This House Believes that the United Kingdom Ought to Dissolve the Monarchy

Rebuttal 1: Powers of the MonarchyThe Military powers are very similar to the US President's power, and hardly count as bad. The others are, however, unsupportable. The Crown could try to do those things, but won't succeed. Parliaments voice is still supreme above the Crown. In the end, those powers are only there because they aren't used, but as Parliament has shown before, if the Crown were to use any of those powers, Parliament would either ignore it or dismantle the right of the Crown to do it. Pro is concerned about powers that the Monarchy can't actually use. Any attempt by the Monarchy to exercise the powers wouldn't be taken seriously by Parliament, and would more likely lead to Parliament overwriting the power.Since the 1900's, the Crown has required the advice of a Prime Minister or the Cabinet before it can enact anything (1).Pro brings in the Crowns vetoing power. This is a very common power among current Government Officials in almost every Democracy in the world. The President also has Veto power. The Crown using a veto power isn't an abuse. If the Crown has only done this 39 times in the last Decade, they are better then most US presidents. Clinton Vetoed 37 bills in 8 years, George Bush vetoed 44. Reagan vetoed 78. Franklin Roosevelt vetoed 600+ in his 4 terms (2).1) http://en.wikipedia.org...2) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...Rebuttal II: Costs of the CrownPro's argue is lacking understanding... That isn't the people's money... That's a small percent of the Queens revenue. The Crown brings in £240 million in revenue for the State (3). The Crown costs the people nothing. Everything they get comes out of the profits of their estate. The Royal Family get only 15% of their income back, while the UK Government keeps the rest. The UK earns money by having the crown around.(4)As for the billions in assets owned by the Family... That's just that. They are owned by the family, not the State. The crown jewels and the estates, they actually belong to the Monarchy. While the Monarchy doesn't have a lot of power over them right now, if the State were to demolish the Crown, they would have to return any property that belonged to the Queen's family. If you demolished the Monarchy, they would still keep their property. Taking it would be theft, and illegal. The land and jewels cost the people nothing, they are already paid for. The Monarchy pays for their estate themselves out of the £35.3 million they get in return for the £250 million they bring in. Instead, you would lose £250 million in profits.The Crown doesn't cost the people billions in Pounds. Their £6.6 billion in Estate is't costing £6.6 billion a year. They costed what, today, amounts to £6.6 billion over centuries of collecting, and most of that cost came from inflation and antiquity, not the cost of purchase. The Estate brings roughly £2.5 billion into the economy (5). Pro believes this would continue without the Monarchy, but it wouldn't. The revenue exist only because the Estates belong to the Crown. If the Estates were no longer royal, than there would be much less interest in them.3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk...4) http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk...5) http://brandfinance.com...Rebuttal III: Advantages Of Crown DissolutionThis assume the Crown can even abuse their power. Vetoing is the closest the Crown comes to abusing any power... But they aren't. This is no more an abuse of power than the President vetoing a bill. As for costs, the State wouldn't save billions because they didn't spend billions to begin with. They would save £35 million a year, but lose £250 million a year. The tourism income isn't just from taxation. The income is actually the entirety of all the income the Crown earns.As for the Crown's own personal freedom, I do not believe they are too concern about the mild inconvenience...Conclusion: There is no reasonable benefit to the extreme costs and efforts needed to restructure the Government to exist without the Monarchy, and the Government would only lose money doing so.