In a recent conversation with ChatGPT5, what started as a simple thought - that Parliament behaves much like the monarchies it replaced - quickly evolved. The first piece looks at how we might fix what’s broken. The second wonders whether the system itself is beyond repair. Together they chart the journey from reform to reinvention - and maybe, to what comes after.
The Crown Without a Crown
Parliament is theatre. We’re told its democracy, but what it really offers is monarchy in drag: a handful of people in suits playing at sovereignty while keeping power fenced off from the rest of us. Swap the party colours, the script stays the same.
In the past, kings were toppled not by petitions or polite handovers, but by people who organised, rebelled and rewrote the rules of power itself. The question today: what is our equivalent?
Beyond Cosmetic Change
Let’s stop pretending that another party in charge is the solution. Swapping courtiers doesn’t dissolve the crown. If we want real democracy, the remedies must be radical:
- Liquid Democracy - No permanent politicians at all. Every citizen delegates their vote to someone they trust and can revoke it instantly. Representation becomes fluid, accountable and impossible to hoard.
- Rotating Governance – No careers in power. Leadership drawn by lot, like jury duty, for fixed short stints. You serve, then you go home. Authority becomes a civic chore, not a lifelong entitlement.
- Blockchain Governance – Immutable, transparent records of every vote, every policy, every deal. No room for spin, no room for hidden hands. The ledger replaces the whip.
- Dismantle Westminster Itself – Stop pumping power into a 1,000-year-old institution built to centralise control. Build a distributed model: dozens of regional and citizen assemblies, federated together. No single throne to fight over.
- Universal Participation – Not just the right to vote, but the obligation to contribute. Every citizen required to cast votes, propose ideas, and deliberate on public matters. A democracy that can’t be slept through.
From Here to There
- Withhold Consent – Stop pretending the current system is legitimate. Refuse to dress monarchy as democracy. Call it what it is: a closed club with costumes.
- Prototype New Systems in Parallel – Don’t wait for Parliament to reform itself. Build local, digital, decentralised assemblies now. Run them alongside the old order until they make it irrelevant.
- Mass Opt-Out – Withdraw from the game. Stop voting for more of the same. Redirect energy into citizen-led platforms, boycotts of party politics and shadow institutions.
- Reclaim Power, Not Just Influence – The old revolutions weren’t about being heard - they were about being obeyed. The twenty-first century equivalent is refusing to comply with institutions that do not comply with us.
The Call
Parliament isn’t broken - it’s functioning exactly as designed: to keep control out of your hands. The monarchies of old were toppled when people realised the crown only had power if they believed in it.
So stop believing. Stop playing their game. Build the new system alongside the old. Refuse to lend legitimacy to the theatre.
The next revolution won’t be fought with swords. It will be fought with networks, coordination and mass refusal.
The throne is empty the moment we decide it is.
Parliament Is Dead. What Comes Next?
Parliament is a pantomime. We’re told it is democracy, but it functions as monarchy in drag: a court of elites shuffling chairs, hoarding power and reciting lines written centuries ago.
Every four years we are invited to “choose” - between two factions of the same guild. It’s a ritual of consent, not of control. The crown may be gone, but the throne is very much alive.
If the monarchies of old were broken by force, what is the 21st-century equivalent? It will not be another election, another party, another reshuffle of courtiers. The answer is more radical: to replace governance itself.
Radical Possibilities for a Post-Parliament World
- AI as Civic Infrastructure
Not politicians, not parties. A network of transparent, open-source AI systems designed only to implement the collective will. Citizens vote directly on outcomes, AI executes logistics. Policy becomes code, not compromise. - Global Cloud Republic
Borders are obsolete online. Why should governance be localised to geography? Communities of interest - financial, cultural, ethical - could form digital polities with their own constitutions. You join, you leave, you choose. Nation-states become optional. - Civic Jury Duty 2.0
Every citizen is randomly called to serve in governance - a few weeks a decade, in deliberative pods assisted by AI. No careers, no permanent rulers. Authority is rotation, not possession. - Transparent Ledgers of Power
Every resource, decision, and law tracked on decentralised ledgers. No hidden deals, no lobbying in shadows. Power becomes traceable - every influence visible. If you can’t audit it, it doesn’t exist. - Economic Democracy
Why stop at Parliament? Replace corporations too. Citizens and workers as co-owners of capital, with algorithmically enforced voting rights on how resources are used. Power flows through capital; democracy must flow there too.
How We Get There
- Declare the Old Order Illegitimate
Stop pretending Parliament is democracy. Treat it as what it is: theatre. Withdraw faith, withdraw participation, withdraw consent. - Build Shadow Systems
Prototype digital democracies, AI governance models, and federated citizen assemblies now. Run them in parallel until the old system is irrelevant. - Mass Exodus From the Game
Refuse to vote for courtiers. Refuse to lobby monarchs. Build and shift energy into parallel networks until Westminster governs nobody but itself. - Seize the Narrative
Revolutions don’t start with weapons; they start with belief. Speak of Parliament in the past tense. Talk of monarchy as still alive. Show people the emperor’s clothes are gone.
The Call
This is not about Labour, or Tory, or left, or right. It is about something more fundamental: whether the people will continue to be governed by relics of feudal power dressed in democratic costume, or whether we will govern ourselves.
The monarchies of old fell when people realised crowns were just metal hats. Parliament will fall the moment we decide its rituals are just noise.
The next revolution will not be televised. It will be streamed, forked, open-sourced and impossible to stop.
The throne is already empty. It only rules because we bow to it.