Benjamin, I note that your embrace of "Western Christian values" doesn't include the value of politeness.

Benjamin, I am not knocking you so much for your arguments, but the way you seem to call anyone who has studied in the Humanities, either a fruitcake or a left-wing loonie.

Personally, at my age, with original poor education, who has gained Honours in the subjects you are slating, it makes one regard persons like yourself as needing education far more than those whom you are running down.

Finally, anyone who says the true elements of history can be learnt through modern slipshod methods, which only feed the brain just behind the eyes, Benjamin, is far more likely to finish up as a so-said looney or fruitcake than those who specialise in philosophy or history in our universities.

I remain unconvinced.

This article doesn’t really attempt to show the benefits of an Australian republic. That probably wasn’t its purpose. But the Constitution isn’t going to change before ordinary voters start to see something beneficial in voting for its change.

I’ve lived in three republics overseas, each for more than a year at a time, and visited some others. While these countries weren’t falling apart and the people and their governments weren’t all bad (as opposed to the rantings of some above), I can also see why so many people are aiming to come here. And it is partly for our current political system and its stability.

The author may be right. Change may just naturally come about with time. But I doubt I will live to see it.

Benjamin,

You forgot to mention the British torture of Irish prisoners or of their massacre of defenceless unarmed civilians in India.

Or of the manufacture of evidence against innocent Irish men and women and their subsequent imprisonment.

Or of the Lord Chief Justice of Britain who lamented that had they still had the Death penalty then this tiresome business of having to eventually release those falsely accussed would never have come up.

Ah! Yes, the benefits of a Western slant on things.

The monarchy connects us with New Zealand, with Canada, with Britain, with centuries of cultural heritage, whereas a president would not conect us with anything.

Andrew Leigh quotes Manning Clarke about dividing Australians into enlargers and straighteners: it is the republicans who are the straighteners here.