A READER gets in touch to argue the need for a president, rather than the monarchy and current political system.

THE Queen should abdicate. This is the right time. Not because it would allow a planned transfer and not because of the scandals of cash for honours surrounding Charles or Andrew’s disgrace.

What better time to return the sovereignty promised in Brexit to the people to whom it belongs?

The crown and constitution are no longer an abstraction.

We have a real need for a president, elected by us, now that we have a PM who has and continues to test civil rights, laws and established conventions to the extreme.

There is constitutional outrage surrounding Johnson’s abuses: breaking international laws (deliberately); dumping the ministerial code; stop and search without suspicion and removing citizenship when he feels like it.

The speaker of the Commons has been shown to be powerless against the telling of blatant lies. Elective dictatorship is increasing, powered by a strong majority of MPs shown to be derelict in their duty to us all.

The constitutional problem is not in the monarch’s power. However, presidents around Europe fervently protect their constitutions and guard against politicians breaking the law.

An elected president would and could have stopped the PM illegally proroguing parliament.

Our monarchy has handed all royal prerogative to the prime minister with no checks - apart from the Lords which is almost as weak as the monarch.

There is no brake on a prime minister without a written constitution properly policed by an officer properly elected to do that job. The unelected monarch has to do what the PM says.

Abolishing the monarchy after a seemly abdication would allow us to view every aspect of how we choose to be governed - and how we think of ourselves.

D Duell, Durham.

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