The reign in Spain

Interesting news yesterday, the King of Spain (Juan Carlos) has decided to abdicate and hand over the Spanish throne to his son (Felipe). Spain has no specific laws to cover such a scenario and the Government there are rushing through legislation that enables the accession to happen. It's a shame that this seems to be a matter of process and not approval, the Spanish people have a golden opportunity to re-evaluate the purpose and desirability of a medieval institution in the 21st century. You would have thought that with all of the recent Iberian economic woes and the reported excesses of this unelected family (elephant hunting in Botswana) that the time should have come to seriously reconsider upgrading the whole shebang to a republic with an elected and accountable president. This is no guarantee of clean living and stellar representation of course but (with a proper constitution) at least you can get rid of a president at the ballot box without too much trouble. This situation is very relevant to our own monarchy of course, Queen Elizabeth II is reaching an age when she will need to step down and hand over the palace keys to Prince Charles. I doubt whether the suckers subjects who fund this glittering circus will get any say in it, we'll just stump up the cash, buy coronation tea pots and wave our little flags as usual; no one will ask why.

In my experience people who receive wealth and power without having to earn it seldom value it and no matter what invisible friends they think they may have, human beings tend not to be exceptional, special or superior to anyone else unless they put the effort in.