NS Debate | Is it time for Britain to abolish its monarchy – Online
Sat 6 May - Mon 29 May 2023
Recorded at Spring Festival 2023
The death of the Queen, followed by Harry and Meghan’s revelations, marked a turning point for the royal family. On the eve of the coronation of King Charles, six speakers will tackle the critical question: is the monarchy an essential source of stability in troubled times? Or is it a distraction and a financial burden – an institution long past its sell by date?
Speaking for the motion
Tanya Gold is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively on the royal family.
Anna Whitelock is a historian, author and Professor of the History of Monarchy at City, University of London.
Gary Younge is a journalist, author, broadcaster and academic whose most recent book is Dispatches from the Diaspora.
Speaking against the motion
Robert Hardman is a journalist and author specialising in the monarchy. His most recent book is Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II.
Andrew Marr is a broadcaster, author and the New Statesman’s political editor. His books include Elizabethans.
Tanjil Rashid is a freelance journalist and filmmaker. He has recently produced documentaries on the war in Ukraine, ISIS and US politics, and writes for The FT, The Guardian, The Times, The Spectator, and The Washington Post.
Venue: Online
Duration: 1hr 30mins
In partnership with
Tickets available soon.
Speaker biography
Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. Formerly a columnist and an editor-at-large at the Guardian, he is an editorial board member of The Nation magazine. He is the author of five books, including Another Day in the Death of America (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Jhalak Prize); his writing has appeared in Granta, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the New Statesman and beyond, and he has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit. He lives in London.
Anna Whitelock is a historian, author and broadcaster. She is Professor of the History of Monarchy at City, University of London and Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy. Anna is an international media commentator on monarchy, public history and heritage, and the Tudors and Stuarts. She is the Principal Investigator on a major AHRC project: The Visible Crown: Queen Elizabeth II in the Caribbean: 1952-present.
Tanya Gold is an awarding-winning freelance journalist. She lives in west Cornwall.
Andrew Marr was born in Glasgow in 1959. He studied English at the University of Cambridge and has since enjoyed a long career in political journalism, working for the Scotsman, the Independent, the Daily Express and the Observer. From 2000 to 2005 he was the BBC’s Political Editor. He has written and presented TV documentaries on history, science and politics, and for many years presented the weekly Andrew Marr Show on Sunday mornings on BBC1 and Start the Week on Radio 4. He left the BBC at the end of 2021 to join LBC, Classic FM and the New Statesman. He lives in London with his family.
Robert Hardman has worked as a national and international journalist for more than 30 years, and is also a leading author, commentator and filmmaker on the Royal Family. His new book, Queen of Our Times, is the definitive new biography of the monarch including contributions from world leaders and unseen royal family papers. It is now an international bestseller and follows previous books including Our Queen (which was also an ITV documentary). His most recent films include Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers (BBC1 2021), for which he interviewed all the Queen’s children and grandchildren, Anne – The Princess Royal At 70 (ITV 2020) and George III – The Genius of the Mad King (BBC2 2017). A former Daily Telegraph diarist, sketch-writer and columnist and an ex-Spectator restaurant critic, he writes the How I See It column in the Daily Mail.
Tanjil Rashid is a freelance journalist and filmmaker. He has recently produced documentaries on the war in Ukraine, ISIS and US politics, and writes for The FT, The Guardian, The Times, The Spectator, and The Washington Post.
Chair biography
Anoosh Chakelian is Britain Editor of the New Statesman, where she covers policy, politics and social affairs across the country, and interviews politicians and other high-profile figures. She hosts the award-winning New Statesman Podcast and co-presents the Westminster Reimagined podcast series with Armando Iannucci. She appears regularly on national media as a commentator on current affairs. Before the New Statesman, she was deputy editor of Total Politics magazine.
