BBC Radio 4's Today programme debate hears views for keeping and scrapping the monarchy.
The monarchy has kept the support of the majority of people, according to the most recent pollsA venerated tradition or a pointless expense? A symbol of continuity or a symbol of inherited privilege?People's views are often more about their instincts and identity, family and feelings, rather than anything that could be called evidence and put into a spreadsheet.
Whereas Polly Toynbee, Guardian journalist, said it was a symbol that sent all the wrong messages at a time when "social mobility is going backwards".Billy Bragg, left-wing singer-songwriter, put forward Gary Lineker as a potential alternative monarch. Times columnist Juliet Samuel said any reclaimed royal money would disappear into state coffers and an object of "huge affection" would have been lost, without much to show for it.
A survey for BBC One's Panorama programme this week showed broad support for the monarchy, backed by 58%, but with a sizeable minority, 26%, preferring an elected head of state. Prof Arday said there was "less sense of deference" to the monarchy among the young, but he had seen a "collective sense of grief" in response to the Queen Elizabeth II's death, which suggested the monarchy's capacity to unite people if it could modernise enough to connect with them.
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