A Royal Wedding

I struggled to surpress my anger at the attention given to the Royal Wedding. There are various reasons for this, but the first is: the attention given to something comparatively trivial while meanwhile we face huge  public spending cuts as well as fundamental changes to the role of the state which are coming so thick and fast that there is virtually no public debate about them.

The second reason is the fawning reverence paid to these people because they are "royal". In a modern democracy, it seems bizarre to me that the public are still prepared to treat these people as their superiors purely by virtue of their birth. BBC radio, with no irony at all, used the word "commoner" to describe Kate Middleton on various occassions. I nearly choked at this before quickly checking the date to enure that I hadn't woken up in 1510. At least the Guardian had the sense to put it in inverted commas.

In fact the very concept of "royalty" is one which is deeply problematic, especially in the UK. By having an hereditary institution at the heart of the constitution and government, as well as holding a central place in the national psyche, we normalise the notion of inherited privilidge and power, we accept the fundamental birthright of some to be superior than others, to be ruled over by a class of people considered superior by virtue of their birth. This is entirely antithetical to our democracy and to the notion that all people should have equality of opportunity.

I have no qualm with the royal family as individuals (in fact I think the Queen executes her duty with both dignity and good sense) but I feel the institution of the monarchy conflicts so deeply with so many principals that we purport to hold dear and preach to others that I'm not sure how it is compatible with these.

It would be interesting to compare the modern obsession with celebrity and both past and present infatuation with royalty. Both feel somewhat hollow and deluded to me, but appear to fix the attention of the media and populace in a way which seems strangely unhealthy to me.