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https://x.com/DaysofNHS/status/1859921984844714027

Some more perspective on those supposedly 'huge' costs.

When my father was in hospital, I spent at least 3 hours, one afternoon, trying to his blood work results released. Complete with my father sitting there and demanding that they be handed over.

On Thursday my GP told me to go into A&E for an emergency op. I went in, a cannular was fitted, bloods taken, and I was prepped for the op. I then saw the doc, who told me I didn't need an op and the problem would probably sort itself out. If it didn't, he would operate in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I am losing a concerning amount of blood (though I've improved today...)

I'm unsure if that was the NHS working well or badly. Certainly, seeing the surgeon before prepping me might have been good. Though maybe the blood results fed into the decision.

I hope you recover soon, with or without the op!

Or, put another way, one fiftieth of the annual budget for housing asylum seekers.

But anyway - my view prior to the reign of the current monarch was that he would be the last hereditary head of state. People would just find him too ridiculous. Actually, he's been a lot better than I feared. But he just doesn't have the magic of his mother. She was probably the most famous person in the world. She had probably met more people than anyone else in the world. She could enthuse royalists while making low grade republicans happily suspend disbelief. She is still the person most people associate with the words 'the Queen'.
The current king is doing his best and has carved out some interesting niches (like urban design), but I fear it is not enough. The magic is gone.

I don't see any reason why monarchy or magic can't continue.

People crave and look for that, and we all like our myths, legends and history, whilst despising politicians.

I'm not worried.

If we get rid of the monarchy, we'll replace it with something worse.

See also: House of Lords.

That's why I see myself as a small-c conservative: I'm not against change, but change for change's sake often ends in a far worse situation. Try to make good changes, mostly in incremental evolutions (rarely revolutions). Think the changes, and their effects, through. You won't always get it right, but you'll do better than many of the changes both governing parties have given us over the last three decades.

But don't remain static, either. Preserve what 'works', alter what doesn't.

What do we want?!

Gradual change.

When do we want it?!

In due course.

This is a stupid argument. If you think the monarchy is useful then £72mn (a little over £1 per UK resident) really isn't a lot of money to spend on the coronation, an event that we should expect to occur once in a generation.

No harm to King Chuck (not much love either) but I would expect the ‘generation’ between him and his successor to be much shorter than say the one between 2014 and now, let alone between 2014 and any future referendum.
The next coronation will provide something of a quandary for suburban Billy who’s just your average millionaire next door, down with the young dads. Not sure acres of gold leaf and some attention seeker with a sword will be a good fit.

I used to say that we could have a serious discussion about the Monarchy when the Queen died. Whilst she was alive her dedication and sense of duty demanded respect from all but the most curmudgeonly (yes, @malcolmg , I mean you).

But now that has happened I really cannot be bothered. We have so many real problems to address as a nation and it would frankly be too self indulgent for words to waste time and energy replacing the Royal family when those problems are not being addressed. We can stick to pointless, irrelevant gestures such as getting rid of the hereditaries in the House of Lords and stagger on.