Seat of the Scottish Head of State
Isn’t it about time we began talking about what a future independent Scotland should be like? Math Campbell made the point well in his excellent article:
http://voxpopulivoxscoti.blogspot.com/2009/11/little-chat.html
There are many vexed questions that will need to be considered. Will we use the pound? Will we be in NATO? What voting system will we use? And so on. Perhaps in future polls we will ask some of these questions and others as Math suggests. I thought that, as the name of the blog suggests a republican agenda, it might be an idea to start with the question of whether an independent Scotland should be a republic or a monarchy.
The choices in the poll are:
A republic with a non executive president along the style of India, Ireland, Germany or Iceland, where the incumbent has no political power and acts only in a ceremonial role;
A republic along the French, American, South African, Pakistani, style where the president has executive power;
A monarchy shared with the UK, where Elizabeth I, is head of state, followed by her successors, ie Prince Charles, then William, etc as in other Commonwealth countries;
A monarchy where the King/Queen invited to take the throne is a current member of the UK royal family...eg, Princess Anne, Princess Alexandra, Prince William, etc;
A monarchy with an invited King/Queen from another source, eg, another royal house in Europe or elsewhere, or from amongst the population of Scotland.
Of course there are other possibilities, but not ones likely to be of interest in a modern western society.
So, I’m asking the readers of the blog to give some mature reflection to the question (it is one that we will have to face at some time in the future), and to vote!
(This article, and the accompanying poll is a collaboration between Munguin and Tris.)
