The Probus discussion group met on 20 September to discuss the issue of monarchies vs republics. A presentation was given by Gareth Walters (a copy of which can be found here.)

Although there was some feeling that if one was starting with a clean slate, it would make little sense to create anything other than a republic, there was a general consensus that starting with the history that we have in the UK it would be foolish to shift from a monarchy to a republic. There would almost certainly be no majority support in the country for such a change in the medium or even longer term.

Points were made about the dangers of having a head of state chosen on the basis of their hereditary. Sometimes you would end up with a reliable and intelligent head of state. But sometimes you could be unlucky. On the other hand, in the UK when difficult problems arose with the choice of head of state, the (unwritten) constitution enabled changes to be made. The best and most recent example of such a change was of course the replacement of Edward VIII by George VI.

The next meeting of the discussion group will take place on 18 October.