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J Christian's avatar

I was recovering from surgery recently in a hospital in Northern England and all of the older proles were referring to Charles as 'muslim-loving Charles' with utter hatred and any mention of the monarchy was met with nonce accusations. My understanding was always that right-leaning English proles were the only demographic with genuine affection for the monarchy outside of Jamaican matriarchs with Diana's face emblazoned on their crockery. Loyalist support for the monarchy is obviously nominal at best given their anti-establishment instincts, hatred of the CoE, identification with Cromwell etc and while I'm not English myself I always assumed that middle class English people (regardless of political orientation) viewed overt support for the royals as being either tacky or a form of lace-curtain pretension.

I understand why a handful of sycophants would back the monarchy to try and extract certain privileges and I can see why some older conservatives would half-heartedly support them purely because they associate calls to abolish the monarchy with some of the vestigial anti-thatcher brands of woke, but I'm honestly struggling to imagine a broad 'class' of supporters.

Is it literally just sycophants and pundits?

Duncan White's avatar

The absolute dread of an elected President on a four year stint such as Blair, Cameron, Johnson, Brown et al is worth putting up with the current monarchy until something better is available.

A transient President will be a politico, doing nothing more than a quick-fire shot at raking in the goodies whilst there’s still time but a ‘monarch’ has historical ties and therefore generations of ‘skin the game’ of sustaining for perpetuity the family presence.

Personally, I reckon the Vatican has it about right in terms of due process : elect a Pope for life without the grief of aberrant family driven by entitlements and expectations of deference.

I have delved into the history of the current monarchy and there’s nothing much to be proud of there - but - anything’s better tag El Presidente, thanks.

I support a monarchical constitution but not necessarily this monarchy.

But thanks for your insights.

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