Within an hour of Queen Elizabeth dying a BBC reporter was running through a potted . At one point he stated ‘[t]he Queen witnessed the end of the era of subservience' in his most subservient voice, and without a hint of irony.
That was just the warm up. From the moment she died all major TV and Radio channels dropped everything to talk about the Queen’s life and her death. Two of the main channels BBC 1 and ITV are still covering nothing else four days later.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they had anything real to say, but in reality all that could be said, or indeed needed to be said could have been covered in a few hours at the most.
For the truth is there is very little to tell about the woman. Her longevity can be admired, but is hardly unique, and you can see how you can do a potted history of the world and it’s changes in the 70 years of her reign, but as for her…
This is a woman who had enormous wealth and privilege, but no real power. She was not meant to, and never did, give her opinion publicly on any major or indeed minor issue facing the country. The only real moment in her life the mask slipped and she genuinely came under the microscope, was at the time of the death of , where having misjudged the national mood she was forced to make sharp U-turns and address the nation to stabilise a suddenly unpopular monarchy.
Otherwise she made no decisions, expressed no views, really there was nothing to tell. Tell it they did however day after day of repetitious nothingness.
One surprisingly frank flunky mentioned in his tribute that she wasn’t the least bit intellectual, was tone deaf, had no interest in art or literature, but then rambled on about how much she loved horses and horse racing.
A very dull woman it seems.
However if the only problem was boredom then we could get over it. The death of the Queen has seen the accession of Charles III, the institution carries on, as one of the most potent symbols for the right of one class to rule over another.
In the early years of the last century, James Connolly the Irish revolutionary socialist and executed as one of the leaders of the 1916 Irish uprising on an impending visit to Ireland by George V:
‘Let the capitalist and landlord class flock to exalt [the King]; he is theirs; in him they see embodied the idea of caste and class; they glorify him and exalt his importance that they might familiarise the public mind with the conception of political inequality, knowing well that a people mentally poisoned by the adulation of royalty can never attain to that spirit of self-reliant democracy necessary for the attainment of social freedom. The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings – capitalist kings of the workshop, the mill, the railway, the ships and the docks.’
Whilst the power and influence of the British monarchy has receded since Connolly’s time, his central point remains. If a person can rule purely by birth-right, then it follows that others are born, bread or developed to rule and the vast majority must accept that they are subservient, be it to a king, a politician, a millionaire or a manager.
The death of the Queen has thrown up a clear example of the dangers of such subservience.
Until recently the Tories and their anti-working class policies have gone unchallenged. Certainly by the official labour opposition under , but also by workers themselves.
However in recent months we have seen the rise of industrial action in Britain at levels not seen for years. A number of unions, most notably the (RMT), and the postal (CWU) have been launching days of strike action, and major unions are discussing co-ordinated action.
Both the RMT and the CWU had strike days lined up over the next two weeks. Both have as a mark of respect for the Queen! The Queen you understand had never shown even a scintilla of sympathy for trade unions, hadn’t said a word about the cost of living crisis, but somehow these unions led by left wing officials felt the need to ‘show respect’.
Of course they intend to relaunch the strikes once the mourning has passed, but lost momentum can be devastating in these struggles. No doubt they will say that had they gone ahead the media and the main political parties would have crucified them, but that just confirms Connolly’s point about the role of the monarchy in class society.
Unfortunately the institution will outlive the Queen, and in Britain we now have the bizarre spectacle that we are ruled by a man whose soul qualification for the job is that he was born, and we are governed by a woman, , who received just 81,236 votes out of a population of over 66 million.
There is reason for optimism though. Whilst I’m sure the crowds for the funeral will be huge, the truth is that the monarchy has lost some of Its appeal.
It is interesting that the flowers people bring every day to lay outside Buckingham Palace are cleared each night, so that nobody can compare this mourning with the huge emotional spasm that greeted Princess Diana’s death. The truth is the mood is nothing like the same.
As to the , he is not liked or respected to anything like the degree his mother was, indeed at the time of Diana’s death he was widely reviled, nor is his wife Camilla popular.
When crises hit the family going forward, they will be in a much weaker position to stave the voices calling for an end to the whole crazy institution.
Pat Stack is a long time socialist activist and writer. Originally from Ireland, he has spent his adult life in Britain. He was for a number of years deputy editor of the Socialist Review magazine, and a regular columnist. He has also written for a variety of publications and websites.
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