The King begins a tour of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland today, accompanied by Liz Truss, whatever the reason given by Number 10 for her happening to be visiting the exact same places and locations within them as him this week.
Why is this of such importance to the new King? I would venture to suggest that he is as aware as anyone of the weakness of the hold of the monarchy on the affections of people now that the Queen has died. After a few days where almost no questions were asked about the virtues of monarchy, the media is now beginning to note that questions as to its continuing relevance are being asked in at least some of the fourteen places that recognise the Crown as head of state (excluding from that number the overseas territories and Crown Dependencies).
Whatever the official representations, the Crown would, I am sure, wish to hang on to as many of these as possible: the remaining impression of empire matters enormously to the monarchy.
The biggest threat to this comes, however, not from the Caribbean, as is being projected by the media, although the threat from there is real. Instead, it comes from the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland already has a Catholic majority and a Sinn Fein first minister if only the Unionists let Stormont sit. The UK government has cast it adrift under the terms of the Brexit Agreement, and that semi-detached status will not change now, whatever the Tories might say. The departure of Northern Ireland from the Union now seems like a matter of when, and not if.
In Scotland, I strongly suspect the death of the Queen will make support for the independence movement easier for some, and it already hovers at around half the population.
The situation is different in Wales: only around 30% are keen on independence there. It certainly won't be leaving the Union as soon as the other two, but given the contempt for it continually emanating from Westminster, it is only a matter of time.
So, of course, the King wishes to do a tour of these locations in his first week on the Throne. The greatest threat to his status as King of the United Kingdom comes from the collapse of the federation of countries he claims to govern, which looks increasingly politically likely.
And no wonder in that case that Truss is keen to coat-tail him. She is a Unionist (for as long as it is convenient to her). Of course, she will want to make sure he says the right things, in the right way. For all the claims that the Tories make that the devolved nations are a burden on England, London is desperate to keep them, firstly likely proving the claims as to dependency at least in part wrong, and second suggesting the old spirit of empire remains very strong in Westminster.
The reality is that King Charles III could easily be King Charles the Last of the United Kingdom. He is on tour this week, trying to keep the job he has just got. He may be too late to do so. The changes are in progress, and I suspect inevitable now.
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Virtually all power and most of the wealth in the UK is in the hands of Climate change denialists with Truss and the current Tory party as their champions.
Our new King on the other hand, whatever his other political views, has been a long-term campaigner for action to halt and reverse climate change.
In that context Truss following Charles around on his UK tour perfectly represents how the British establishment intends to deal with Charles.
Under very close scrutiny the whole time and doing everything in their power to destroy him if he so much as mentions Climate change,
As I have said before, the Mail will have turned on him within three months
When Scotland becomes an independent nation once again. my opinion is that we should have a referendum on whether we want to retain the House of Windsor as our head of state. I would prefer a Scottish Republic.
I believe Richard’s points are well made. I would just add that the last polling I saw (there may be newer ones) suggested over 55% of Scotland was in favour of doing away with the monarchy. This was not tied to independence but simply whether to retain the monarchy. In the other blog threads they refers to the arrest of some people for peaceful but anti-monarchy placards… it seems we now arrest people for expressing a possibly inconvenient but majority view? How bizarre.
There is a danger in examining Scotland’s independence from the Westminter Parliament through a political lens that conflates this parliamentary proposition, with an assumption of Scotland’s separation from the Crown. The history of Scotland leaves us with clues to a great deal more nuanced complexity; but I draw out of that complexity no certainties.
The most easily observable reflection of the underlying complexity is to be found in the simple distinction between the Union of Crowns and the Union of Parliaments; two constitutional issues in Scotland with distinct sources of affiliation and commitment, and a recondite relationship with the politics of the country. Scotland’s deep ‘conservatism’ guarantees precisely nothing for the Conservative Party, however hard that louche, cabalistic Party attempts, out of thin air, to conjur an appearance of primacy in its political relationship with the Crown. Nothing is ever quite what it seems.
… Sorry to be a pedant, but in para 5, should the ‘if’ and ‘when’ be the other way about? Apologies if not….
