John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Brits, You’re Doing the Monarchy Wrong”
The Brits, decades ago, used to be far stricter about such protocols.
The (generally malign) influence of Tony Blair plus the terrible upset over Princess Diana's death and the need to recover from its shadows pressured many such changes in royal behavior.
I recall the story of Bair's secretly insisting that the Queen hold hands in a large circle of people for one of the Millennium celebrations.
That's not what queens do, and Elizabeth, while always gracious towards the people she meets, has always been by nature not a pop fad-oriented person. She apparently was not happy about the idea but complied.
Perhaps, no incident better demonstrates the ridiculous situations into which the Royal Family are now sometimes tossed.
I agree they are not all good from the point of view of maintaining the "specialness" of royalty.
But I would argue that we are well past time for such an outdated institution. as the Monarchy.
After Elizabeth passes, a woman who has done a dedicated and dignified job, they really should eliminate the Monarchy.
But I doubt that is at all likely.
The Royal Family almost resembles a rented set of expensive furniture to fill all the empty spaces of palaces and castles.
And the entire "upper crust" of Britain depends on the Royal Family's activities as a kind of defining structural environment.
