"It is clear that the present system of elected 'representative' government is not meeting the needs of the public. Politicians are not trusted and, once elected, not accountable, except to each other. Elections simply guarantee that power is placed in the hands of the very people who should be denied power at all costs. Therefore, we must stop holding elections of all kinds and immediately return to a system of absolute monarchy. This system would be permanent, hereditary and presided over by the House of Windsor."
There's an almighty leap of logic from complaining about the unaccountability of our "elected representatives" to declaring that this means we must return to an absolute monarchy ... I mean, how exactly would that be an improvement in terms of accountability?
Now, the Queen seems like a decent enough woman, and Prince Charles isn't a bad chap for all his lunacy on green-ness, and for that matter Prince William comes across as quite a reasonable kid. But none of these things imply they're marvellously fit to rule a country in actual practical terms (rather than being figureheads, which I suspect they're all quite capable of). And even if, actually, their decency means they might muddle through - what happens if you get someone who's not?
This spins off into an interesting little bit of philosophy that is never really dealt with in a couple of series of books that I'm quite keen on in general. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga and David Weber's Honorverse both have hereditary heads of state in their main societies. (In the Vorkosigan novels, Emperor Gregor has some approximation of absolute power, though each of the sixty Counts has a substantial autonomy in his district. In the Harrington novels, Queen Elizabeth is constrained by a constitution and houses of parliament.)
Both of these sets of books portray strong, honourable monarchs who deal admirably with their power and responsibility. It makes things all look very nice and shiny. What they show less is how this breaks down where a monarch is not strong, honourable and able to cope. Bujold skirts the issue by talking about what a nightmare things would have been had Emperor Gregor's father, Prince Serg, survived to take control after Emperor Ezar's death. The clear result would have been a mess of monumental proportions, she indicates, with the inevitable result of even more people than normal trying to assassinate the Emperor, and Pretenderships and Coups and all sorts of exciting things like that. Basically a mess. Weber's books are more idealistic and fail (as far as I can remember - admittedly I prefer the Vorkosigan saga and have read them more often and more recently) to cover potential problems with the situation at all. All the members of the House of Winton (and many of the aristocracy) are Fine Noble People who one can't imagine being anything other than great monarchs. This is not, unfortunately, realistic.
The petitioner should really go away and read Shards of Honor, the first ten chapters of which are available free, and cover the stuff I'm talking about. Then he should think about what would happen if we got a Prince Serg. Then he should think again.
Everyone else should just read either or both of the Vorkosigan Saga and/or the Honoverse novels because they're good.
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