Put ‘er there, pal
There was a video going around today of King Choss dissing Liz Truss.
All very well, but what gets my pained attention is the protocol that dictates she has to bow to him. She does it twice, a quick little bob, but it’s still a mandatory cringe. It’s revolting. She’s doing an actual job, however badly, and he’s just a relic of the absurd institution of monarchy. People shouldn’t have to make propitiatory gestures to talentless firstborn sons who have some genes in common with Queen Victoria. It’s silly and it’s degrading.
Oh I dunno. The yet to be crowned King Charles is supposed to be the personification of the State, with the power to dissolve Parliament and immediately call a fresh election should the argy-bargy in there get beyond conventional limits.
Truss could have made it a trifle less degrading by saying something like: “Thanks a lot, King,” in a manner well-bred. “Hope that equine flatulence problem has been sorted out down at the Royal Stables.” Something like that.
Does Chuckles not know he has a weekly meeting with the PM? He doesn’t realise a
Truss is PM? Misogyny? Dementia?
On top of that, she’s curtsying to him. Is it really worth it, Liz?
Perhaps he’s heard about the way she has managed to tank the economy, and is surprised that she hasn’t been replaced already.
Yebbut my point is about this required bowing and scraping. Setting aside the specific people and their specific views, policies, plans – the mandatory groveling. It offends me the way blasphemy offends theocrats. Why should anyone on the planet be groveling to Charles Windsor?
In a word.
All this royal protocol would cause me to seethe if I were a PM there or in any of the remaining European monarchies. I mean, what do they actually do except perform ceremonal functions and collect cash?
And what’s the difference between a Queen Consort and a Queen? Why wasn’t Phillip a King Consort? And why do so many people, especially Americans, feel like it’s worth the energy to hate on Megan Markle?
These are rhetorical questions and I don’t really care for the answers, It’s more important that whoever is the new Chancellor doesn’t go half-cocked on a scheme that will make life even harder in the UK.
what i don’t get is how much attention American popular culture gives to the royals. The steadily declining in quality magazine section at my good local supermarket has multiple full color tomes about them. Odd.
Just for the record, it’s not actually mandatory these days. She does it because, being a politician, she is making the calculation that, given the popularity of the monarchy, it is in her interests to do so. But all the power is still with her.
Royal protocol nowadays says: “There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms. For men this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way.
Had Jeremy Corbyn ever been PM, meeting the late Queen, I’d bet he would not have bowed.
Oh, interesting.
In that case I think the monarchy should make it a request rather than an option. “Please don’t bow and scrape, it makes both parties look bad.”