A NEW poll commissioned by the UK Government is to ask 175,000 people to give their opinion on the royal family.
The Daily Mirror reports that the survey will see ordinary voters questioned on what they believe the role of the monarchy should be.
Households from across the UK will be randomly selected to take part in the exercise and the results of the poll are to be relayed to senior members of the royal family.
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People surveyed are being asked: “What do you think should be the main role of the monarchy in the UK?”
Participants will be able to choose one option which will include:
- To undertake a constitutional role as head of state (Such as opening each new session of Parliament)
- To support and encourage public service and charitable sectors
- To recognise and support the armed forces
The Mirror also reports that other choices will include “to be supreme governor of the Church of England,” “to provide a sense of continuity and act as a focus for national identity, unity and pride,” “to promote the UK abroad” and to “recognise exceptional achievement by issuing honours”.
We told last month how research from Savanta found more than a third of people want to replace King Charles (below) with an elected head of state.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has commissioned pollster Verian to ask about the monarchy as part of a wider survey.
Other questions will include how often people visit a library, whether or not they have listened to a podcast in the past year and whether or not they have a smart speaker in their house.
The exercise will be completed by the end of March with people who take part given a £10 shopping voucher as a thank you which will mean an overall cost of £1.75 million.
Reacting to the news on Twitter/X, SNP MP John Nicolson said: "Seems like a ludicrous waste of money."
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The Government published some early results last week with the responses from people who took part in the survey between July and September, but details of what was said about the role of the monarchy was excluded.
It’s been reported that these are due to be released in the summer.
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