have monarchs?

Queen Elizabeth II has served her people for the last 70 years—in fact, since she was born 96 years ago. The constitutional monarchy requires that she and her heirs devote essentially their entire lives to service of the country. She has been driven by duty and service for longer than most of us have been alive.

Personally, I am profoundly grateful for how she has lived her life and what she has given to the UK.

She seems like a decent person. I don't know if the next one would be.

Criticising the UK royals feels like criticising a religion, and all that goes with that.

> Criticising the UK royals feels like criticising a religion

For the Queen and some Anglican believers that's literally true. She's an anointed monarch [0] and supreme leader of the Church of England. During the coronation, the anointing by the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated and sacralized her—made her holy. The anointing has been the central part of the coronation for at least 1000 years. Of course, most people don't take all that seriously today (nor do I).

[0]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22764987

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consecration

I live in a constitutional monarchy. It's a constant parade of prime ministers I don't like, from a pool of candidates I don't like.

Think I'd rather have Elizabeth.

What about a scenario where it's someone like Prince Andrew?

you have summed up my feelings on politics pretty well.

If I were to dedicate my time to politics in any way, it would be to get a little check box on the vote that says "they are all rubbish, please go away and try harder to find decent candidates"

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