God Save the Queen? – The Coming Collapse of the British Monarchy

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

“One man has the power to bring the monarchy to the brink of destruction. No, not our best republican journalist, - nor Tony Benn – nor Tony Blair. The man who could finally herald the republic of Britain is a nineteen-year-old named William Windsor – or, as the history books might record him, William the Last.” (P. 13)

The message that Johann Hari brings to us can be summed up in a single sentence: ‘the monarchy is populated by freaks, misfits, idiots, socially dysfunctional people and criminals – and it is the monarchy itself that forces them into that pattern’. Hari shows us this by exploring the lives of the Monarch and her closest relatives in a witty, well written book.

Hari demonstrates the forces that shape the lives of the royal family. Elizabeth, the queen, had nothing resembling an ordinary childhood; instead, she was treated almost as a cross between a china doll and malleable putty. It gets worse. Diana wanted, as far as Hari can determine, a normal family life and seriously considered ending her engagement to Charles. However, the huge pressures on her forced her to marry anyway, and would not let her go. Finally, as we know, she was driven to destruction by the pressures of being a celebrity. Indeed, Hari writes, the monarchy could be counted as abuse on the grand scale – with no real rewards for the abuse.

None of the Royal Family comes off well in this book – although we are constantly cautioned that they became this way because of their upbringing – and we are told about their activities. Charles, for example, is a man with limited ‘intellectual capabilities’ (for which I read outright idiot) who is obsessed with his own self-importance and his role – although no meaningful role has yet been found for him. (The closest he’s had to one, found by a harassed foreign office, to convince the Saudi royal family to stay on the west’s side after Sept. 11^th was a dismal failure.)

Hari then treats us to an examination of the effects, benefits and disadvantages that the royal family brings to Britain. He concludes that the royal family is a reckless indulgence for a Britain that is having serious problems and that many of the arguments in favour of keeping the monarchy are false. In fact, the monarchy may well be a liability, Philip, for example, nearly ruined a vital business deal by racist comments in the host nation.

Finally, we consider the alternatives. Unlike most republicans, Hari does not advocate the destruction of the entire British system and the establishment of a republic on the American lines. Instead, he states that the Queen’s responsibilities could be taken over by the Speaker for the Commons, a figure who has the weight and power that the queen lacks – and has the vital qualification of having – on some level – volunteered for the job.

Some important points I got from this book:

Officially, the Queen wields no power. In reality, she has considerable influence over events because of the mystique attached to her title.
Charles attempted, during the Thatcher years, to set up a ‘duplicate foreign office’ in what may have been a desperate attempt to find a role. Thatcher squashed the idea flat with considerable venom.
At several points, the Queen’s unhappy marriage with Philip got to the point where she was considering divorce.
Charles proved to be incompetent in the navy – to be fair, he did not choose that career, it was forced upon him – and nearly rammed another ship.

Christopher Nuttall

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