Royals’ actions may lead to abolition calls

I HAVE to agree entirely with Fionola Meredith (Comment, October 25), who says: “I’m no royalist.”

The frolics-and-frills lifestyle of Meghan and Harry may, indeed, strengthen calls for the monarchy to be abolished. Thomas Paine, the great pamphleteer and activist of the American Revolution, wrote a tiny, but highly influential, work called Common Sense.

Paine quotes a Jewish hero, Gideon, in his pamphlet. The instruction against kingship given by him is plain: “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you!”

Paine uses passages from 1 Samuel Chapters 8 and 12 to illustrate the dangers of kingship. The Israelites are warned that kingship will bring enslavement, conscription to the military and economic exploitation.

Samuel’s prophetic warnings are not heeded and the people come to see the error of their ways.

For a century or more, Marxist theory has presented some minor talking-points of interest.

The Royal Family dynasty, stretching back 1,000 years, is outwardly impressive as we walk around the Tower of London.

The real Crown Jewels, though — the principles of true social justice — are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back 3,000 years or more.

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