Putting One's Foot in One's Mouth!

Near the beginning of the wonderful film 'The King’s Speech' the elderly King George V reminds the Royal family that with the coming of radio and cinemas they – the Royal family – are on show to the ordinary man and can no longer live in their little cocooned world. This puts great pressure on the young Bertie – who, against his wishes, finds himself King George VI a few years later. He cannot hide his speech impediment from the world’s prying eyes and comment.

Flyer for the King's Speech

I have thought about this in the last few days as we have witnessed the sad mess that the Queen’s son, Prince Andrew, has got himself into – again!

As  a very young child I can remember three royal events. Firstly being taken by my mother and auntie and standing in what seemed an endless queue as we waited to see the royal wedding dress when it toured the country after the Queen’s marriage in 1948. Then, very much imprinted on my mind, was something I thought of several times as I watched 'The King’s Speech'. I vividly remember one bleak, cold morning in 1952 when I was about seven sitting in my school class in Preston. The teacher told us to line up at the door and we were shepherded into the hall. It was mid morning – not the usual assembly time so we knew that 'something was up'. We sat down in silence and then the head teacher tearfully announced that 'The King is dead'. It was remote and meaningless but we all knew it was of importance. A prayer was said and then we were told that the school would close for the rest of the day as a mark of respect and that we should go home. Half an hour later I was banging on my front door. I was lucky, my mother did not work – other children just sat on their doorsteps for the rest of the day until parents came home from work – and when she came to the door I told her the news – she did not know. And I remember her too crying. It wouldn’t happen today – any head teacher who did that would soon find themselves in trouble – parents, OFSTED, local council, social services, Michael Gove, tabloid newspapers –they would all be having a go. They might be right to do so, but it is perhaps a measure of how much the world has changed and how much our relationship and response to royalty has altered. The other event was a year later when I came remember squashing into my Uncle’s tiny front room together with crowds of other local people to watch the coronation of our present Queen on his tiny black and white TV. Seeing the thousands filling the London streets – everyone on the TV and in that front room it seemed unquestionably loyal to the young woman who was wearing the crown.

Bertie with his family

Looking back, the pomp and majesty of that occasion seemed to have some significance and relevance – and it still does, even today when I see the old grainy films on TV. It seems to me that it was a world that largely still respected the notion of a royal family – it seemed then somehow right. The end of the last war was still very fresh in the minds of people and the royal family were, I suppose, the personification of the nation’s struggle to victory.  But, I’m not sure it would be quite the same today. True, there would be the vast crowds and the cheering. True, the ceremony would be almost exactly the same – but I have this awful fear that it might all be a bit of a show biz event and simply an excuse for a good day out or a few beers down the local while we watch it on the big screen. No more or less than a big football match! In 1952 the people were, I believe, largely expressing their loyalty, respect,  support and love for the new monarch in whom they placed their trust. Today, however, I think it would be simply a bit of glitzy, perhaps tacky fun – a glorious bit of theatre where those attending the wedding would include pop stars, footballers, TV entertainers, high executives, doyens of the hospitality circuit, top chefs – and it would often be these that the crowds would cheer not the notion of loyalty and national pride.

Prince Andrew - a man used to
putting his foot into his mouth

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not a paid up member of the patriotic flag waving brigade! I just think times have changed – not better or worse – just different. My wife tells me that she will be settling down to watch the latest royal wedding at the end of April (I think I have another engagement on that day!) – but I think it’s the appeal of a wedding, the frock and the glitzy occasion that is the appeal rather than any great patriotic and royalist belief. I think this a significant change in the national consciousness. The problem for the royals today is the basic contradiction of their position in the modern world.

Part of the problem is that the royal family  cannot be formally criticised or taken to task. The normal rules do not apply. The royals are protected from public accountability by law. The other part of the problem is that they are, by their very nature, brought up in an environment quite removed from the everyday. True, they occasionally make a foray into the real world – they shake hands, attend a theatre, open a public building even become a member of the armed forces but they are still highly protected and removed, not real – but they cannot have any understanding of the ordinary man and his/her world. They are the pinnacle of a system of aristocratic government that bizarrely exists in what is allegedly  a democracy – only we Brits could think up a system like that! – and as such are always going to look and act a bit dotty.

