"You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out... Because the revolution will not be televised."
So wrote Gil Scott-Heron in 1970 - three years before my own birth - about the revolution that was and is the civil rights movement in the US: a revolution that, by European standards, has not achieved much that it set out to.
And much of it was not televised. Coverage focussed on the symptoms of the problems the fractious movement was trying to address - not their causes or honest solutions to them.
Despite the respect shown in the moments following the announcement none of us wanted to hear, I have grown weary of the minute-by-minute television coverage of the death of Her Late Majesty Elizabeth II.
Broadcasters warbled glibly hours after her death that she presided over a revolution - that we have become 'new Elizabethans' - yet in support of their soundbites all they offer is thin hearsay coverage of who will wear what where; which dignitaries get flown, and which have to drive; who has fallen out with whom in the Royal Household, and an awful lot about balcony access rights.
Revolution in this United Kingdom is nothing to do with legacy or labels - our late Queen would likely be horrified by the suggestion.
It is about maintaining that gently-evolving continuity that gives us a fuzzy reassurance when we see the bearskins and horse-drawn carriages on the Mall, and which nations from Chile to China have tried, but failed, to emulate.
This is not about royalty - no family is perfect. The House of Windsor has just lost a well beloved and pastoral matriarch, and its lodestone, practically without notice.
Their fortitude in the face of grief and the media glare deserves nothing but our heartfelt respect.
This quiet revolution is about measured monarchy, and how our sovereign can help embody, promote and defend our sovereignty; our identity, ideals and ideas; our leadership role on the world stage - taking seriously our historical responsibility to other nations, as well as our future among them.
We are all facing huge instability. Yes - the post-Covid recovery, energy supply and the cost of living - but also more fundamental problems, like the decline of the traditional UK family unit, revealed in a recent study by the Children’s Commissioner.
We would be mad not to want to do something about all of these things.
But the real British revolution is not about quick and extreme change - out with the old and in with the new.
It is achieving - through stability - a sense of control and continuity for ourselves in the midst of the new international maelstrom of insecurity and obscured threats - unbadged soldiers, cyber warfare and economic blackmail by nation states.
So, the revolution should be televised. In 1970 TV was one-way communication. There is no longer an excuse for promoting the views of pundits over the views of the public.
The BBC's Question Time, for example, has its place, but let’s encourage modes of media debate that focus not only on symptoms of problems, but causes, preventions and outcomes for British people.
These must demonstrate our quiet version of revolution: mistrust of populism and inflicting our irresponsibility on our grandchildren; a polite but firm objection to being told what to do, think, say and pay; a personal and collective generosity of spirit to help break vicious cycles of crime, poor health, loneliness and apathy - the true enemy within.
If Charles III, ably supported by The Queen, can unite our national family under his reign, and as a monarch who understands the media can encourage - through his understanding of and concern for his people and our planet - the real revolution to be televised and engaged in, then I say this:
Televise the revolution properly. Hold on to reason, continuity, and stability. Honour the memory of Elizabeth II. And God save the King.
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