It's not that I think a Republic is an unbeatable form of government (I'm not a huge fan of representative democracy as The Only Answer for that matter), but I think it's a stage the UK needs to get to as a necessary precondition of further evolution. There's such a huge democratic deficit under the current system, and I also have a dim view of landlords/rentier capitalism for much the same reasons that Adam Smith did.

Britain has a very vibrant and creative culture which has led to lots of great technical innovation in the past, but there are too many perverse incentives in place under the existing system for it flourish, in my view.