From climate activists to arts bodies, every interest group will be crying out for the support of our outspoken monarch
So much for the magic, now for business. The coronation weekend reasserted Britain not as a modest, symbolic, “bicycling” monarchy of the sort adopted by many of Europe’s other hereditary kingdoms. Its royal family remains spectacular, drenched in history, religion, ritual and extravagance, an all-bells-and-whistles celebrity institution. Heredity is indefensible as a basis for high office, but it can survive if legitimised by consent. A king should indeed enjoy popular support, or he is nothing. But the question remains: is this popularity more safely guaranteed by unobtrusive moderation or by great congregations of soldiers, golden coaches, screaming jets, pop stars, bishops and God?
In his study of monarchy, the constitutionalist Vernon Bogdanor classified Britain as a “magic monarchy”. It respected the writer Walter Bagehot’s concept of a “mystical and theatrical” institution, kept wholly distinct from the grimmer realities of democratic government. That was the past weekend in spades. I lost count of the references to God, but there was no mention of parliament or democracy. Not even China’s Xi Jinping or Russia’s Vladimir Putin would have dared summon millions to watch them unclothe and disappear into a cubicle to commune with the almighty as the central legitimating act of their office. Is Britain completely mad?
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
