Later this month (November 2023) the National Secular Society (NSS) will hold its annual Member’s Day and AGM. This year, the guest speaker at the Member’s Day will be Graham Smith, the CEO of the British Republican Movement (Republic). The movement was set up in 1983 as a “democratic group” that believes that a head of state should be an elected position and not something that is associated with bloodlines. Republic claims to have 80,000 members within the UK who call themselves republicans.

At the NSS Member’s Day, Graham Smith will talk about the relationship between the monarchy and the established church. As a Republic member, as well as the NSS, Smith’s talk will be of major interest to me, especially as this blog has raised the matter of the monarchy’s relationships with the established church, the Church of England, on several occasions.

There is little doubt that, in speaking about the topic of the established church and the monarchy, Graham Smith will discuss some of the points raised in his recent book, Abolish the Monarchy: Why We Should and How We Will (published in June 2023).

Though an Australian by birth, Graham Smith is now a permanent resident in the UK. He is is an activist who has been Republic’s chief executive since 2021. He has been tirelessly campaigning against the Royal Family for more than a decade, believing that the monarchy is an ancient idea, an outdated organisation that has not moved with the times. He regularly calls for the monarchy to be abolished.

Republic ran a nationwide campaign, entitled “Not My King”, in the lead up to the coronation of Charles Windsor. At the coronation ceremony, Smith and others were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, affray, and other offences, but later released without charge. He has since labelled the arrests as “a direct attack on democracy”.

As reported by the Guardian, Republic has previously campaigned at royal events, including the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Dozens of protesters held banners saying “citizen, not subject” on the banks of the Thames during the pageant, where a flotilla of 1,000 boats sailed down the river and were inspected by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Further, according to the Guardian, Mr Smith in 2018 wrote to Thames Valley Police asking that peaceful protests by the group be allowed in Windsor on the day the Duke and Duchess of Sussex married.

Graham Smith is adamant that he will not be silenced, and the writing and publication of his book is ample testimony to that fact. With this book, Graham Smith establishes himself not just as the CEO of the British Republican Movement but also a leading UK spokesperson in the movement to abolish the British monarchy. Smith’s book is not only a statement of purpose but also a detailed narrative of intent.

It almost seems as if “cometh the moment, cometh the man”, with the moment being the death of Elizabeth Windsor and the coronation of Charles Windsor, and Smith being the man. The end of one reign that had longevity and familiarity on its side, with no little personal admiration, has been replaced by another where questions are being asked about the suitability of a family – their inherited right, individual abilities, and personal histories – to be at the head of the British State and to receive so much financial remuneration from the British exchequer.

Graham Smith’s accumulated arguments for the abolition of the monarchy are probably the most convincing since Norman Baker’s “And What Do You Do” (2019), and, indeed, they provide a challenge to someone in favour of monarchy to write a refutation of Smith’s position. This would be a most difficult task as Smith’s book has not only posited the points in favour of monarchy, but he also then proceeds to demolish them!

A primary focus of Graham Smith’s overall argument is that, in a nation that loudly proclaims its democratic credentials, there exists a family that is privy to government secrets and favours, has private and easy access to ministers of the British government, lives in jealousy protected wealth and privilege through the past and present exigencies of the British taxpayer, and collectively maintains the fiction of being divinely appointed. Furthermore, this family fervently endeavours to cement this belief through self-recommendation and activities, esoteric ritual, and archaic practices that are shared by few people they consider to be their subjects.

Finally, and much due to the lack of knowledge of the British people with respect to what is supposed to be a British Constitution (but still not in formal written form), the monarch is supposed to be the guardian of this same constitution, and yet, as a monarch, but also as the Head of State, refuses to become involved in politics – at least publicly! A truer form of democracy does not accept the moral compromises regularly exhibited by the various members of the British royal family, and certainly would not tolerate the extent of the inequality and interference, albeit done in a covert manner, in British laws that are consequential in maintaining the present form of monarchy.

Graham Smith’s primary focus, then, is pointing out that the people of the UK do not have to accept the continuing existence of a monarchy that is unfit for purpose in contemporary Britain. Smith is of the view that the British monarchy is “a corrupt and corrupting institution”. It is out of touch and out of time. Smith considers that, if persons within a monarchy that has been foisted on the citizens of the UK were to stand as legitimate candidates in an election for a democratic government, then none of them would be elected. More reason why an unelected Head of State, the monarch, is an affront to democracy – especially when such an individual is unlikely ever to be elected to the position through the democratic process.

Not that monarchy is unsupported in the UK. Smith carefully outlines the support that the institution, if not the individuals that comprise the monarchy, receives. In this respect, Smith considers the support given by what he describes as popular “fairy tale image-makers, a deferential media, and a largely acquiescent political class that is either too keen on, or too fearful of, monarchy to speak against it.”

There is, however, an alternative to a present British monarchy that has become “anachronistic, divisive, expensive, and unelected.” Smith’s book is a comprehensive explanation of what is this alternative, and how it may be achieved. His arguments are detailed, riveting, and, for this reviewer, persuasive. Graham Smith’s “Abolish the Monarch: Why We Should and How We Will”, is a timely, valuable, and comprehensive expose of the British monarchy. Smith’s talk at the NSS Member’s Day may be focused on monarchy and the established church, but the ramifications of what he is expected to say will extend far wider.