By David Crowe

Copyright brisbanetimes

This seems wise because Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in a political fight to revive support for his flagging government on issues such as wages, migration, health and education. At the gathering of about 20,000 people at the Liverpool conference, he has no time for a debate on a republic.

What Ritchie wants, however, is a series of smaller steps to increase the power of the parliament and scale back the King’s sway over the country.

This includes changing the oath of allegiance for new MPs so they could swear allegiance to the people who elected them, rather than the King, his heirs and successors. Another change would be to scrap the “royal prerogative” that allows the monarch to act without the consent of parliament.

A third reform would be to control royal expenditure, so that the royal family’s budget would resemble that of any other arm of government and perhaps be brought under tighter restraints.

But of the ultimate removal of the monarch? “It will be a thing that takes time,” he says.

“We have a long way to go, but in a sense, the debate hasn’t started. And you can point to other big changes that take time. How many thought that the Berlin Wall would fall? Look at the environmental movement – how fast did it move to become mainstream?”