Forelock-Tugging

I have never understood the veneration of monarchy by (most of) the British public. We have just had another bout of bowing and scraping with the Queen’s 80th birthday. I’m with Jack Dromey (the same) who said on Any Questions last Friday that the Queen stands at the apex of a system of “privilege, class and deference” which is ill-fitting in a democratic society at the beginning of the twenty-first century (I wonder if Mrs. Dromey ever expressed that opinion in Cabinet). Yet, sadly, the opinion polls show only around 20% favour the (return of) the British Republic. It’s amusing to look again at Bagehot. Monarchy, he wrote, provides “a visible symbol of unity to those still so imperfectly educated as to need a symbol”. Which roughly translates as: the great unwashed are half-wits and the monarchy is there to keep the poor sods transfixed. But to judge by the incontinent gushing of BBC types it isn’t just the poor serfs who are addicted to forelock-tugging. Still, on the up side, 20% is a lot more than back in the bad old days when Willie Hamilton M.P. was seen as utterly eccentric for advocating a Republic. The argument for a Republic has made some headway…