Coronation Chickens Home To Roost

Since most of the cost of the Coronation will be that of the security, there could have been no such thing as a cut price Coronation, only a less impressive one, a republican ceremony without a republic. What would have been the point of that?

The republican and the monarchist cases are both rubbish. We know who wins elections in this country, and we know who does not. We would not want any of the former as our Head of State. Abolishing the monarchy would not make Britain less class-bound or less corrupt, unless we were to aspire to the classless cleanliness of Ireland, France, Germany, Italy or the United States. The obscene political power that the Royal Family enjoys because of its extreme wealth is the obscene political power of extreme wealth. Other people also have it, and the problem is hardly confined to Britain or to monarchies.

Nor does the monarchy guarantee stability or liberty in a country that had three General Elections in the four years from 2015, that has had three Prime Ministers in this year alone, and that is blessed with the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act, the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act, the Nationality and Borders Act, the Elections Act, and the staggering Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, soon to be joined by the even more stunning Public Order Bill and by the Online Safety Bill. Were the liberties of the Canadian truckers guaranteed by the Crown? On the contrary, it was precisely the Crown that empowered Justin Trudeau.

But the monarchy is what we have. Merely keeping it would not involve spending legislative time on something that would not make matters any better. In any case, the moment has gone. It was always supposed to have been "when the Queen died", but that made no sense either in principle, since the monarchy is either right or it is wrong, or in practice, since succession is instantaneous, as we have seen. As for the Royal Prerogative, we should be seeking, not to abolish it, but to exercise it in the cause of economic equality and of international peace. The whole of the Royal Prerogative, that is. The Deep State would fight us to the death. That death must be its own.