{"id":355662,"date":"2026-01-06T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/355662\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:17:08","slug":"the-monarchys-lack-of-transparency-requires-constitutional-change-monarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/355662\/","title":{"rendered":"The monarchy\u2019s lack of transparency requires constitutional change | Monarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Anna Whitelock asks pertinent questions about the conduct of the monarchy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/dec\/30\/charles-cancer-royal-family-finances-monarchy-transparency\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The royal family is edging toward modernity \u2013 but in 2026, the public will expect yet more transparency, 30 December<\/a>). But her analysis of the extent to which royals avoid taxation, scrutiny, equality and accountability surely demonstrates that their lack of transparency is an issue requiring constitutional remedy. It ought not to be a matter of personal discretion for the sovereign to \u201cembrace openness and accountability\u201d. Relying on royal magnanimity responding to adverse public opinion in order to let in some \u201cdaylight\u201d seems both inadequate and archaic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The British monarchy has relied for too long on its opaque arrangements, with government underwriting the \u201clittle known\u201d facts of its undemocratic operations. Recent crises have exposed more starkly than usual the troubling inadequacies of this relationship with the state. The Andrew-Epstein scandal underlines the case for making the royal family answerable more directly to parliament and even for codifying moral and ethical principles by which they can be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Moreover, when royal conduct is shameful but hidden from scrutiny by protocol, the celebrated \u201creverence\u201d and \u201cmagic\u201d that protects it is more than quaint fantasy; it becomes an affront to democratic principle.<br \/>Paul McGilchrist <br \/>Cromer, Norfolk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anna Whitelock asks pertinent questions about the conduct of the monarchy (The royal family is edging toward modernity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-355662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}