London, England-I switch on the TV and there’s an image of a huge van with a tarpaulin draped over its side covering a delivery of plants to Westminster Abbey that are intended for the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The BBC reporter is animated, expectation peppering his voice as he plays the guessing game of will it or won’t it be the oak trees that have been rumoured to have been ordered to reflect the acorns in the brand new coat of arms that the Middleton's have been granted by the College of Arms. Someone goes to lift the tarp, no - false alarm, seconds pass, more chatter, the tarp is lifted and halleluiah there are oaks! Welcome to the media madness that is now in full force here in the UK.
On Friday morning every person that has ever shined a shoe, brushed the hair of, or sold a flower to a Middleton or Windsor will be paraded in front of the cameras, filling every second of the 24-hour broadcast news cycle with every imaginable minute detail of life of the couple of the moment.
The famed British tabloid press is also holding their own. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve had everything from the mother of the bride’s supposed tiff over the dress she commissioned from royal dressmaker Lindka Cierach, and then decided to cancel, to the free royal mugs, to Charles’ party planner rubbing palace staff up the wrong way with his high handed management of the evening party at Buckingham Palace. But do the British care? I have polled just about every Brit I have been in contact with over the past couple of weeks and fielded opinion from my not insubstantial email list. I submit there is a disconnect between the excitement portrayed and true level of lack of engagement with your average Brit.
Sure you will see about a half a million people lining the wedding route waving their Union Jacks on the day, but they only represent less than one percent of the population. They are the die-hards with not an insignificant number of tourists and passersby that get caught up in the spectacle of the moment.
For decades we have had the republicans who want to do away with a constitutional monarchy. But that would mean replacing the existing parliamentary system with something like a presidency which is abhorrent to many Brits. A lot of this thinking stems from the class envy that has been historically whipped up by politicians, especially the Labour party and most virulently in their last tenure of government. This may explain some of current British sentiment about the monarchy, but it is not the whole story.
Nor does the bellicose Bill O’Reilly in his semi serious claims that the kings ‘stole it (money and land) from the peasants’ hit the mark. One can argue that American settlers did the same to the native Indians. History is littered with ill-gotten gains, bad deals and shafted peoples. We are where we are. It runs deeper than that. The British are in an identity crisis. Half the people in my straw poll said monarchy was important and the main reason was it gave them a sense of heritage, continuity and identity, and a reason to bond with one another. The other half just don’t care.
Thirteen years of Tony Blair’s New Labour has forced a huge culture shift by promoting ‘diversity’ in the form of an open door immigration policy
Thirteen years of Tony Blair’s New Labour has forced a huge culture shift by promoting ‘diversity’ in the form of an open door immigration policy. His former speech writer, Andrew Neather has even claimed it was done on purpose to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render the arguments (against large immigration) out of date’ he said, thereby changing the culture forever. Indeed it has, as has the politicization of just about every institution from the House of Lords to the police. Blair even tried to politicise the monarchy when he named Princess Diana the ‘People’s Princess’ hours after her death, and it is believed that his government had a hand in forcing the Queen to respond to the populist sentiment in those days leading up to the funeral. The British have been inundated with an expanded and unfair welfare state and its attendant victim culture, massive national debt and a marked deterioration in every public service from education to the National Health Service – all courtesy of Labour’s leftist ideology. The question of monarchy pales in comparison. It is interesting that both Blair and his successor Gordon Brown have been snubbed from the guest list.
The Queen represents solidity in an uncertain world. My straw poll revealed people in their twenties saw no need for a monarchy, but then the majority wouldn’t know the difference between a republic, a democracy and a constitutional monarchy. They couldn’t name the twelve British prime ministers from Winston Churchill to David Cameron during the Queen’s reign. Nor I bet could many Canadians or Americans name the twelve Prime Ministers (Louis St Laurent to Stephen Harper) or eleven presidents (Eisenhower to Obama) she has seen through and appreciate the witness to history she has been. Like a pupil going up to the headmaster’s office, it is said that more than one prime minster has felt intimidated by their weekly audience where the Queen gets to quiz her PM and express her opinion in her inimitable gently couched way.
In her nearly sixty year reign, the Queen has never put a foot wrong. She has kept her vow of duty to her subjects and as Defender of the Faith, set a moral example by sticking to her marriage vows even though it was speculated the Duke of Edinburgh had an eye for the ladies. She represents continuity, steadfastness, traditional British family values and noble virtue in an age full of self-aggrandizing politicians and an increasingly morally bankrupt celebrity culture. The middle aged group in my poll recognized this. Being in her presence demands you pull up your socks and be on your best behaviour. No wonder the Brits sucked in their collective breath when Michelle Obama had the audacity to put her arm around HM’s waist.
Charles is another matter. The relentless soap opera of the breakdown of the world’s best known marriage left us all exhausted by the time we got to Diana’s tragic death. We will never completely forget the toe curling Camillagate tapes in which Charles fancied being reincarnated as a feminine hygiene product to savour the closeness of his lover. Then there was the sense of perverse spectacle of the blessing after Charles and Camilla’s civil marriage where these two middle aged adulterers, both with grown children, on their knees, promised to remain faithful to one another in the presence of the nation’s chief cleric. They should have cut and run after the civil ceremony and have spared everyone the embarrassment of witnessing that. Many would love to skip over Charles’ inheritance to kingship and give William a go at regaining the confidence of the British people.
The cost of the wedding only bothers people when it affects their business – an estimated GBP 5 billion will be lost by employers being forced to give their staff the day off, although retailers are having a bonanza of discounts ready to profit from the good mood the wedding is expected to generate.
Weddings by their nature inspire hope. It is the culmination of love, the willingness to believe in a bright future, that the rules of life and love are timeless and work. Despite the failures we know in just about every family, we still want to believe in commitment and family. This sentiment epitomizes the emotions this royal wedding is throwing up and the likely reason why half the planet – an estimated 2.6 billion will be tuning in on Friday. While only a third of those I polled are excited by the wedding, they all want the marriage to work. And all of them regardless of age had no qualms of their pre-marital cohabitation, although a few women felt nostalgic for the morals that once made marriage a serious business. Whether the philandering of high profile royals is the chicken or the egg in how bashed Britons feel about their monarchy and its assault on traditional family values is a moot point. Scratch the surface and they still seem to need it and the hope William and Kate symbolize at this point in their history. Plus there’s more than a hint of pride that they have cornered the market in the theatre of ceremony.
