Friday, January 28, 2011

Monarchy a "problem"?

As an admirer of his performance as King George VI in The King's Speech, I was disappointed to learn that Colin Firth says the monarchy is "a problem" for him because he "likes voting." I for one have never understood what is so great about voting, though of course someone ought to point out to Mr Firth that in Britain it has been possible to vote for politicians and support the monarchy for quite some time. Perhaps Mr Firth should stick to acting, which he does brilliantly, and keep his political opinions to himself. It is particularly incomprehensible to me that a British actor could be a republican, given the invaluable inspiration that the monarchy has given the dramatic arts, which Mr Firth's colleague Geoffrey Rush (though not a monarchist either) seems to acknowledge. What would the plays of Shakespeare, for example, be without Monarchy?

William Dove responds to Mr Firth's comments here. As he says, there are far more powerful "unelected bodies" to worry about today.

3 comments:

J.K. Baltzersen said...

Thank you for the links, sir, especially to the article by Mr. Dove.

Mr. Dove does make some very good points, although I do have some serious reservations about his democratic sentiment. And he makes the factual error that Mr. Barack Obama is directly elected.

Theodore Harvey said...

I think he meant that in spite of the Electoral College, American voters do all get to vote for or against the president, unlike voters in parliamentary systems who do not vote for or against the prime minister specifically unless they live in his constituency.

Tancred said...

People like Colin Firth should refrain from talking about things they know nothing about.

Let me remind that actors often accept the assumptions of the propaganda they promote in the name of Republicanism.