GREENS MSP Maggie Chapman has been confirmed as a speaker in an upcoming republican event.
The event in Edinburgh, entitled Scotland’s Republican Future, has been organised by campaign group Our Republic on November 12 and will see politicians and activists take part in a panel discussion on what Scotland could look like if it did away with the royal family.
Convener Tristan Gray said he was keen to “move the debate on” and talk about how society could be transformed in a variety of ways in Scotland if the monarchy was ditched.
Equalities minister and SNP MSP Emma Roddick, SNP councillor Fatima Joji, Iain Ramsay from the Celtic League and Suzanne McLaughlin from Women for Independence are set to partake in the debate at Augustine United Church, with Chapman now having confirmed she will be speaking too.
She said: “I’m very pleased to be able to contribute to the discussions about what a republican Scotland could look like, and I thank Our Republic for organising this important event.
"I am a republican and a democrat. I believe that we should elect our leaders, and that they should be accountable to the people they serve. Having an unelected head of state who reigns over subjects is incompatible with this principle.
"There is a fundamental democratic deficit at the heart of the British state. An unelected monarch, in place purely by accident of birth, with the wealth and protections that centuries of privilege have produced, should not have a role to play in a democratic nation in the 21st century.
"With independence, Scotland should develop a new written constitution through a democratic process. This will ensure our country is an independent republic based on participatory, local democracy, where political leaders are always elected through proportional representation. Power should always be accountable to the people."
The panel is set to discuss not only the benefits of getting rid of the monarchy but what Scotland could look like after that happens. For example, how it might elect its own head of state and what powers they would have, as well as how the concept of an institution like the monarchy has seeped into other areas of society and how a republican system could do better.
Our Republic vice-convener John Hall will lead the debate.
To find out more about the Our Republic event, click here.
