The writer is a professor of history at Princeton University
The coronation of Charles III this Saturday will involve many things. What it won’t do, however, is lock down and safely reproduce the tradition. How could he?
For part of its history, what is now the United Kingdom was divided between different royal dynasties, not ruled by a single king. Conversely, there have sometimes been no monarchs accepted here. During the British republic from 1649 to 1660, the oldest crown jewels were simply melted down. Even in relatively stable times, there have been flows. Monarchs were crowned at different stages of their reign, and with very different levels of expense and ritual. The ornate coronation of George IV in 1821, with its mock medieval garb, cost three times as much as that of Queen Victoria in 1838. Who got privileged access to these events also fluctuated. It was not until the coronation of George VI in 1937 that influential Africans seem to have been admitted to Westminster Abbey to watch the spectacle.
Events this time should be different again. The royal procession will be much shorter. Those invited to the Abbey will be more ethnically and socially diverse than ever before; and one coronation a service that once trumpeted the primacy of the Church of England, will now be led by clerics of several denominations.
In one respect, these projected changes seemed wrong. It was belatedly decided to replace the act of homage by peers inside the abbey with an act of “homage of the people”, performed by as many people as they wish in the ordinary halls and streets. from the country. Presumably, officials saw this as a wonderfully inclusive coup. But, of course, it lays bare the austere hierarchies that hide behind the glitter. The year is 2023. Should the inhabitants of these islands and beyond really be encouraged to participate in a ritual that has its origins in feudal law?
That they are so encouraged is, for some, further demonstration of why, until the monarchy is removed, the UK will never be able to evolve into a fully modern and democratic state. Yet, while it is certainly possible to dispense with the monarchy (just as he can do to preserve it), a reduced constitutional monarchy is not the most insidious and threatening feature of the current British political scene. . Indeed, even if the abolition of the British monarchy appeared feasible (which is not currently the case), such a step could well divert attention from political and organizational changes that are much more vital.
The list of essentials political changes it’s long. But at the top must be reform of parliament in Westminster and Whitehall. We need high caliber MPs who are also better paid. We need the House of Lords to be drastically reduced in number and systematically redesigned. We need tighter controls on corruption and lobbying. We need a modern electoral system that better reflects the diversity of opinions.
With regard to the main parties, we must change the system whereby a small number of registered activists in the constituencies can determine the choice of the leader, and thus impose on the whole nation Liz Truss on one side and Jeremy Corbyn on the other. The other. But we also need something much broader.
One of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s most insightful analyzes of Turkey captures a problem that plagued many empires of yore. “Nations that were great empires never forget this fact,” wrote the scholar Soner Çağaptay, “and they often have a malleable and exaggerated sense of their glory days and a story about why they are no longer an empire”.
The consequences, he continues, can be pernicious: “a combustible mix of pride in an idealized past, grievances over lost or stolen greatness, and . . . vulnerability to manipulation by effective politicians”. This pretty much explains why so many voters in post-imperial Britain were won over by the pro-Brexit arguments.
Many supporters of Britain’s departure from the EU cared little about the economy or even immigration. Rather, they were in pursuit of hope and wanted to believe that simply cutting ties with Brussels would in itself lead to a new era and better prospects, the so-called global Britain. These hopes were dashed.
Britain badly needs to moderate its self-deceptive sense of exceptionalism. On Saturday, broadcasters will no doubt argue that the coronation embodies centuries-old national traditions and that the wonderfully choreographed festivities are part of what makes us so special. But while it’s all fun, Saturday is just a brief holiday. Substantial challenges will persist.
—————————————————-
Source link