The Queen Is Dead

I don’t write about anything political, or even newsworthy, as a general rule. However, September was an eventful and deeply strange month in the UK, even by the standards of recent years. At the start of the month we gained, if gained is the right word (it definitely isn’t) our fourthPrime Minister of the last six years. This is impressive when you consider that it took until I reached age 27 for the fourth of my lifetime. ( sidenote — each of the fourth recent Prime Ministers has somehow been worse than the last).

By the end of the month, the new Prime Minister and Chancellor threw what little credibility they started with out of the window with a budget (that was officially not a budget) which slashed taxes more than any actual budget in the last 50 years, funded by massive borrowing, crashing the value of the pound and taking their own poll ratings to record lows. These would have been the biggest two news stories in any normal year, let alone month, if it hadn’t have been for the fact that in between these two events came the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

I was shocked, although not by the event itself. Really, the death of a 96 year old woman who had been in increasingly poor health shouldn’t have come as too big a surprise to anyone (although some people treated it as if it were the most shocking event since 9/11).

I was shocked by how big a deal it was. I’m not totally naive. I understood that the death of the only monarch most people in the UK have ever known would be a big news story, but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how big it actually was. Almost two weeks of wall to wall coverage. Nothing else on the news. Politics, sport & comedy suspended. People queueing for hours, almost days to see the coffin. The coverage implied the whole nation was in a state of mourning and sorrow. There was no space for dissent, no-one could be critical of the over-the-top coverage, or even admit to feel indifferent, without being shouted down. Even I didn’t feel comfortable writing this piece until at least a little time had passed.

I was shocked by the range of people publicly mourning the Queen’s death. Even the leftiest of lefties, natural opponents of the monarchy, felt moved (or perhaps obliged) to pay tribute. I appreciate that immediately following her death might not be the ideal time to voice criticism, but I thought more people might stay silent. In general there has been a reluctance to critise the monarchy as an institution in recent years, or the Queen as an individual. Back in the 1970s & 1980s it was not unusual for musicians to write songs critical of both (God Save the Queen of course, but also the Queen is Dead by The Smiths and Elizabeth My Dear by The Stone Roses — interesting that John Lydon, Morrissey and Ian Brown all ended up as right wing cranks and conspiracy theorists). In the 1990s, the monarchy was in perpetual scandal it seemed, and none of the members were exempt from criticism. Admittedly, the Queen herself tended to come in for the least, being less obviously mired in wrongdoing or embarrassment than her children or husband.

I was shocked by the almost universal opinion, even amongst die-hard republicans, that The Queen herself was a wonderful person, which to me just shows the power of effective PR. Was she actually a nice person? I have no idea. I never met her, and nor had most people saying these things. Even those who have met her probably only did so long enough to exchange a few pleasantries, and I’m sure she’s perfectly capable of being agreeable in person. We have no clue though what she was really like as an individual. I will say that there’s been some not great stuff done in her name, lobbying to change laws, gaining exemptions from others, paying off the alleged victims of her son, briefing against her grandson and his partner. We can’t know exactly what her level of involvement in this stuff is, but it seems likely she was at least aware it was going on, and condoned it tacitly. The Queen ultimately was the head of an extremely rich and powerful family, and her actions suggest that, like many of those in similar positions, she was mainly concerned with protecting that wealth, that power and her family.

I was shocked that everyone seemed to agree she’d had a positive impact on the country. Look at her life of public service, and the stability she bought, they said. Well, travelling the world meeting associated dignitaries and heads of state, opening buildings and watching performances is a service of sorts, but it hardly compares to the service and sacrifice of care workers during the pandemic, or soldiers at times of war. As for stability I say, “what stability?” This country has hardly been stable over the 70 years of her reign, unless you mean a steady decline, and even the decline has become chaotic over recent years. It’s almost as if having a long serving monarch has no impact on the prosperity and stability of a nation whatsoever (nor are they to blame for its failures, to be fair). The monarch is, and should be, mainly a figurehead, a distraction at best.

I’m shocked that so few recognised that she could have done more for the country, had she wished. There’s no reason the royal family couldn’t be downsized, for the royals to live more like their compatriots in other countries of Europe. A great proportion of the wealth and land owned by the royal family could be put to use for the benefit of the country as a whole. For example, the profits the Royal Family makes from offshore wind (due to owning the seabed around the UK) could be plowed into renewable energy infrastructure for all of us.

I’m shocked at how few people seem able to admit to being republicans. To me, republicanism should be the default position of the left. The Queen’s death just highlights the lottery of royal succession and ridiculousness of living in a monarchy. Whatever arguments are made about tourism, about the dangers of a presidential system, about how the royal family doesn’t costs as much as you think, I will never believe it is right for someone to be the head of state just because they were born into the right family. I would expect more to agree, although, if they do, they’re being pretty quiet about it.

Ultimately though, I’m most shocked by how little I was affected by the Queen’s death. I mean, I never expected it to be that big a deal for me personally, but you just never know how you’re going to react to something in the moment. This is where I should say that I cared on a human level, because she was a person with a family who loved her, and I do, to an extent, but I don’t really feel in my heart. Perhaps this is because I still find it hard to think of her as a real person.

I’m not glad she died of course, I feel bad for the death of anyone, but the death of an individual who has lived a life of luxury and lived to an old age upsets me less than most others. The deaths of musicians or writers whose work impacted my life have moved me greatly. Stories in the news of the deaths of children, deaths in wars, deaths in police shootings hurt my heart. The death of the Queen, not so much. I’m not proud of the fact, and don’t know what it says about me, other than that, as so often, I feel differently than most of my compatriots.

The Queen is Dead, I did not cry.
The Queen is Dead, I did not mourn, but
The Queen is Dead, nonetheless.