Reply To: To be pro monarchy

[Gurnelista]

It seems that many of the doffers love the idea of royalty, rather than the practicalities of it.

They like the ceremony, the history, the pomp and symbolism, the fascination it inspires in foreigners, and the comforting role it has in their own sense of national identity and even their sense of self.

But it’s a romantic notion, it’s an illusion, a myth, and that makes it a bit like religion. Or Brexit. Remove the curtain, let in the daylight, and there’s nothing more than an empty box… just a trick played on one’s imagination.

It just doesn’t withstand scrutiny. A very extended family of ludicrously wealthy and privileged individuals – not just the immediate royal family but all the (en)titled hangers on – the dukes, duchesses, lords, ladies, barons, baronesses etc. and all their offspring … a landed gentry going back to 1066 who still own most of this country, almost all there by accident of birth.

Thanks to the taxpayer, most lead very sheltered, privileged and protected lives, yet remain unskilled. And what exactly do they do, that elected representatives could not do? Some have behaved appallingly but continue to get away with it. True, a few get involved with charities, but then what’s charity but a 19th century concept, created to cover a failure of government responsibility and absolve the consciences of the rich. It papers over the cracks and places responsibility on the backs of the little people.

But what’s worse is that they proudly sit atop the pile, at the head of a class system that silently tells people that some folk (them) are naturally better and more deserving than others – the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate – and even how their aristocratic estate and good fortune was ordained by God! (How else could it happen?)

And here’s another thing. Those who believe most fervently in the present state of affairs are the ones the royals most despise, because they know how ridiculous the whole thing is, and how stupid the doffers are to go along with it, with their cardboard crowns, tea towels, biscuit tins and of course, mugs…

Will the country ever awaken and be woke from its national psychosis? Just before posting this I see John Harris thinks it will, but people were predicting the same back in 1997 and probably 1967… the madness of crowds is a strange thing.