TOMMY SHERIDAN, SCOTTISH SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN ON THE MONARCHY
Scottish Parliament Archives, Thursday 16 May 2002
The Queen's Golden Jubilee)
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (Scottish Socialist Party):
It may be hard to believe, but the Queen and I have certain things
in common. Some members may recall that a number of years ago I was
condemned as a tax dodger because I refused to pay my poll tax. Now
the Queen has launched her own, one-woman, mass non-payment campaign
by refusing to pay the £20 million inheritance tax that is due on
her estate. I am sure that MSPs - particularly those who condemned me as a
tax dodger for refusing to pay a £300 poll tax bill-will join me in
condemning the Queen as a tax dodger and support my amendment, which
calls on her to stump up the tax that she owes.
I am also sure that many MSPs - especially on the Labour and SNP
benches-are squirming with embarrassment at the sycophantic,
servile, forelock-tugging motion that their party leaders are asking them to
support. Jack McConnell and John Swinney proudly describe themselves
as modernisers. However, any genuine moderniser in the Parliament
would back my amendment, which is about rejecting a feudal
institution that is based on blood, ancestry and inherited privilege
and power.
I will quote what a Scottish Labour politician said about the
Queen's jubilee. He said:
"The throne is the symbol of oppression ... The throne represents
the power of caste. Round the throne gather the unwholesome parasites.
The toady who crawls through the mire of self-abasement to enable
him to bask in the smile of royalty is ... the victim of a diseased
organism".
Those are strong words. They are the words not of Tony Blair but of
Keir Hardie, the founder of Mr McConnell's party. They come from his
speech in 1897 on Queen Victoria's jubilee. Keir Hardie might have
worn a cloth cap and sported a big beard, but he was a real
modernising politician.
Keir Hardie was some 80 years ahead of Johnny Rotten and the Sex
Pistols and more than 100 years ahead of Scotland's four main
leaders today, who in the 21st century still fawn after an institution that
was already well past its sell-by date in the 19th century. The
royal family has a place in modern society, but I suggest that that place
is in Madame Tussaud's or perhaps in the National Museum of Scotland
next to the dinosaurs.
In the Parliament, we have heard moving renditions of songs that are
anthems to democracy and egalitarianism: "A Man's a Man for a'
that", which lampoons royalty and aristocracy, and "The Freedom Come All
Ye", with its vision of a Scottish republic in which all are equal.
Let us not just sing songs about democracy and equality but stand up
for genuine democracy and equality. I ask members to support the
amendment.
I move amendment S1M-3103.1, to leave out from "congratulates" to
end and insert:
"believes that the position of Her Majesty the Queen and the
monarchy represent the worst excesses of the extreme inequality of wealth and
power which undermine society as a whole; calls on Her Majesty the
Queen to pay full inheritance tax on the estate left to Her by Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and believes that
Scotland's future is as an independent republic where the people are
sovereign and are recognised as citizens, not subjects as is the
case currently under our archaic and outdated monarchy arrangement."