September 23rd, 2022

Oh, dear…so much going on since Queen Elizabeth died.
A weird sort of reverse snobbery appeared on some social media, with people boasting, “well I am not going to watch even a minute of the funeral” sort of comment.
That’s okay, no one HAD to watch. A shame really as it was an historical occasion, never to be seen again. Whether or not you ‘fancy’ the royal family, the pageantry on show, after a 70-year reign by a British monarch, was amazing.
The sight of a gun carriage, adorned coffin atop, pulled by 142 young Royal Navy sailors had to be seen to be believed.
The funeral service in Westminster Abbey was almost low-key, with hymns and bible readings familiar to any ‘ordinary’ folk who have ever visited a mainstream church service in the past couple of decades. (Apart, of course from the choral anthems, which soared into the cathedral rafters!)
The procession that followed was more than two times longer than the service and was perhaps the more spectacular.
Afterwards came complaints concerning the cost of such a day. A cost that many Brits thought was excessive and wasteful, considering the state of the country’s finances.
Agreeing with this, I thought that the royal family could have dipped into their billions and paid for the whole thing – even if only to help their image.
The week-long ‘mourning’ stirred up many an anti-monarchy protest, exacerbated here, in Australia, by the ‘day of mourning’ holiday on Thursday.
Protests emanating from First Nations people are understandable and may open up a more general appreciation of the coming referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Australian Constitution.
So that’s a plus, I suppose.
Although I watched and enjoyed the Queen’s funeral out of interest and a sort of respect for ‘our’ very old and seemingly dedicated monarch, I do have some misgivings about the monarchy.
Having lived through the 1975 debacle, where an Australian PM was sacked, I hold extreme negative feelings towards actions taken by the Queen and Prince (now King) Charles, with their unnecessary involvement with the execrable John Kerr. A blot on our history, as seen in the recently exposed ‘Palace Letters’.
The other very negative view of the monarchy is the appalling deception and subsequent treatment of the young Diana Spencer. What a cruel act used to secure an ‘appropriate’ partner for a philandering and selfish future king.
And now, here we are: the Queen has gone and we are left with a royal family of fractured and, at times, quite nasty (witness treatment of Meghan Markle) group of people who own a £16.5 billion portfolio of real estate.
Do we really need them?