Anti-monarchists slam renaming Big Ben

The Labour MP for Blyth Valley in Northumberland launched a campaign to stop renaming the east tower of the Houses of the Parliament after the second longest reigning monarch. While condemning the move, supported by 24 MPs, Ronnie Campbell stressed that he resented being “ruled over by fifth-generation Germans who changed their name from Battenberg to Windsor.”

“Every socialist bone in my body tells me we should abolish the Monarchy as an outdated institution that nurtures a class system based on birth, not worth,” Campbell said.

Insisting his own family of miners had done more for the UK than the Queen, Campbell also said, “Why should we be ruled over by families descended from robber barons, bandits and illegitimate heirs?”

Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic considered the MPs’ move as being “crass, profoundly inappropriate and out of touch.”

Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith declared that Parliament is the home of British democracy and should remain a tribute to the country’s democratic values. “Associating this institution with the unelected, unaccountable and anti-democratic monarchy is crass and completely inappropriate.”

“This is another opportunity for the monarchy to co-opt every institution to its cause. As interest in the monarchy wanes among the wider public a few out of touch MPs are doing their best to shore up its support.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron lend his support to the MPs plan to rename the tower to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The move was proposed by the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood and supported by former foreign secretaries Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind “in recognition of Her Majesty’s 60 years of unbroken public service on behalf of her country.”

Smith said the MPs’ cynical attempt was probably to ingratiate themselves with the monarchy in the hope of a gong, or to draw away attention from more important public issues. “Whatever the reason the parliament is for the people, not for the royals.”

He also urged the MPs to pay more attention to their own constituents, rather than bowing “in front of the most privileged woman in the country.”

SAB/GHN/HE

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