Yes – and changed! It’s hard reading your own work – you read what you think you said
As a boy of 10, I remeber watching from the roof of buildings opposite Selfridges the coronation procession moving along Oxford Street. I remember earlier seeing King George speaking from a balcony or something at the Royal Festival Hall, at the opning of the South Bank exhibition in 1951. It was a fine and stirring spectacle for a little boy, yet my parents were sceptics when it came to the monarchy. My dad returned from 5 years in the RAF to vote Labour, and in the cinema at the end of the final showing, he would rush us out of the cinema with the words “Get out before they play the Queen”, and we would join the rush to avoid standing still while the dismal drone of the national anthem played and a film of herself appeared, she in a red Guards uniform mounted on a horse at the Trooping of the Colour. My mother would always snort scornfully of the crowds of royal admirers “They treat her like a God”. I have inherited and my parents’ sceptical attitudes to royalty and the monarchy and am firmly republican. Even so, I definitely felt a sadness when the news came through of the Queen’sr death, and I know that many of ny fellow anti-monarchists were surprised that they themselves felt a lump in the throat at that moment. She had done her job for the most part well and dutifully, and her genuine and heartfelt concern for her subjects (bad word) was evident when she visited the Grenfell Tower and talked for a long time with the surviving residents – that in marked contrast to Mrs May’s long delayed and brief visit much later. Now we have Charles III, and but perhaps in a decade or two, no William V, but hopefully instead, President XXX. There are mourning crowds outside Buckingham Palace, and it might seem from their massed presence that the future of the monarchy is assured; but it is noticeable that the faces are overwhelmingly white, with scarcely any black people, and a smattering of South Asians. Three quarters of the mourning crowds are female, there was a high proportion of over 50s, and seem to me overwhelmingly middle class, and because this is London, mostly from the South East. The long term future of the monarchy is not assured, for not only are Northern Ireland and Scotland – and perhaps Wales – moving inexorably towards leaving the UK, but also in England itself, a more sceptical and multi-ethnic generation is replacing the older generation of white Anglo Saxons. I am part Italian, and remember that after the second war, the Italians voted to change from kingdom to republic. William V may experience the same fate as King Umberto who spent his life in exile beyond the borders of the Italian Republic.
I am sure Jersey would find a role for him that would allow him to adopt a uniform or two
The monarchy will survive as long as people are subservient and willing to tolerate the inequalities of society upheld by the Crown and promoted by the Conservative party. The cost of living and climate crisis among others will test the system to the limit and civil unrest if not revolution or insurrection in places could follow unless a different path is taken by the Tories which at the moment seems that they are hell-bent on causing as much grief as possible. The whole pompous palaver of the coronation is a complete farce and should be ridiculed for what it is.
Maybe the Charles the Last of the UK – but not much sign of Scotland England or Wales ditching the monarchy any time soon.
Amazing how compelling all these ceremonies are to try to interpretate and tease out cues as to how this bizarre kingdom actually works – or doesnt work.
Even this morning’s Westimster Hall event is history in the making – never happened before , and apparently at the behest of the new king, Lyndsey Hoyle did sor t of remind the king that parliament is sovereign, but then it was quickly said we are all his ‘subjects’.
Another reveal – one govt minister wrote a daily letter to the Queen highliting what had gone on that day – and apparently that will continue – all in addition to the red boxes etc etc. And another – a member of parliament is taken hostage in Buck House whenever the sovereign visits the palace of Westminster.
In the 1950s, the Scottish republican songwriter Morris Blythman predicted:
“Chairlie the First he was beheided
Chairlie the Second he succeeded
Chairlie the Third’ll no be needed
Lucky wee Prince Chairlie”
Charles has a nemesis and her name is Princess Diana.
That’s all there is to it I suspect. ‘It’s’ not over you know?
The public do not forget things like that.
I have time for neither of them BTW, but on the day after her death I was meant to be going to the University library anyway and stopped off the route all the way into the palace. There were flowers everywhere and people crying.
I was there as an objective observer with my camera totally detached from it all. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. To this day I have difficulty trying to explain it. And I’m someone who gets all choked up when he sees a Spitfire or a Lancaster bomber take to the air and whose eyes fill with tears when he hears I Vow to Thee My Country or Jerusalem.
I’m sure that this is in the back of Charles’s mind all of the time. He needs allies, he really does.
I remember this all too well. I was in London the week between Diana’s death and the funeral and underground, overground (excuse the wombling) there where what seems like thousands of people. They seemed to be mainly young mums dragging small bewildered children clutching flowers.
The atmosphere everywhere was electric and not in a good way. No-one dare say a word against Diana. A friend of mine who was a political agent cautioned me to be careful what I said.
The country was on a knife edge and I am sure it was as close to storming Buckingham Palace and chucking them all out as it could possibly be.
I was sceptical when I saw they were moving the floral tributes from the palace to Green Park. Thinking I bet there aren’t as many as they claim and a news clip.showed a fair number but you find a pic of 1997 and the mountains of flowers to Di.
Once the hullabaloo does down it will get really interesting
Thank you for this whole thread , it makes me feel less weird and alone in being a republican !
You are not alone
I too cannot see NI staying in the UK for many more years. I do worry that there will UDF style violence as a movement for reunification gets going. How will the Irish Republic view this possibly disruptive faction?
I agree on Wales and feel pained by the way the Westminster gang treat it as a second class region.
Scotland could choose independence now because the UN charter says that is the right of any nation, which is what Scotland is. That this has not happened suggests that those in charge of Scotland are not as keen on independence as they proclaim.
My wish for decades is that the monarchy would fade away. Inspite of the current over the top theatre, which may be as a reaction to that fade, I do see it in progress. The monarchy was lost when it became part of celebrity culture. I admired Elizabeth II for the way she kept the firm going. The movie ‘Being There’ with Peter Sellers always comes to mind. I don’t think Charles will find a way to do the same.