It
works like this. The king no longer rules,
he and family are in charge of British
Public Relations. This includes a lot of boring stuff, ribbon cutting at a
local senior center, honoring some British scientist, etc. They use lots of
pomp and circumstance that tourists love and so it is a net win for UK to keep
them funded—about the same price as
running a single NFL team with lots more ancilatory sales. In projecting a good image, they are stuffy
and boring, which has led a lot of Brits to shrug and say, “Let’s abolish the
monarchy.” Exactly what the monarchy DOESN’T WANT. So they leak a lot of
snippets of life of the royal family to give some spice to things. Most the the Brits would rather see an occasional
fight, rather than the Queen's Welsh Corgis, but this threatens the
Institution. So they hide most spats.
Thus the paparazzi are fed and watered with trivia, but nothing is damaged.
When a new person arrives on the
scene, a child grown up or a new wife, they can be quite unsettling, not just
to the family that has learned to be quite formal and stuffed shirted, but also
the staff who have been working with them for decades. And the staff are the ones who do most of the
leaking to the tabloids. Such a newcomer was Diana, who wanted to cuddle her
kids instead of assigning them to a nanny or farming out their coming of age to
some crusty uncle who has a castle on the Scottish coast. Diana was mom in the
modern romantic sense. Ah, but there has
hardly been an English king going back to Alfred the Great who didn’t have
mistresses. So Charles and Diana had such a problem and her usurpation of staff's job of child rearing, ticked off the leak-givers. All manner of events were retold by the
tabloids that cast Diana in a poor light.
When Harry and Meghan married, the
same oblique criticism of his new bride had already taken place. Eventually, after it began it became a veiled
racism by that minority of the press who wanted to indulge it. Harry is pissed that no one rushed to defend
his love, and so he did. The leaks were lies, after all. Her approval ratings slid to low levels and
she was offended, but according to Harry, no one at the palace wanted to talk
about it. He clamored for audience over
this, but was rebuffed by the Queen’s staff (one of whom has now resigned,
having been caught in a rather dogged race-laced grilling of another British
citizen of Caribbean/African descent.) Meghan moved to Canada. Harry said he
wanted to do less royal work. Finally a
meeting was arranged but he confronted a sheet of choices ranging from “Get out”
to “stay completely in.” He chose a
middling option, to step down from royal duties somewhat, and he claims that his
brother, William started screaming at him over his desires. Willie wanted complete support and likely
doesn’t like all that ceremonial ground-breaking for all those darned recreational
centers and bridges.
The upshot of this is that the world
has the spectacle of a royal donnybrook, just what the commoner Brits want to spawn
their discussions rather than that losing futball team. Harry and Meghan are making money off it.
People are interested worldwide. And in
the end nothing much happens to the stuffed shirts in Buckingham palace,
whether you are a sympathizer or not of H&M. The Institution goes on. The only tragedy, from an American point of
view is that the monarchy failed to integrate a very attractive and entertaining
mixed-race member along with her interesting red-haired flame. And with it, world-wide
interest in the British monarchy drops a notch.
It is as if the chefs of a high-class restaurant ran off Guy Fieri and
none of the valets wanted to park his lousy old car.
