It’s getting a tad more uncomfortable for the royal family in terms of a questioning, incredulous younger demographic. How is the concept of inherited wealth and privilege going down with a generation that venerates equality? Jubilee triumph aside, there’s a groundswell of fresh scepticism as a younger generation absorbs the optics of the royals and finds them wanting. There are quite a few memes of anachronistic golden thrones and funny soldier types in tall black hats taking themselves very, very seriously. As a 12-year-old boy protested recently to The Times: “All the royals do is get born. It’s just not very fair.”
Welcome to the new generational way of thinking. In a YouGov poll published just before the Jubilee, only 9 per cent of British young people said the monarchy makes their nation great. What would be the result if that poll were conducted in Australia? Anthony Albanese has announced Matt Thistlethwaite as our new Assistant Minister for a Republic, putting the issue squarely on the table.
Don’t get me wrong, Queen Elizabeth is a marvel; her stoicism, humility, strategic smarts and sense of duty are deeply admired. But modern sentiment is overtaking her world. Empire and monarchy are being called into question in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Britain’s toppling of statues, the Andrew idiocy and the failure of the royal family to capitalise on the PR coup of a having a mixed race, independently successful woman in its midst.
Let’s face it, our royal family is stained by its colonial past. An imperial war tactic is to claim that a nation doesn’t exist and then take it over – which is exactly what happened to our continent in the 18th century. Yet unlike some other countries this year in the Queen’s dominion, we’re not getting restive about the brutal facts of our past. Fresh rumbles of discontent began in March with William and Kate and their Caribbean tour. There was unexpected pushback from pesky subjects, calls for reparation, refusal to play along with the fantasy. How much longer could the monarchy maintain its fictions? Photo ops had to be abandoned, others went ahead with unfortunate echoes of the Raj. Within royal circles, the tour was considered a disaster.
Soon after, Sophie and Edward hit the Caribbean and were asked by a St Lucia radio host, “What have we done to deserve this trip?” Curiously, Anne slipped under the radar in Australia when she opened Sydney’s Royal Easter Show in April. It was all very low key and to the royal family, Australia must have passed its test with flying colours after the Caribbean turbulence. Was that because of our deference – or indifference?
May brought the internet mockery of the Queen’s Speech, which Charles delivered in his mother’s stead. The object of mirth? The optics of a ludicrous, Disneyesque golden throne as our future king intoned about “easing the cost of living”. Who are these people, the younger generation laughed. A new generation is in the ascendant and the scales are falling from their eyes. To revere the royal family – to believe in the fantasy – is to perceive that they’re somehow above us, special, exemplary. Er, Prince Andrew? Charles?
For Russians, it’s illegal to apply the loaded word “war” to the situation in Ukraine. For Australians, the term “war” is still a matter of contention when describing the displacement of indigenous people from their lands. The Queen’s Caribbean nations are getting restive as they examine the horrors of their colonial past, yet most of us in Australia are pliant in comparison. For how many more years can the monarchist fiction with all its trappings be maintained?
Novelist Hilary Mantel says the royals will be gone within two decades. Is indifference better than agitation? If I were the royals, I’d be worried about both.
The perfect late summer salad
If your peaches are already super sweet, don’t even bother grilling them.
A Greek salad with the lot, and then some
The surprise here is the stone fruit, which pops with sour–sweetness to elevate the lot.