The British people like the Monarchy. get used to it, and fight that battles that matter.
Is Sunder Katwala right when he says:
“British Republicanism is perhaps the least successful political project of my lifetime.”?
While we have recently seen such pie-in-the-sky policies as nationalisation of the banks enacted, and Conservatives quoting Polly Toynbee on equality, I would still reserve the title for efforts to get the UK out of the EU – given the vast reserves of wealth and media propaganda put into the struggle.
But, given that there have been republicans around in this country since before this country was a country, the numbers are staggering. Four recent surveys point to solid support for the Monarchy:
While there are variations in the questioning between the Ipsos-Mori poll (2011), the ICM polls (2011 and 2009) and the GFK NOP (2007), the “monarchist answer” is given by between 63 and 78 per cent, while the “republican answer” is given by between 18 per cent. These figures have barely moved in more than 15 years.
Monarchy is impossible to square with belief in equality of outcome, opportunity or capabilities. And, as official royal powers are passed de facto to the Prime Minister, there is concern for what Tony Benn called the ‘Penumbra of power”. But, in a wierd way, it works.
There are problems that progressives must face that affect people more directly, and something can be done about. We have welfare reform being carried out by a ministerial team that plays up to the worst prejudices of the tabloid press. A health reform, concocted by political elites in collaboration with think tanks funded by some of the American private health care companies that opposed President Obama’s healthcare reforms, that will let free market dogma run riot within the NHS. And the imminent reversal of any progress on child poverty made over recent years.
So put your feet up, put a union jack paper hat on your head and enjoy the show. And when the royal wedding’s done and dusted, fight the battles that matter.
40 Responses to “Verdict of the British people: “Long to reign over us””
James Bloodworth
Engels on Kate Middleton: “The English bourgeoisie are so deeply penetrated by a sense of social inferiority that they keep up, at their own expense, an ornamental caste of drones to represent the nation at state functions; and consider themselves honored whenever one of themselves is found worthy of admission into this select and privileged body, manufactured, after all, by themselves.”
Simon London
@James Bloodworth
No. Race is not a social construct. Society is a racial construct.
And of course races have different capabilities. For example, East Africans excel at endurance running, sub-saharan Negroes excel at sprinting and Queensbury rules boxing (thicker skulls), Northern Europeans are more intelligent than either, Pygmies and Australian Aborigines are the least intelligent by far, Ashkenazi Jews are on average more intelligent than any other racial group, the English are more individualistic than other Northern Europeans etc. etc. etc.
These are plain facts James.
And of course within any nation or society, some people are stronger, more intelligent, etc..
Equality (whether between races or within them) is impossible, and an ignoble aim.
Patrick Ward
Which “nation” was that “Mr Sensible,” since there is no British nation, which of the nations of the UK of Gt Britain and N.Ireland are you referring? Perhaps you’re just using the ConDem/Blair/Brown false construct of One Nation, or perhaps, you mean the English nation and dismiss the nations of the “Celtic fringe” are irrelevant!
Before you likewise dismiss me too as irrelevant, I should point out that I lived and worked in mainly Oxford and London from 1970 to 1999, have many English friends, and that I also bear no illwill against the “Queen of England’s” grandson or his bride, but actually wish them well as I would any newlyweds at the start of their life together.
However, I do resent the over-effusive fawning toadyism of the editors and reporters of the newsmedia of Britain, such as the BBC, who could only muster a total of 2 minutes of real news and 2 minutes of weather in a 30 minute programme on tonight’s News at 6!
DrKMJ
RT @leftfootfwd: Verdict of the British people: "Long to reign over us" : http://bit.ly/jlb8Q7 writes Daniel Elton
Jack
It’s weird, not wierd. That is all