Monday 4 June 2012

The Queen (Elizabeth To Her Mates)



I have nothing against the Queen.

I prefer to think of her as a celebrity called Elizabeth Windsor, who happens to have inherited a lot of wealth and whose job it is to draw tourists into the country and place the United Kingdom into the limelight worldwide.

And that works for me.

My own personality type is such that I have a big problem with anybody who claims to be my better. I am certain there are really talented people out there in the big wide world who are better than me in some ways – I accept that. But these people are not worthy of me bowing to them or addressing them in such a way that makes me subservient to them.

And that goes for the Queen.

Don’t get me wrong; I would gladly go to Buckingham Palace and spend the afternoon sitting down with her and other members of the royal family, chatting about life, the universe and everything over afternoon tea.

I would not bow to her, though and I would want not refer to her as “ma’am”, “Your Royal Highness” or any other such terms.

I would call her “Elizabeth”. After all – that is her name is it not?

Elizabeth is Queen because she happened to be the daughter of King George VI, a man who himself was son of a previous King. And so it has been for centuries. She’s done nothing special – not really.

She is not better than me. She is just a person. I do not regard her as my ruler.

She is just a fellow Brit.

I have found the Diamond Jubilee celebrations a bit of a paradox; I like the idea that we should highlight the United Kingdom and show off to the world and all of the patriotism that goes with it, seeing people waving the Union Jack and celebrating everything that is British.

On the other hand, the focus of those celebrations is Elizabeth. The reason we are celebrating is because she has ruled for 60 years; we have been subservient to this woman for 60 years.

Elizabeth has been Queen all of my life. I have seen her face on stamps, coins and bank notes ever since I can remember. Hardly a day has gone by in my entire life when she hasn’t been in the newspapers, on television or brought to my attention in some other way.

It’s almost like she is a member of MY family.

Of course in real terms, she is a figurehead, these days. She has no real power, other than ceremonial and traditional. It’s not like, say, Tudor times, when a tyrant like Henry VIII ruled with a rod of iron.

Imagine living in England during the reign of Henry VIII? If he were to read any blog posts criticising the monarchy from the likes of a plebeian like me, I would find a number of royal soldiers on the doorstep of my hovel whose sole purpose would be to butcher me in the most painful way possible for being arrogant enough to dare to challenge the King’s right to rule me.



Thank goodness I live in the 21st century.

I can now tell everyone my feelings without fear of reprisal.

I have watched bits of the jubilee celebrations with mixed feelings. It’s great to see people celebrating Britain but I cringe with all the sycophancy that accompanies it. All news stations are biased, perhaps understandably so, and actually don’t tell the full story.

For example, with the camera on the Queen’s face, the commentator said something like:

“I’ve never seen the Queen looking happier; she is thoroughly enjoying this.” 

What I saw was the Queen looking quite stern, clearly not smiling – in fact she was grimacing at the rain that was threatening to ruin the spectacle of the flotilla of boats on the Thames.

And then the interviews with royalist spectators;

“Oh she’s WONDERFUL! I LOVE her; she’s done a magnificent job for 60 years. Long may she reign over us.”

And that sums up the problem for me. The Queen is the original “celebrity” for me, a person who shows up at various functions, cuts ribbons, makes the odd speech, smiles and waves, tells us all about what she thinks at Christmas and has her face on our currency.

I recently visited the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels and was kind of shocked at the opulence. Elizabeth is so wealthy, so utterly rich that it is almost obscene. She has done nothing to earn that wealth other than be born into it.

People like to remark about how the royal family do so much for charity but they could sell one of the crowns and then use the money to feed the starving in Africa – or even help the needy in their own country.

When I see people fawning over royalty, I see the same undeserving adulation as people who claim to love people like Katie Price and Kerry Katona.

As I said, I don’t hate the Queen at all; she was born into the role she has and she is obliged by the system to sit comfortably within that role until she dies or decides that she’s had enough, when it will all be handed over to her son Prince Charles.

What I am not comfortable with is the actual role itself and the concept of the monarchy in general. Maybe it is the anarchist within me; maybe it is the rebel who wants all men to be equal.

Power corrupts and people who have such power generally abuse it in some way. History is full of examples of this and my own country has an absolutely horrific history. Imagine Henry VIII on the throne now.

I’m not saying that the Queen would ever consider being such a tyrant. But I am willing to bet that in a conversation between us, she would not be even vaguely interested in my life – simply because she would regard me as such an insignificant person.

I, on the other hand, would be very interested in her life. I would love to spend a couple of hours listening to her true thoughts on the monarchy, the lives of ordinary people in Britain and so on.

You may think that this is not a worthy post for such a celebration of Britain but I don’t care really. As far as I am concerned, Elizabeth has fulfilled her role very well and will undoubtedly smash the record set by Queen Victoria to become the longest reigning monarch in UK history. In that respect she will have had to have endured the role and all it entails for longer than any of her ancestors.

