Such a contentious issue. I am an ardent anti-Monarchist/Royalist and it has arisen out of the reading of our history. Although the monarchy can now be said to have had its teeth pulled when it comes to power ‘we’ still have to swear allegiance to the Queen or reigning monarch. Why?? She doesn’t know me and I don’t know her (personally). If I had to join the Air Force again I wouldn’t be able to do it because I would not swear fealty to the Queen. My country, yes, no problem. I would die for my country but not a reigning monarch. It is also time to get rid of the dirge that is the national Anthem, which, as far as I am led to believe, is the only national anthem to a person and not the country.
People defer to these ‘Royals’ because they are the closest things to fairy tales as it’s possible to get. A mystique, the ‘blue blood’ some sort of hotline to Big G, the castles, riches. All very Hans Christian Anderson. The pomp, the ceremony. The Plebs love it. Prince’s and Princesses and they all lived happily ever after. The lovers of the Royals secretly aspire to be just like them. Part of that elite. The top tier. As a tourist asset, fine, and the Queen has been a paragon of duty but being a pragmatist I know there will never be another republic whilst the great unwashed love all that B.S.
The fact that they ‘own’ vast tracts of the country, which has been passed down historically for over a thousand years seems to have been forgotten. Get them sold off to the state. The reasons they are there has come from a lust for power, the gaining of land, the murders, the plots and intrigue, the elitism, the ‘Divine’ Right of Kings etc and people still defer to the monarchy???
You can’t help what you’re born and I’m sure that Will and Harry are more in touch with the populace than many of the rest of the ‘family’ and are genuinely nice people but that’s all they are. People, like the rest of us.
One of the posts mentioned the Germans. Well, if you claim to be Anglo Saxon then you have German/Teutonic blood. The Angles, Saxon, Jutes arrived from Northern Germany after the Romans left from the 5th century onwards and were followed by the Vikings and Normans (who were Vikings who settled in France. Normans i.e Northmen). Our collective DNA over the centuries would encompass parts of all of those invaders from Europe.
I came back from Australia recently and I was surprised to hear that they’re not a republic having thought they had been for ages. Why? For the same reasons I’ve stated above.
What I would like to see is an ‘Opt Out’ feature that is becoming so prevalent these days. Opt out of having to swear allegiance to the Queen, Opt out to anything that might have ‘Royal’ association.
Be honest, there’s a certain snobbery, isn’t there, when talking to foreigners and Royal is mentioned in a conversation - the ‘Royal’ mail, the ‘Royal’ Navy, the ‘Royal’ Mint and any word with ‘Royal’ preceding it?? Brings that certain aloofness, supercilious arrogance, that ‘we English’ are better than ‘you’!! As if we have been imbued with ‘Royalness’ ourselves just by the mentioning of it. I’ve seen and been privy to it first-hand having served my country but it isn’t just the preserve of the armed forces, just more intense, if it can believed, than most of the rest of the country.
A monarchy, unfortunately, will continue whilst people are brainwashed by all the trimmings of what it means to be ‘Royal’. Vive La Republique!!!
