What more and more citizens may also be doing is looking at countries whose monarchies are on a rather smaller scale - Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark for instance - and even those that have, along the way, dispensed with Royalty, like Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Portugal, where the last but one King was assassinated, along with his son.
That event, along with the proclamation of the First Republic two years later, was against a backdrop of economic instability and poverty. Not that the grovelling press pack of the UK wants to consider such details: instead, today has brought a collective attack of gaslighting, but one which their audience may finally see through. We are being instructed to swear allegiance.
From the Sunday Brexit, still called the Express, telling us “KING’S SOLEMN VOW TO SERVE US ALL … Millions watching Coronation invited to pledge allegiance”, to the Murdoch Sunday Times, with “Archbishop will ask millions to pledge allegiance to their King … Coronation to feature ‘homage of the people’”, the message is clear. And the Mail on Sunday trowels it on.
“In historic break with centuries of tradition that will turn Charles’ big day into the People’s Coronation … WE ARE ALL INVITED TO SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING” thunders the headline. Who is he, Kim Jong-un? That creepy personality cult vibe, together with more fawning publicity shots of the Waleses, gives the unmistakable impression of an empty façade.
On goes the MoS: “For the first time in history, every citizen of the UK and all the other nations of which the monarch is head of state will be asked to 'make their homage in heart and voice to their undoubted King'. The trailblazing move will make the ceremony more of a 'People's Coronation', as previously only members of the aristocracy were called upon to make such a pledge”.
For those who dissent from the North Korea tendency, the Mail has followed up with the typically threatening headline “How YOU can pledge allegiance to King Charles on Saturday: Millions watching ceremony on TV will be invited to join vow - but spoilsport anti-monarchy critics say they will refuse to join in”. Then comes a vindictive attack on Professor Priyamvada Gopal.
Not that it’s because she’s not white, of course - perish the thought! It’s just another of those sheer coincidences that see the Mail titles publish one bad faith tirade after another directed at the Duchess of Sussex, the papers employing a whole host of bottom feeding practitioners of yellow journalism to trash Haz and Megs while fawning sycophantically over the Working Royals.
Maybe some will join in and repeat “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God … God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the King live for ever” as commanded. But while the member for times long past Jacob Rees Mogg gushed “It will be a brilliant expression of our fealty - every loyal subject will want to do this”, he misses the obvious: we are no longer subjects.
And so we no longer pay fealty. Moreover, more and more of those no-longer-subjects may look instead at the Coronation’s £250 million price tag, or the Observer warning “Rituals that people no longer believe in can easily come to seem problematic as well as ridiculous”, rather than obediently join in.
The monarchy was for a time, but maybe not for all time. That is all.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
17 comments:
The article is getting a bollocking from the commentariat.
"Fealty". In 2023. Jesus wept. Watch them forehead-knuckle in the Gnome Counties.
See "The Invention of Tradition" edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (University Press, Cambridge, 1983).
Swear allegiance? They can hadaway and shite.
Mrs Bertie and I have always harboured suspicions about any kings of the non-pearly kind (especially those given to polluting their billets-doux with uncalled for references to a lady's 'Monthly Visitor') so we will be eschewing any rolling out of barrels or pledges of fealty next Saturday.
And 'may he live for ever'? Really? His dear mother, God bless her, decided that 96 years was quite adequate, as did her handsome Corfiot Consort.
Can't see too many folk in South Armagh or West Belfast swearing allegiance to the Crown. Come to think of it they'll hardly be watching the coronation either.
If Jug-Ears is really going to “serve us all”, will he expect tips?
So the Pax Mafiosa continues.....
The monarchist and the republican cases are both rubbish, but the monarchy is what we have. Monarchists claim that the monarchy embodies things that they spend the rest of their time complaining are not there, backed up by fanciful suggestions about tourism and about soft power. Republicans claim that a republic would be a step towards the classless incorruption that characterised no existing republic in the world, backed up by a fatuous remark about hereditary surgeons, as if there would be elected surgeons. The case for the status quo is weak, but the case for change has not been made.
The last person to win a General Election was Boris Johnson, so republicans must want him as Head of State. There would have to be a nomination process. Candidates would certainly require nomination by one tenth of the House of Commons, 65 MPs, and very probably by one fifth of that House, 130 MPs. Even in the first instance, in the wildly unlikely event of more than two candidates, then the House would whittle them down to the two who would then be presented to the electorate. Almost certainly, only two parties are ever going to have 65 MPs. Certainly, only two are ever going to have 130. In practice, they would probably arrange to alternate the Presidency between them.
Nor should those of us who strived for economic equality and for international peace wish to abolish the Royal Prerogative. Rather, we should be working for someone of our mind to exercise it, and to do so in its fullness. No one like that would ever make it onto the ballot paper for President.
Meanwhile, researchers have discovered that the Venn diagram of people who will enthusiastically swear allegiance to the King, and people who want the Navy to sink small boats in the channel, is a circle.
https://newsthump.com/2023/04/30/nation-invited-to-swear-allegiance-to-the-king-rsvps-fk-no/
Congratulations, David! With this:
“The last person to win a General Election was Boris Johnson, so republicans must want him as Head of State”
you have a strong candidate for Non-Sequitur of the Year.
Strove.
And it's not just the King, but also Prince Andrew (and to your heirs and successors).
We have indeed stepped backwards. Nearly sixty years ago, the likes of Croft & Perry and Johnny Speight openly took the piss out of ardent monarchists and the saluting and standing to attention via the pomposity and servitude of the likes of Capt Mainwaring and Alf Garnett. And now, we're expected to do likewise, only outside the confines of a sitcom!
In the immortal words of Galvatron, this coronation is "bad comedy".
A surgeon is accountable to the management of their hospital and to the general medical council. A malpractising surgeon can be sacked, struck off or even convicted of criminal offenses. Who is your King accountable to?
@23:24, as Tony Benn repeatedly said:
1. “What power have you got?”
2. “Where did you get it from?”
3. “In whose interests do you use it?”
4. “To whom are you accountable?”
5. “How do we get rid of you?”
“More than the monarchy fanbois let on”, “my mum”, “me and mine”, “certainly not you, you ghastly little oik” and “ROFL!!1!” are not really acceptable answers in the 21st century.
18:00.
What an odd post.
No "royal" of "our mind" has ever "exercised it in its fullness" because there is not, never has been, and never will be any such "royal". Not on your jolly old "holy oil" and other divinity rites.
If Gough Whitlam was still alive you could ask him why. Meanwhile, I'd take my chances with a democratic republic and constitution - flaws and all.
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