As a committed supporter of the many advantages of living in a country with a well established constitutional monarchy and a great admirer of the late Queen Elizabeth II and her life of service to Great Britain and the British Commonwealth over several decades, I say this with some trepidation and a heavy heart. However, how much more of her successor, King Charles III, can we afford to take?
Queen Elizabeth II, who I first set eyes on as a starstruck young teenager when her car passed slowly in front of me way back in 1969 on her way to a NATO fleet review at Spithead celebrating 25 years of NATO, was the past master of keeping any views she may have had on any particular issue to herself. As such she was always a symbol of unity and continuity within an increasingly divided country falling into decline and was admired throughout much of the world, especially throughout the Commonwealth, and by many world leaders from the era of Eisenhower and Churchill right through to that of Trump and Macron, several decades later.
Witnessing her funeral it was hard not to think that we were losing our final link to the country we once were and the people we once were, especially if we also dwelt on how things were likely to unravel under her successor, Charles III. So it has transpired, and rapidly too.
In barely a year as her successor, King Charles III threatens to speedily destroy much of her work and that of her predecessors. His notoriously close relationship with Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum already gave rise to suspicions and concerns that things would quickly come unstuck during his reign.
Charles seems unable to curb his tongue or avoid wading into hotly contested political territory. In recent weeks we have seen his alarmist views on “climate change” come to the fore yet again with his keynote speech at the recent COP28 held in Dubai.
It is one thing for a political activist, party politician or private individual to say what he said at COP28, quite another for it to come from the Head of State. His sayings cannot be indulged as the harmless witterings of an out-of-touch old man, as some still complacently like to do. And it becomes especially repugnant when we remember what the consequences of climate policies have been for ordinary UK citizens in the shape of much higher fuel and heating prices, outright falls in living standards and increasing restrictions on how we choose to travel. For that to have the seal of approval from the most privileged person in the country, the Monarch, and for him to call for even more severe measures to follow, is somewhat tone deaf to put it mildly. It is especially so when he is addressing a conference of world leaders, many of whom have done precisely nothing about carbon emissions in their own countries or indeed have actively exploited the gullibility of western nations on this issue.
“Climate change” is far from the only controversial subject Charles has embroiled himself in. His tongue has also been rather loose on the subject of slavery reparations in recent months. Now it is one thing for the Royal Family and other wealthy families with historic links to the slave trade to finance their own “reparations” for their past connections to the slave trade. It is quite another to expect the whole country to pay it for them, people whose ancestors would largely have had no connection with the slave trade and who in many cases are descended from people themselves exploited during the Industrial Revolution, driven from the countryside and being obliged to take jobs involving very long hours in mining, in factories or in a mill.
Charles should either put his own money and very considerable wealth, and that of his family, where his mouth is or finally learn how to keep quiet. As others have rightly said, reparations are another wheeze to take money from poor people in rich countries and give it to rich people in poor countries. We also intriguingly never hear anything about other countries being involved with slavery being asked to pay their share of reparations too. I wonder why? In an era where public services and infrastructure are crumbling before our very eyes, despite taxes never having been higher than they have been for decades, it is completely unacceptable.
Somebody needs to urgently rein Charles in to save him from himself. Otherwise, its only a matter of time before his position becomes untenable. How much longer can we afford a monarch actively engaged in calling for measures that can only make our own country and each one of us poorer. If this tendency on his part continues then I see it becoming less and less unthinkable to start calling for him to step aside and be replaced by somebody more suitable, preferably by the next in line to succeed him, provided they undertake to return the monarchy to the path it had been following under Elizabeth II.
An abdication crisis some 90 years after the last one? Don’t bet against it.
“I do not believe that this is an evil king. But he is confused. And he cannot say no to his wife. Therefore if it please God I shall raise an army of men who are not confused. Stern men who say no to the tyranny of kings and wives. Men who make no confusion over the ordained place of man and woman, king and subject. And with these stern, God-fearing men, I shall ride. And we shall be called Ironsides because we are like iron, being hard both day and night. And the king shall find us unyielding, like a rod of iron, and shall give us satisfaction. Like our wives!” ― Oliver Cromwell