THE huge outpouring of public popular support for the Queen will not be easy for republicans to take. We’ve seen considerable size of crowds throng to line the High Street – not the Royal Mile – as the funeral cortege made its way to Holyrood Palace. We’ll see yet more as she lies in state in Edinburgh.
In doing so, tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people in Scotland seem to be enthusiastically supporting their own economic and political subjugation – as subjects and not citizens. Indeed, this seems to set the case back for a republic by many decades. But is it all actually what it seems to be?
First, the mourning will pass and normal political life will resume soon enough. Here, the cost of living crisis will cruelly continue. By Tuesday September 20, many will be suffering from burnout despite the public holiday, believing media coverage was another unjustified case of overkill.
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Second, there is ample evidence that Elizabeth is held in far greater affection than Charles is or will be so it’s not self-evident that this affection will bolster the monarchy as an institution in a lasting way. The reaction to his coronation is likely to give us a flavour of that.
Third, and far more importantly, there is a long-term decline in support for the monarchy north – and south – of the Border which the Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier this year also masked.
Polls consistently show support for the monarchy has dropped sharply over the last five to 10 years, from three quarters to half, while support for its abolition has risen to more than one in four. In Scotland, support for an elected head of state is much higher than in England.
Part of the fall in support comes from the tectonic shifts in social attitudes. There is more recognition of the savagery of British’s imperial past and Scotland’s role in this.
As would then be expected, support for the monarchy has fallen amongst the younger generation. The staunchest monarchists are amongst the elderly.
But part of the fall also comes from a growing recognition of the rising levels of inequality in our society, where the monarchy is regarded increasingly as a drain on public resources when so many public services have been cut, cut and cut again.
The cost of the monarchy is around £345m a year. Then there is their massive land owning and other wealth that could be used to fund public services upon abolition. All this gives grist to the mill of what 18th century philosopher and republican, Thomas Paine, famously stated: “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
But how are republicans to advance their agenda of economic and political liberation? It will still be a tricky terrain on which to move forward. Labour Party leaders have never been anything other than staunch royalists and monarchists. Even though there have long been high-profile British republicans in Labour like Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn, we should not expect any movement here.
But the damage done to the SNP may be more damning as a result of Nicola Sturgeon’s obsequious statements, highlighting her and the SNP leadership’s conservative vision of independence. Notwithstanding the comments of Chris McEleny, the general secretary of Alba, the same is true for Alba with Salmond’s supine statement. Those looking back to socialist sons of Scotland like John Maclean and James Connolly and their staunch socialist republicanism will be mightily disappointed and disheartened.
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The only political parties to emerge with any integrity in this affair are the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party. However, the Scottish Greens did somewhat undermine their own 2012 statement of “A hereditary monarchy is incompatible with Green principles of democracy, equality and fairness. We favour an elected head of state”, with co-leader Lorna Slater’s statement of condolences.
It is from radicals and socialists that the argument will be made that not only do kings and queens personally represent the public pinnacle of inequalities in wealth and power – but also that the institution of the monarchy is a prop to the system of inequality in wealth and power that scars our society.
Professor Gregor Gall is editor of A New Scotland: Building an Equal, Fair and Sustainable Society (Pluto Press, 2022)
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