Could The British Monarchy Have Been Abolished After Diana's Death?

I saw some of the film The Queen a awhile ago, and it got me thinking. I don't know how accurate it is to real life, but one of the main points of the film is how unpopular the British Royal family was following their reaction (or lack of it) to the death of Princess Diana. I think the film itself says something like one in four Brits being in favour of abolishing the monarchy during that time, however, I can't find any real polls to say that was true.

So, is it possible that Diana's Death could set oof a cahin reaction that would lead to the Monarchy being abolished in Great Britian? And if so, what would the effects of that be? Where would the royal family end up going?
 
I don't think that's likely. The royal family has a pretty established presence in British society, and one in four, even if that number is accurate, is far less than a majority of the British people.
 
I don't think that's likely. The royal family has a pretty established presence in British society, and one in four, even if that number is accurate, is far less than a majority of the British people.

I realize it's not a majority, but I was thinking that perhaps something could happen that would increase the number.
 
Thing is, thoose people that were angry at the royal when
Diana died are the people that Monarchy main supporters, those Daily Mail and Express readers didnt suddenly become republicans when she died
 

Grey Wolf

Gone Fishin'
Donor
The media hype about Diana was completely overblown and they whipped up a hysteria of mourning, and then got pissed off when the royal family didn't share in it.

You'd also need a different PM than Blair. Maybe if John Smith had lived, tho I have no idea what his opinion of the monarchy was?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Despite the perceived flows of grief following Diana's death there was no chance that the monarchy was going to fall at the time.

You probably would have needed Prince Charles being filmed doing a dance and singing "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" upon hearing the news, Prince Phliip laying a wreath on her coffin saying "Good Riddance" and the Queen conferring membership of the Order of Merit on the chasing paparazzi.

Even then it's probably 50/50!
 
You'd probally have to have Elizabeth fall down the stairs and die shortly afterwards as well and have some really really nasty stories floating about.
 
the only way youd have the british abolish the monarchy in that timeframe around dianas death and the whole media hype, is if asbs decided to mess around with millions of peoples heads for no reason than to just fuck around

first, even if the majority ever considered abolishing the monarchy, itd have to be held by referendum and go through parliment, where the moanrchy is a instutional part of it....even if they did decide on a referendum itd take ayt least a couple of years to go ahead with, and by then, if asbs werent involved, the whole diana thing will be a memory and the whole thing would be moot

there realistically is no reason for the uk (or the other 16 membrrs of the commonwealth that has our monarchy as their head of state, so even if she was kicked out in the uk, shed still reign in canada, australia, etc) to abolish its monarchy less they go nuts and back to the days of yore where kings waged war against their parliemants, plagues ravaged the islands and peoples heads where lopped off willy nilly...which is possible if charles gets his grubby hands on the throne, but i digress....never gonna happen in our lifetime without some major change
 
Abolishing the monarchy would weaken the frameworks of both the Commonwealth and just as well the United Kingdom itself. Due to these possible long-term effects, no politician would want to see his or her name under the abolition of monarchy.

Aditionally, from my point of view as an outsider who has lived in Britain for some time, the monarchy is an integral part in the definition of Great Britain as a "special culture" which is different from the other main European powers France, Germany, Italy, Russia.

Pound notes without the monarch? Then you could just as well introduce the €, so to say. Or on the other hand.... a president? Well, why not directly take the one in DC?

And thirdly, by the end of the 20th century, at the latest after Diana's death, scandal has IMO become an integral part of the way the Monarchy functions. We live in fast times where big news need to be generated more often than once a decade. As long as the good news dominate, thinks run alright. In the long run, it is the ability to convey emotions to the general populace, pride like during the Jubilee just as well as grief when Diana died, joy during the great weddings, or heartbreak on other occasions, which stabilizes the monarchy.

So....an abolition of monarchy without a complete breakdown of the British political system? Highly unlikely.
 
The reaction at the time of Princess Diana's death was in many ways a royalist one as the masses wanted to see the Queen articulate their grief and lead the nation in mourning instead of staying aloof in Balmoral. Even a more cack-handed response would be very unlikely to lead to serious pressure to abolish the monarchy.
 
Pound notes without the monarch? Then you could just as well introduce the €, so to say. Or on the other hand.... a president? Well, why not directly take the one in DC?

