So the fighter jets have flown over Buckingham Palace to salute the royal nuptials between Williams and Kate. It is symbolic of the pomp, majesty and military of this occasion along with the traditional chaste kiss between the newly weds on the balcony. The cheers and whoops of joy from the crowd watching this fairy tale event unfolding.
What it also represents is sick-making opulence, tradition set in aspic and greed. Monarchy based on hereditary, succession and birth right where the masses prop them up in the lap of luxury and fine palaces through public money. The royals sure are work shy benefit scroungers. And anyway with the royal family’s track record of faithfulness and fidelity (and aint it obligatory to have a mistress?) this could end in tears cos you know everyone marveled at the sight of Di and Charles and their fair tale day not knowing that the groom was thinking about this mistress…..
I mean, 30 odd years ago I supported the royal family, I was a keen royalist along with being brought up in the CofE religion. I was 11 at the time. What I remember 30 years ago was the excitement. Even I got up at the crack of dawn in anticipation to see the dress and just to gawp at the wedding of the century on television. I can’t remember whether there was a street party (there was one during the silver jubilee) but after watching the event I went out to play football. Though in saying all that I felt I had witnessed history in making (well, kinda true considering the unhappiness and hype those two created). I doubt if I could ever imagined that by the time I was 13 I would be an atheist and anti-monarchy. During that period in 1981 the impending doomed royal wedding was to distract us from those economic woes, who cares if the taxpayer paying for the wedding between two dynastic royal inbreds to carry on their blood line. Thatcher was PM, there was social unrest, unemployment, recession and the racist ‘sus law. Living next door to Handsworth I remember the riots too. Also those balmy summer days are remembered as in September I was off to secondary school.
Thirty years on and there’s similar wedding fever. Discussions by history bods like Simon Schama about whether we “are less of a deferent society” and that the celebrations highlight a “communal spirit”. A backdrop of austerity with the wedding rallying the masses in a kind of blitz spirit. Ugh. And everywhere I look there’s a string of Union Jacks But watching the aerial pictures of people thronging the streets of central London the numbers weren’t the same from 1981 and there doesn’t seem to the same support. Do people give a damn? Watch a bit of it on the telly and also pleased they have a day off? The adrenalin fueled drama and excitement isn’t the same as 1981. Thankfully.
While we are distracted by this traditional bourgeois “God save the Queen” patriarchal ceremony ordinary people planning peaceful protests against the waste-of-money blue-blood event and highlighting what these parasites represent in this deferential society were arrested in the run up to the wedding. Hideous! It comes across as something out of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report, anyone protesting with an anti-establishment flavour was arrested under various anti-democratic legislation and the cops have so much to choose from (thanks New Labour!). Also shows the continued criminalisation of protest and being able to express those views. This is a worrying precedent.
Rather than oohing and ahhing about the Kate’s simple dress worry about the right of protest being destroyed. I don’t remember arrests being made in 1981 during the run up to the election.
I long to see this society go republic where the royals are sold off to the highest bidder maybe some casino owner in Las Vegas (the Kennedy’s aren’t so prevalent in the States any longer and well, if they need a new feudal inspired royalty then look no further than the House of Windsor) and the castles and palaces will be renovated to become social housing and all the other gems and crowns will be publicly owned and/or given back to the country they were stolen from during the empire.
Long live the republic!
I always subscribed to the theory that a nation that requires a hereditary head of state is clearly still immature and not developed. I mean, would you want a doctor or a surgeon to inherit the post of their mother or father as qualification, or would you want some proven ability?
I have nothing personal against the “Firm”, save their arrogance and their self-pitying; i don’t know any of them to have an opinion, and the chances of me becoming chummy is somewhat remote!
I just think it is high time we moved on from this national attitude of subjection, and started being citizens – preferably of the world and not some relatively small island off the coast of mainland Europe.
Keep it up Sister; you know I love you and your forthright opinions. xxx
Ye see yon birkie, ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that;
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that:
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His ribband, star, an’ a’ that:
The man o’ independent mind
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.
Who are these people who get more than their fair share by merely being born in the right place?
It’s funny how this sort of hooey is sustainable, but looking after disabled children is “unsustainable.”
Things that are really unsustainable are the Royal family, Trident, Dumb wars, throwing fantastic amounts of money at bankers, private pay for public positions etc. There’s the alternative.