To the inspiring, popular Labour socialist republican Dennis Skinner they are “little monsters” who stick a respectable face on deadly ogres such as poverty, inequality and unfairness.
It is a huge pity the Beast of Bolsover isn’t in Parliament to expose, attack and condemn the exorbitant, grotesque £250 million orgy of deference, when new king Charles the Unwanted demands servitude from the great unwashed.
Skinner would be unbowed, a champion of the people who’d find a way to speak out – as he did at Queen’s Speeches with a quip about tax or Helen Mirren.
He’d relish breaching the fawning convention that lets MPs dodge discussing the royals, unless it is to gush and bend the knee before a fundamentally undemocratic racket.
Gagging debate and asserting the coronation is no moment to discuss why we tolerate a monarchy – after the same ploy on his mam’s death paved the way for this King to grab the late Queen’s throne and dodge inheritance tax on her fortune – is an establishment conspiracy.
The gold coach-riding elite’s elite is terrified of scrutiny when this weekend’s pomp and ceremony will be largely ignored or resented by an increasingly cash-strapped population funding a medieval charade for a chap worth roughly £1.8billion.
Whatever grip the monarchy had died with the Queen.
One recent survey found 45% of Britons think it should be abolished or isn’t
at all or very important, with just 29% thinking it very important.
The bulk of us won’t even watch live on TV what most, according to a Daily Mirror poll, want an extremely wealthy man to fund himself.
Labour republican MPs such as Clive Lewis and Richard Burgon asking Charles the Unwanted to write a £250m cheque are closer to mainstream opinion than leader Keir Starmer, a youthful anti-royalist who dictated the party faithful stand to sing God Save the King at their conference last autumn.
Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister in the ConDem coalition Government, no longer bites his tongue and has penned another persuasive call for long-overdue modernisation.
Half the SNP MPs would readily vote for an elected head of state if given the chance.
And perhaps a few meritocrats in the Tory Party might raise their heads and challenge the stuffy status quo.
I’m not predicting an imminent republic, a revolution in Britain, yet a decline has set in that will marginalise a monarchy that won’t be revived by dull William succeeding cantankerous Charlie.
The spirit of Dennis Skinner will rise again, including in a Parliament that’s isolated and foolishly aloof when it is at odds with sceptical public opinion.
