City Hall and a tale of a royal palace
Posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:03pm
2 responses
Over on the blog Wales home, David Melding the Tory AM with a regular column on the website, suggests that City Hall should be a royal residency in Wales. He says in the article that republicans like me are not his audience, but he has initiated a debate, I’ll give him that.
His idea is absurd, but then you would expect me to say that. Who is he targeting then, and for what purpose? It doesn’t seem to me that it is well thought out, or that the discussing is relevant. Anyhow, this is a quote that I gave to the Western Mail for a story in today’s paper. Thank you to the campaign group Republic for its tourism stats!
”As a Welsh republican, I can only say that I totally disagree with any suggestion that City Hall should be turned in to a royal palace. The monarchy is outdated, and opinion polls show that support for the royal family is low amongst our young people. As far as I am aware, there is no vacancy for a royal residency at City Hall. Where is the for sale sign?
City Hall is used on a regular basis for weddings, cultural events, council meetings, charity events and so forth. If a debate about its future is at the heart of the discussion here, then let’s ask the people of Cardiff, and the wider Welsh population if they have any creative ideas as to how to best develop City Hall.
This is a time of economic downturn, and proposing to create another residency for a family that already gets its fair share of public finances is absurd. Cardiff needs City Hall to encourage economic regeneration.
The suggestion that the monarchy promotes tourism is untrue. There is not a single shred of evidence to back it up. Of the top 20 tourist attractions in the UK only one royal residence makes it: Windsor Castle at number 17 (beaten comfortably by Windsor Legoland, in at number 7)
We have much more important issues to be debating at the moment than to provide more for the super rich. The Tories in Wales in the guise of David Melding are showing their true colours in this regard. I will be fighting to end child poverty and to encourage business development here in Wales, not on discussing an outdated and irrelevant royal family.’
