Republic Scotland is part of the UK-wide Republic movement, campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy in favour of a republican constitution.
We’re currently looking for volunteers and committee members to take up the challenge of campaigning in around Scotland in support of our cause.
Some monarchists claim that opposition to the monarchy is treason against the country. This is demonstrably untrue. To support the monarchy is the true treason, because the monarchy is the embodiment of the notion that one person is superior to the other sixty million on account of passing through one particular womb.
But to claim that republicanism is treacherous also destroys any monarchist’s claim to be in favour of democracy. It is a crime against democracy, freedom of speech and, consequently, humanity to argue that somebody does not have the right to speak out against an abhorrent and disgusting institution. Are these the same people who feel they are in a position to pontificate to the Iranians or the Zimbabweans or the North Koreans about democracy and freedom of speech?
It is currently an issue of ambiguity as to whether it is legal to advocate the abolition of the monarchy in Britain. Section 3(a) of the Treason Felony Act 1848 makes it an offence for any person (British subject or not) to call for the abolition of the monarchy. In a 2003 House of Lords case brought by The Guardian newspaper against the Attorney General, the Lords declined to decide whether it was a criminal offence to advocate republicanism in Britain since no prosecutions under section 3 had been brought since 1883 and none were th
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Given the provisions in Section 3a of the Treason Felony Act and what appears to be a certain ambivalence by the Law Lords in the 2003 case, would it not be politically astute to campaign for the abolition of this section, amongst others? While many might want to defend the constitutional monarchy, many of these would surely favour an open debate on constitutional change, including the pros and cons of republicanism.
On another, but I would claim related, tack the existing constitution of the UK- quite apart from the issue of the monarch as the head of state- is the dreadful mess of the three/four nation state that is the UK.
Obviously, other than a wholesale break-up, a federal structure structure is essential. The Republic should be busy drawing up an outline structure to attract support and entice discussion.