LETTERS TO THE 'FINANCIAL TIMES' ON THE MONARCHICAL PRINCIPLE

AM | @agumack

"... republics are an essentially immature form of government" — Giles Conway-Gordon

The Financial Times is a it again (†). They have published my early August 2024 letter on the monarchical principle. It looks like the editor found it pretty relevant because the FT waited until the Week-End edition of 3/4 August. Moreover, it was the only letter to carry an illustration on that day.

Here's the text:

Simon Kuper credits the monarchical principle for the moderate undertone of British politics, compared to the US and France (Spectrum, July 27). This is spot on. Constitutional monarchies provide a simple answer to the central question of politics: who is to be a country’s “top dog”?

This position is up for grabs in many republics. Hence the cyclical emergence of skilled demagogues. In monarchies, the matter was settled long ago. Tellingly, King Charles III will be featured in Bank of Canada’s next $20 note. The monarchical principle is alive and well. 

* * *

As it turns out, the timing of my letter was unfortunate, as riots were about to spread across the UK. The underlying idea, however, reflects my conviction that the monarchical principle deserves a lot of credit in terms of protecting peoples' liberties and generating prosperity.

This view was shared by another FT reader who kindly praised my letter in a missive, also published on the Week-End edition, three weeks later (24/25 August) under the title "Constitutional monarchies still trump republics" (pun intended, I presume).

Here's Giles Conway-Gordon's letter: 

The caption under the picture of King Charles which accompanied Agustin Mackinlay’s letter on the benefits of constitutional monarchies (“Reason British politics retains its moderate tone”, August 3) states that they “avoid the question many republics grapple with”.

No, sir: the accurate verb is surely “solve” (the question being the clear separation of the roles of head of state and prime minister or political chief executive). Indeed it seems not too much to say that, for that very reason, republics are an essentially immature form of government. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Conway-Gordon! (*)

(†) See some references to my previously published letters.

(*) Here's a link to Giles Conway-Gordon's website.
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