Possibility of an Elected Royal Family For the UK

Here's an idea, not a very good one I'll grant you - or well you can decide for yourself - but it appeals to me so I thought I'd throw it out there.

There has been much discussion of the last 15 years about the continuation of monarchy in the UK. On the one side we have the monarchists who say that the historic significance of the monarchy is too good a thing to lose. In rather the same way as we preserve our old country houses in an attempt to preserve our historic record and heritage, these people argue that we should keep our monarchy as part of Brand UK, its boost to tourism, its role as ambassadors for our national interests, and its provision of figureheads who stand for the embodiment of our national pride.

Against them stand the new republicans who don't like things like our national anthem being so queen centric. Why when we give three cheers for ourselves do we even need to mention her? Do we really want to hold, even in a figurative role, an institution which is the embodiment of anti-democratic ideas - an institution that drags along with it endless structures of power which favour the status quo and endorse the rights of rich and powerful people to use their wealth and power for the soul purpose of staying that way - ensuring that they and their friends and family keep hold of as much wealth and power as possible.

A possibility that I have never heard being entered into this 2-sided debate is a MIDDLE WAY. A third possibility that stands between the absolute fall of the monarchy, and the absolute continuation of it... namely an ELECTED ROYAL FAMILY. The suggestion is that we should keep all the current institutions of monarchy, all the existing property and land, all the existing jobs like opening fetes and hospitals, and international tours and so on, but have the people filling each of these roles be elected. This surely has the capacity to satisfy both sides of the argument. We keep all the institutions of monarchy, but have the people filling the roles be electable and accountable to the voting public.

One possible way to vote in the people to fill each of the jobs would be to do it on a family-wide basis. It could be done on a job by job basis, but I think there would be something good about voting for a whole family to take up the whole set of roles. The family could then serve a term of say 5 years, and then another family could be voted in to replace them. During their time as the Royal Family, each of these voted for families would take up residence in the various palaces, have use of the crown jewels, and be assigned with the various jobs like opening parliament that the current royal family do.

One possible way of choosing which family should be voted in would be a Big Brother style scrutiny of the families who are standing for election... I'm sure the nation would enjoy following that for 10 or 15 weeks... mega buck television for a broadcasting company that wants to get behind the project...

Don't forget, you heard it here FIRST... NotReallyRelevant