And she probably deserves some recognition for that.

Well done Elizabeth.



14 comments:

MedicatedMoo said...

I just figure that, at eighty six, isn't she utterly sick to death of shaking hands and pretending to be interested at 'variety' concerts, trooping the colour and meeting celebrities she's never heard of or dislikes intensely?

At 86 I'd want to be home in my trakkie daks and ugg boots watching someone *else* on the telly.

Anonymous said...

If for no other reason than her age, respect for the elderly and all that, perhaps you might address her as Mrs. Windsor?

Anji said...

I suppose you could take comfort in that the crown does not 'belong' to her, not Buck Palace and all that.

I wouldn't like her job for all the tea in china

Plastic Mancunian said...

Bonjour Kath,

I think it's all she's ever known and I'm also sure she is bored out of her brain with all of the concerts - like the one tonight in her honour (Gary Barlow? COME ON!!!).

That's exactly what I will be doing at the age of 86 (though I will skip the Ugg boots!).

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Grace,

Hmmm! Well Prince Phillip's name is Phillip Mountbatten so I guess I should call her Mrs Mountbatten.

I prefer Elizabeth, I think.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Anji,

I much prefer my mundane boring life to hers too.

:0)

Cheers

PM

drb said...

Ha Mr PM,
I was going to ask you about the Diamond Jubilee!

We had live coverage here and all the brits on TV were so happy!

I actually skipped work a few months ago to wave at ERII when she was here to open the Royal Children's Hospital which was 2 min walk from my house.

Two young women and I were jumping and waving on a traffic light island (away from the crowd) as she left the hospital in her car. She smiled and waved back and that made our day!! :-D

So now I can say I 'met' the Queen.

For some reasons, the Buckingham Palace is the one that makes me go,"WOW" when I stepped into it. Surprisingly, Versailles, Vatican, the Forbidden City and Holyrood somehow did not have the same effect on me.
Maybe they are not a 'working' Palace?

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi drb,

The problem is they only interview royalist nutters - not other people. We are divided in the UK on the monarchy - you see the nutters on the TV, those, like me, who don't really care, and those who want us to be a republic.

As I said, if Elizabeth and her family are a decent advert for Britain abroad then I guess they server some purpose.

You have been closer to the Queen than I have, drb, unless she was at home when I visited Buckingham Palace a month or two ago.

I have seen all the places you mentioned but I didn't get into Buckingham Palace because it wasn't open (only during summer months) - so I can''t really compare. I've seen the Crown Jewels though and if the opulence in the palace is anything like that, then I guess it must have the "wow" factor.

:0)

Cheers

PM

River said...

"...so wealthy, so utterly rich that it is almost obscene".
Scrap the "almost".
"..sell one of the crowns and then use the money to feed the starving in Africa."
Great idea, but in reality, the money would probably pay committees whose job it is to decide which straving tribes to feed and what to feed them.
Helping the poor in her own country would probably turn out the same.
I'm also not a fan of fawning over royalty or celebrities. They're just people for heaven's sake.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi River,

I think I was trying to be nice to Royalists. The news simply pandered to them and ignored the rest of us.

Ultimately it turned out that most of us just wanted to celebrate the UK and I was all for that. The fact that it was meant to be for Elizabeth was utterly irrelevant to me.

I said to Mrs PM that we should have a day that celebrates Britain - not the Queen - BRITAIN!

Most other countries have on - the US, Australia etc.

Why do we have to wait for a significant Royalist anniversary?

(MUST NOT RANT !!!)

:0)

Cheers

PM

Chrissy Brand said...

Well said (Arise Sir Plastic Mancunian). A shame only "Royalist nutters" were interviewed- you cheered me up with this post!

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Chrissy,

Why thank you, good lady :-)

I'm glad I cheered you up.

:0)

Cheers

PM

drb said...

Yeah, it is divided here in Oz too.
At a referendum in 1999, Aussies voted 55% to 45% against a proposed model to make the nation a republic.

Not sure what will the vote be now.

If Oz became a republic we will lose a long weekend. This monday is Queen's birthday public holiday! The last public holiday for a while. Next one is in Nov - Cup day! The whole nation stop to watch the Melbourne Cup Race.

I am not a monarchist but it was still a buzz to see the Queen in person, not unlike spotting a wild elephant. ;-)
BTW, she looks better in person.

You don't have a Britian day? How weird!

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi drb,

It seems a bit strange to me that you get holidays in Oz for the Queen's birthday. I can understand the desire to be a republic because your head of state lives on the other side of the world.

I think there are suggestions we SHOULD have a Britain day - its been discussed for a few years now but nobody can decide when or how?

Typical of Britain ...

:0)

Cheers

PM