Citizen Writes
The coronation of King Charles III
The royal tide will turn
2023-05-03
By Dr Kester Demmar, Lecturer in Journalism, School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester.
I’m sorry to say that the first thing which springs to mind when I think of Charles and Camilla is the infamous recording of their overheard telephone conversation. Known as Tampongate it was cringingly embarrassing. I was a young journalist when I heard it and it’s stuck with me ever since. The second thing which strikes me about the couple is the nature of their relationship, lovers behind the backs of their respective partners. How must William and Harry feel knowing that their dad cheated on their mother, Diana and we all know about it? It is behaviours like this which inform how we judge others. These things matter. Much like the memory I have of the Queen. It was 1977 and all the children at school were given a stainless-steel sugar spoon to remember the event. I’m not sure who dreamt up the idea of giving primary school children sugar spoons. Inspired. During my time as a television producer, I have been involved in royal visits to different parts of the country. Until last December that was as close as I’ve got to royalty. Then I went to Windsor Castle and got a little closer to the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh, as we filed past their last resting place in St George’s Chapel.
It didn’t make me feel any closer or different to the woman in whose name I had been presented a spoon, and sworn an oath to as a Scout. But it made me think about what happens next. She’s the only British monarch I and most of the population of this country have known. In fact, for most of the world she has been a symbol of all things British. But what does that mean these days and isn’t it funny that the man who gets to wear the crown has been waiting all these years for her to die? At what age did that dawn on the young Prince Charles. ‘The job’s yours as soon as your mother croaks!’
The monarchy and all the pomp which is inextricably tied-up with all things royal is, as we all know a fluke of circumstance. Once upon a time it came down to force of arms and who could slay who. Nothing too noble in that. Many countries have seen fit to downgrade the role of their royal families or do away with them all together. For some reason, as a nation, we have stuck by ours and I wonder why. We’ve lost our public phone boxes, we’ve said goodbye to council houses, public libraries, publicly-owned water companies, power generation, telecommunications, steel, aerospace, car manufacturing, petroleum, railways, post and much more publicly-owned assets besides. But we’ve remained loyal to the one institution which is uniquely British and would, at its peak, have raised more money than all the other privatisations put together.
Have we held on to the royals because they provide a way for politicians and the lever-pullers to hold on to power? Or held on to them because we were unsure if they could be or needed to be replaced? Change unnerves people. For some, losing the Royal Family means losing a sense of who we are, of what it means to be British. Perhaps that’s true. But I can’t help but think it’s the mindset of those who still hark on about two world wars and one world cup, stuck in an era, who feel a need to cling on to things that have been because they fear change.
Much like the famous red phone box we can learn to live without things taken from us. Opal Fruits are gone, Marathon bars no more, and I don’t see anyone crying out for a reform of the House of Lords to reinstate the hereditary peers swept aside by Labour’s reform. Age may be the key here.
Beaten down by war, the rebuilding of Britain after 1945, came at a massive cost. The Empire crumbed, the global power leached away, we were no longer First Division (Premier League for those of you who don’t remember pre-decimalisation football). Britain was down on her luck and the Royal family was all we had left. They’re on our money, our stamps, our post boxes and cornflakes and hundreds of other products and services. By Royal Appointment, but who appointed them? I wasn’t asked nor were you. Growing-up the Queen was just there, omnipotent and no questions asked. Now she’s gone and all her good work with her. Charles, like many men before him, cheated on his wife and many will not forgive him or the woman who slipped into his royal bed by royal appointment. Deference once proffered to the Queen is no more and protestors have already begun stalking his walkabouts. Younger people are less obsequious, they see the world differently from previous generations and ask questions of authority we have shamefully shied away from. The tide of royal popularity maybe changing and as we know from an earlier royal, King Canute, the tide will come in regardless of who wears the crown.