The British monarchy - Because otherwise the Brits would have joined the Euro and had Barack Obama as president.

Seriously though, I don't think that Diana's death alone could bring about the abolition of the monarchy in Britain, at least not if Elizabeth II is still alive. Much of the popularity the British monarchy enjoys is owing almost solely to the personal popularity of the nice old lady Lizzie Windsor.

If you want Diana's death to be the trigger, you already need to have Mrs. Windsor gone by the time of the accident. With Charles III/George VII at the helm, things would definitely be much nastier.

Then again, the British mentality around their monarchs in modern times are sometimes hard to understand. Consider the case of Mrs. Simpson, for instance, it didn't matter how unpopular and hated she became, people still loyally stood by and loved their king, many even believing that they were supporting him by telling Mrs. Simpson to get the f*ck out of Britain... :confused:
 
General reaction around me was "does anybody know a good pub to watch the funeral from". Certainly nobody mentioned getting rid of the monarchy that I heard.
 
Also, abolition of monarchy means goodbye tourist dollars! That would send the UK economy in a real tailspin!
 
The reactions around Diana's death were very unusual and I think had far more to do with people exploring their own sense of personal grief than their grief about Diana, but because she was a universal figure her death enabled people to connect with their own emotions that were otherwise buried, ( I vividly remember people saying on tv, that they hadn't been able to cry when their wife, husband, father, mother, pet etc had died, but they could cry for Diana, that I think contains some explanation as to the outpouring of grief). Strong emotions can also be very contagious and I think some of that was going on. In a sense 15 years on perhaps as a nation we are more happy with expressing our emotions than we were then so maybe it wouldn't have affected in the same way.

Likewise I think the outrage with the Royal Family was very little to do with them as people, but rather part of an poorly articulated sense of grievance with those in power/authority etc. Since then there have been similar waves of outrage with politicians expenses, the press and bankers. They are just by their expression acting as a safety valve and allowing negative emotions to be expressed. There is nothing inherently revolutionary about them, even though at the time they felt strange.

In 1848 when the chartists were on their doomed demonstration in London a group of them marching through Hyde Park knocked over some railings. Karl Marx who was watching bemoaned the fact that they didn't pick them up and hit the policemen with them, but it's not necessarily how things evolve here. NB all of the chartists points, which seemed so inaccessible back then are now part of law apart from annual parliaments.

Sorry this has been so long winded but chances of a rev to get rid of monarchy absolutely zero.
 

Garrison

Donor
Unless the French found a bunch of guys fleeing Paris in a white Uno with MI6 credentials and a death warrant signed by QEII herself, not a chance.
 
There is absolutely no evidence.....

I saw some of the film The Queen a awhile ago, and it got me thinking. I don't know how accurate it is to real life, but one of the main points of the film is how unpopular the British Royal family was following their reaction (or lack of it) to the death of Princess Diana. I think the film itself says something like one in four Brits being in favour of abolishing the monarchy during that time, however, I can't find any real polls to say that was true.

So, is it possible that Diana's Death could set oof a cahin reaction that would lead to the Monarchy being abolished in Great Britian? And if so, what would the effects of that be? Where would the royal family end up going?

of the unpopularity of the Monarchy in the aftermath of Diana's death.

You can look at the Mori website and see trends of the monarchy's popularity dating back to the early 1990s to the present day. The monarchy was actually more popular in September 1997 that it had been in 1994 or was in 2005!

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=122&view=wide

The "unpopularity" of the monarchy in the days after Diana's death was a construct of the British media, desperate to direct attention away from any suggesstion that the media was somehow implicated/indirectly responsible for Diana's death while being chased by papparazzi photographers.
 
Thers an old saying

There will be a time where only 5 Kings (queens may apply) remain: 4 in the poker deck and the British.

Still a long time until that ;)

Not an old saying, but a comment by King Farouk of Egypt in 1948:

"In a few years there will be only five kings in the world: the King of England and the four kings in a pack of cards."
 
Not an old saying, but a comment by King Farouk of Egypt in 1948:

"In a few years there will be only five kings in the world: the King of England and the four kings in a pack of cards."

;) Everything that dates before my birthday is OLD ;)

Honestly I made that up, but glad too see someone else also thought of it :D:eek:
 
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