Although I find Andrew and his brothers quite nutty and it worries me that they hold such privileged and potentially powerful positions with little to substantiate their position except an accident of birth I’m not likely to lead the charge to set up a guillotine to behead all royals.  I just find them a bit irrelevant and bizarre.  I do feel sorry for the Queen - whatever my views on the rights and wrongs of royalty she has, I believe, throughout my life time been an influence for good and has conducted herself and her position with immaculate and impressive attention to detail, goodwill and sincerity.  But the poor woman must at times despair with her family. I understand that she enjoys the TV programme  'Dad’s Army' – if she does then she must oft use Captain Mainwaring’s phrase to the young Pike – 'Stupid Boy' when talking to her various sons.! I wonder what she must have said or say to their wives!  I think old King George V was right – he knew his family were in a changing situation  and that things would never be the same again. Andrew’s many and latest gaffes are merely example of this – obviously, though Andrew is a rather slow learner (probably in the genes!) and he hasn’t learned the lesson. His great grandfather would clearly have given him a hard time!

Marie Antoinette - did not endear
 herself to her people, although it's
 probably a myth that she told them
 to eat cake! 

But Andrew is  not alone. Royals have always had a bit of a reputation for dropping 'clangers' or saying things which the rest of us would find difficulty in getting away with. Marie Antoinette didn't do her reputation any good in the run up to the French Revolution!  The Duke of Edinburgh is well known for his outbursts and forthright views! Prince Charles is an expert in putting his foot in his mouth.  Most of it is pretty harmless stuff  but occasionally one comes across bits which make me think.

The much loved Queen Mother – a lady who is portrayed in the film 'The King’s Speech' very positively  – was not above expressing her right wing views. Indeed, if she expressed them today, it is very likely that she would cause quite a stir. When  Clement Attlee became the Labour Prime Minister at the end of the war she was horrified.  A letter from her on  17 May 1947, showed 'her decided lack of enthusiasm for the socialist government' and described the British electorate as 'poor people, so many half-educated and bemused' for electing Attlee over Winston Churchill. Similarly, her husband, King George, when Attlee attended the Palace for the kissing of hands on his election and formation of the government was greeted with silence. The story goes that  Attlee and the King stood for some minutes in silence, before Attlee finally broke protocol and spoke first by saying  'Your majesty, I've won the election.' The King replied 'I know. I heard it on the Six O'Clock News.' I doubt it would happen today without the press commenting. Imagine if Prince Andrew had said this!  But moving on from the royals Churchill, the defeated politician of the time and himself  of aristocratic birth, commented on Atlee 'A modest man, but then he has so much to be modest about.'

Now all this might be good knock about stuff, and in the end everyone is entitled to their opinion but despite these royal viewpoints the legacy of Attlee’s government is still with us today seventy years later. This 'modest man' who was elected by 'poor people, so many half educated and bemused' laid the foundations of modern Britain and so many things that we take for granted and treasure. The welfare state, the national health service, the raised living standards of millions through his Keynesian policy of full employment and increasing educational opportunity, the nationalisation of and investment in  basic utilities and the consequent improved access to them for ordinary people were all due to Attlee’s government. He has, in numerous surveys, been voted the greatest British PM of the 20^th century.

A very modest man, Attlee
 with King George VI

So, all in all, the views of the royals and the nutty behaviour of Prince Andrew should perhaps be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt – they are, in the final analysis, the opinions of people with no knowledge of society or any real empathy with the ordinary man. At a time when the NHS is under some considerable threat and where the welfare state plays such a critical part in the life of the nation it might be useful to have a referendum. The question might be put:  'In these times of austerity should we keep the monarchy or the NHS (or welfare state etc)?' I suspect that Atlee might have the last laugh!

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