Month: March 2021

Quick disclaimer: it’s NOT about the Wrestling Event.

Although… Over-hyped, American, trash-talking, a couple of knockout blows …

I refer, of course, to “The Interview” from last Sunday (America), last Monday (UK), and every day this past week (the papers, the news, the Jeremy Vine show, etc).

To be honest I don’t have a problem with the Sussexes, even if it is a bit odd to withdraw from public life, only for virtually your first action to be a sensational and very public ‘tell-all’ (but not really) interview. Perhaps it’s the understandable appeal, if you think you’ve been wronged or mistreated, of wanting to get out your side of the story.

At the same time, and Harry especially would know this, it’s slightly unfair when you know that ‘the other side’ is not in a position to respond in kind. The Royals rarely, and the Monarch almost never, give candid and detailed interviews – so Oprah could have produced any number of scoops and allegations and wild claims (“…and at least two of the Queen’s ladies in waiting are vampires…”) with the certainty that there was no real mechanism for a right of reply.

OK, there were about sixty words issued from t’Palace, but I don’t view that as a rebuttal or a detailed counter. (If the defence counsel at my trial only submitted sixty words against the prosecution, I’d be cursing my lawyers all the way to the electric chair). We were clearly never going to get Prince Charles on Tuesday morning’s Today program, or the Queen Zoom-ing in to speak to Emily Maitlis on Newsnight.

So, although on the one hand they are murky waters to dip your toe into (I guess that should have been, on the one foot), on the other hand/foot it’s very easy to make claims of racism – because, even where there is a right of reply, any defence always sounds over-defensive, in a “no smoke without fire” kind of way.

Of course social media, never inclined to a balanced and considered debate of a topic when a polarising, ludicrous over-reaction is available, was very quick to point out that the entire fabric of English society is founded on racism, slavery, empire, colonialism, etc.

All of which is almost certainly true, but at the risk of sounding heartless, long enough ago now that it doesn’t actually impact in any actual way on anybody’s actual life. I mean, go back far enough and the Romans invaded England, but I don’t spend any time cursing the Italians for inflicting sanitation, cheese, and a Monty Python routine on us.

Besides, if we’re really going to tear down anything with a (to modern eyes) unacceptable history, let’s start with the oldest cases and work forwards. When the campaign to get those slave-built pyramids demolished has succeeded, let me know and then we’ll talk.

Slightly more worrying, in a niggling, tickly kind of way, are the cries to abolish the Monarchy. It’s often followed by pointing out the cost of the Royals – but while I agree that the civil list contains rather too many people (arguably the only thing the Queen got wrong was having four children – sticking with just the obligatory H & S would have avoided A LOT of problems) chucking the baby out with the bathwater is not the solution.

When (brace yourselves, I’m going to say it) when the Queen dies, it would only take some Farage-type chancer to stir things up, so that suddenly (despite 99% of the population never spending any time worrying about it) we’re all obliged to have an opinion. If you thought Brexit was bad, can you imagine the Monarchy Referendum…?

Many countries replace their Royals with a President, so an elected rather than a hereditary seat of power alongside the Prime Minister. For some time now, finding a suitable candidate for Prime Minister has proven a tall order – just imagine having to find a President too!

So maybe the best argument for the Monarchy is ‘better the Devil you know.’ At least with the Royals we know what we’re getting.

And for that matter, with the next three successions, who!