NORMAL LIFE: We NEED The Queen (Mail On Sunday, 1/10/2006)

Sometimes you come across some clear, succint peices of writing in the media and I just had to reproduce here one such example. The author, Peter Hitchens, has his own blog which features topical writing written in a convincingly clever way. His blog can be reached online here.

Two lazy and fashionable republicans have now been converted to the monarchist cause, simply by learning something about it. First, Helen Mirren played the Queen in a film and realised what a serious and devoted person she is. Now Jeremy Pazman has emerged from the royal presence at Sandringham mumbling that perhaps a monarchy isn't such a bad thing after all. Such perception.

Actually, these facts are blindingly obvious to anyone not on the dreary, conformist Left to which my generation almost universally belongs. Constitutional monarchy is an excellent system. Of the seven longest-lasting free, democratic and law-governed nations in the world, five are monarchies and four have Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.

There's nothing especially free or good about being a republic. The German Weimar Republic bought the National Socialists to power quite legally and its constitution did not need changing to allow Hitler to govern as a despotic, murderous warloard for 12 terrible years. Apartheid South Africa was a republic and so was East Germany. North Korea and China are republics.

In Britain, is had been easier to criticise Tony Blair than for Americans to criticise George W. Bush for their stupid war. Why? Because Mr Bush is head of state and so can claim that his opponents are unpatriotic. In the UK, because we have a monarch, you can be as rude as you like about the Prime Minister without having your loyalty called into question.

There are plenty of other reasons for favouring a hereditary head of state. They don't take much effort to work out. What's interesting is that Mirren - a descendent of refugees from the Bolshevik's for heaven's sake - and Paxman, an educated man versed in Shakespeare, has gone through most of their adult lives believing it was virtuous to be republicans.

In the same way they have been brought up to sneer about dozens of other things about Britain that are good, fair and benevolent. Many of these have already been vandalised, abolished or undermined. How long will it take this poisoned, deluded generation to realise that they inherited a precious legacy and that it should be treasured rather than trashed?

Afterthought:-

I can somehow relate to Peter Hitchens' article. Firstly, living in Finland, I am living in a republic. While we have that democracy-in-disguise, Russia, to the East, we have a bloc of constitutional monarchies to the West comprising of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. During my time in Finland, the natives have often looked down on the British royal family, no doubt the most prolific royals in the world. Given a choice of a consistent figurehead over one who can be replaced every four-to-five years through democratic election, I would rather have the consistent figurehead.

The Australians felt the same way when they (albeit narrowly) chose to retain Queen Elizabeth II as their Head of State a few years back. Another legacy of being British is the Commonwealth, that thing that British children are not taught about at school. Somehow, I missed that part of my history education - I think there's some element of shame attached to the Empire, but the modern Commonwealth is truly a legacy worth preserving.

Who else in the world can boast of 'an association of 53 independent states consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoples and in the promotion of international understanding and world peace...drawn from the broadest range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions'? The strengthening factor is that each of those nations voluntary renew their membership every four years. While the Commonwealth was initially built up by force, the modern concept is an admirable one that unites 1.8 billion citizens, more than 30% of the world’s population.

Next time a Finn looks down on my nation's royal family, I asked in return: Nokia mobile phones aside, what have you contributed to the world?