Two Block 3 Projects classes are acting as the two opposing campaign groups in a school-wide referendum next Thursday, 24 March, on the question of whether the Royal Family should be abolished. Here, both sides of the campaign have set out their arguments as they each appeal to students and staff to vote in their favour.  

Yes, Revoke the Royals
By Lolo Gaio, Wulfie Smith Pink and Anthony Harvey, Block 3
We are campaigning to remove the Royal Family and revoke the Queen’s power as Head of State. We believe that the monarchy is not needed in our democracy, as it is exactly the opposite of democracy; you are born into power, which means achieving or gaining power is based on who you are or who you know or which family you were born into, rather than what you know and what you have done. Here are a few arguments for removing the Royal Family.

One of the main criticisms against the Royal Family is their cost. The Royal Family’s lifestyle is just too expensive to maintain. Staffing costs, catering, hospitality, executive management and any ceremonial functions cost £85.9m of taxpayer’s money. That could be spent on things like education, housing, policing and countless other things.

Monarchs can also be unfit to be heads of state. They shouldn’t be chosen by birth to have huge responsibilities over a country; it seems unfair for someone who could be an incredibly good leader to not have the chance to become a head of state, instead to be replaced by someone who was born into the job, who could be absolutely terrible at it.

Yet, despite the fact that the Queen is Head of State, she has no legal powers. Instead, most of her privileges are exercised by ministers acting on behalf of the Queen, who can act without parliamentary approval. The Prime Minister abuses the Crown’s entitlement, and Parliament has no jurisdiction to take away or limit these rights because they themselves are derived from the monarchy’s privilege!

A well-rehearsed argument from the monarchist’s side is that the Queen brings in tourists and promotes Britain abroad. If the Royal Family bring in tourists to visit the royal palaces, they wouldn’t be demolished if the Monarchy was abolished! And in Versailles, the palaces of the long-gone monarchy receive six million visitors per year, put against Buckingham Palace, which is only open for ten weeks during the summer. Neighbouring Paris in general also receives 35 million visitors per year, against 20 million for London. The argument just doesn’t make sense.

These are a few of the things that we believe should happen if we win the referendum, and a few reasons why keeping the monarchy is a bad idea. If you feel that you agree with any of these arguments, you should vote to revoke the royals in the referendum on 24 March.

No, Save the Queen
By Ella Foster-Hill, Miles Farmer and Owen Griffiths, Block 3
In our campaign, we are arguing for the Royal Family to stay, and in this article, we will put across our points as to why we believe this is so important.

The first and probably most crucial argument is simply the huge amount of tourism from overseas that the Royal Family bring to the UK each year. In a report from The Guardian, it was reported that they bring in over £500m every year from overseas tourism alone. Not to mention the fact that they add an overall £1.2bn to the British economy every year!

Another great thing that the Royal Family bring is their charity work. Without them, some huge charities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award and The Princes Trust wouldn’t exist at all. Two charities which both help so many young people all over the country today.

To take a look at the Queen specifically, she is such an important figure in this country. She is Head of the Commonwealth which makes such great strides towards global peace. In the UK, she provides a neutral status amongst politics in the largely divided government of today. She is the only person who can call a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss and even overrule decisions made by the government. She also provides hope and clarity to so many in all the small things she does – from her annual Christmas speech, to her messages of reassurance during the pandemic. And she is even on our currency! Getting rid of the Queen would be stripping us of a historic and greatly important figurehead of this country.

The Royal Family give us a sense of tradition but have also adapted to modern day society. We have no reason to dislike them or want them abolished. Support and enjoy the Royal Family because whether you think it or not, they do an awful lot for this country and the world around us.