AS we noted two days ago, the public mood is not republican. The
corollary of that is simple: we want a monarch we can respect and regard
with affection. The Queen herself has never been in serious danger of
losing that respect or affection. But the puerile antics of some cadet
members of the royal family -- and the apparent inability of her
children to sustain their marriages -- have placed the institution of
the monarchy under greater strain than it has been for several
generations. And as the Queen is the supreme symbol of the institution,
some of the opprobrium directed at the younger royals was bound to stick
to her. What was needed to revive public esteem was a significant
gesture. In the dark days of the war, the Queen's father and mother
engendered enormous public goodwill by simply refusing to move from
Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. When the palace was bombed in
September, 1940, the royal family were justifiably perceived to be
living in solidarity with the blitzed families of the East End of
London.
What the Queen did yesterday, in agreeing to be taxed, was a similar
gesture. It was a signal that as a woman of wealth she wanted to show
solidarity with her subjects in these straitened and difficult times. It
would be absurd to compare our current economic predicament, serious as
it is, with the crisis of 1940, when the nation was battling for its
very survival. Yet in the 1990s many British people are experiencing
acute uncertainty and financial stress. At a stroke, the monarch has
shown that she does not wish to be perceived as aloof, apart, and
indifferent. The Exchequer may not benefit from her gesture by as much
as the wilder projections of her allegedly colossal income have
indicated. But this gesture is not about public finance; it is rather
about personal goodwill.
There remains the longer problem of the royal family: the frivolity
and immaturity of its younger members. The Queen has acted; it would now
be fitting if some of the other royals showed a little respect for the
rest of the nation and worked a little harder, both at their own
personal relationships and at their wider responsibilities. The eventual
wellbeing of the monarchy does not rest with the Queen, or her often
underestimated consort, or indeed her venerable mother, but rather with
the young folk who have so far failed the test of public scrutiny
lamentably.
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