So the Queen answered “R U OK” day with an emphatic no.
This is one of those difficult pieces to write because I can understand so many different points of view and I’m firmly in agreement with absolutely none of them… or all of them. I can’t make up my mind. Someone said that if you think people are being disrespectful here, you should hear what the Irish are saying, but if it’s about Charles the Third, that’s just the way they say “third”, so they may not be being disrespectful at all.
Anyway, as I said, I can understand the anger of various people who are saying that the British monarchs have been responsible for the rape and pillage of a large part of the world and the idea that we should be carrying on about the death of a privileged royal who had the good fortune to live into their nineties…
On the other hand, I can understand how the Queen’s death is a shock to some people because like your drunk uncle at Christmas, she seemed to go on forever. Perhaps, her death reminds people of their own mortality. Like when my grandmother died, it’s a shock to have someone who’s always been there, suddenly gone, even though you know that she’s old and it must happen some time in the next few years. It’s still unexpected when the day arrives.
Then there’s the group of people who lap up every column inch of the Royal Family and buy special commemorative, limited edition of two million cups and saucers celebrating some git who’s so far down the chain that one of Phil’s illegitimate children is more likely to claim the throne.
Whatever, I did wonder why there was no other news for a good few days and you’ll be pleased to know that I’m not going to spend any more time dwelling on the Queen. No, not even a satirical piece on the media coverage of every minor detail of her journey from Balmoral to Hollyrood to Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey to King’s Landing to Winterfell to… wherever.
No, I’m more interested in King Chuck because, for the first time in seventy years, there’s been a change in our head of state. While this may lead to some scam artists going round to people’s houses and telling them that they’re from the government and that coins with the Queen’s head are no longer legal tender and they must surrender them, and they’ll be issued with a replacement in due course, there could be other significant changes that lead to Auntie Doris smashing her Royal teacups in shock.
There was a question on one website asking if people thought that Charles should become King or whether he should hand it straight over to William. It seems that people have a lot of trouble with the notion that we’re not talking about a democratic institution here, so it really doesn’t matter what we think.
Which brings me to the idea that we’ll be saying goodbye to Charles the Environmentalist. Now, I’m not going to enter into the argument about whether he’s achieved a lot of good or whether he’s just done a lot of virtue-signalling for that large public relations firm of Royals R Us. I’m simply going to make the observation that he’s a whole new generation and it’s possible that he may not feel bound by all the past protocols.
True, he respected the Royal tradition of bonking a mistress behind his wife’s back for a number of years, but unlike others in his family, he actually married her, turning his back on centuries of tradition.
Mr Dutton has been suggesting that it’s inappropriate for King Charles to be against the destruction of the Earth because our monarch is meant to be politically neutral, but the first Charles lost his head and insisted that he didn’t need to listen to the British Parliament, although not in that order. So with a name like Charles, who knows what this Charles will do?
What will the monarchists do if Charles doesn’t become the silent figurehead who just cuts the odd ribbon and opens the odd fete and puts his name to the odd charity? (Although not so odd that it won’t have an office, a website or a plan before getting $18million from the government…) What if he feels that he has a role to play in loudly encouraging the move toward net zero? Which, after all, in Australia, is a bipartisan policy so it’s hardly controversial.
I mean, it’s not like they can demand we elect a new king.
Although it is possible that Scott Morrison had himself secretly sworn in as an alternative king in case something happened.
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