Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

I have to say that I felt the need to write a blog post about this royal wedding that’s happening sometime soon, as I’m getting increasingly frustrated at the hype and pomp surrounding it.

The only way you won’t know a thing about it is if you are enviably living somewhere that isn’t Wales, the rest of the UK, or the USA where they are monarchy mad from what I’ve seen!  I really wish I could get away from all the over the top coverage of the wedding, and from supposedly unbiased journalists who are, in reality, obsessed with the cult that has become the royal wedding (either that or they are getting bonuses for all their 24 coverage of the wedding and feel duty bound to promote it…)

For anyone who knows me, you will understand that I am a republican. Not in the US right wing political party sense, but in that I am not supportive of the monarchy, and believe that Wales should be a Republic ( and England, Scotland, the North of Ireland)

I am not against the royals as individuals.  This is a classic criticism from monarchists to those of us who oppose the hereditary tradition that is monarchism. They tell me how lovely the Queen is, and how dare I be critical of such a lovely woman. Well, I am sure many of them are very kind and considerate. But I do not agree that one family should have such privileges, and I believe we should have a directly accountable and democratic head of state.

What gets me is that everyone is criticising the UK government for the cuts agenda, and rightly so, but then the same people choose to turn a blind eye to the wealth of the royals. Many of them haven’t worked a day in their lives, and live rent free at the many palaces that they occupy all over the UK. The cost to the taxpayer for security for events that they attend across the UK is huge, and the cost of maintaining their lavish lifestyles only adds to this bill. The campaign group Republic has a lot of interesting myth busters on their website.

I think the time is ripe for a debate on the future role of the monarchy, and I believe that there is a duty for politicians like myself to raise the profile of alternative opinions to that of merely accepting that the monarchy is here to stay.  In my opinion the whole concept is archaic, out dated and unrepresentative. If the House of Lords should not be hereditary, why so when it comes to the monarchy?

There is an event being organised in Machynlleth so that people can get away from all the royal wedding coverage next week. There’s no point hoping that there will be any balanced coverage from the BBC on that day.

I’ll be carrying on with the Welsh General Election campaigning in the day, and enjoying a Dafydd Iwan gig in Neath in the evening. I believe he has written a new song for the occasion. So join us if you want to get away from it too!