The Monarchy

With less than a day before the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, t.v. channels seem to have gone berserk, getting every chance they can to provide fodder for hungry viewers. Daily reports and interviews with people close to the royal family, inquiries into what the bride will be wearing, what will her tiara look like and whether she’ll be able to adjust to royal life and explaining the convoluted family tree of the royals are some of the subjects covered by news channels.
All this brouhaha over royal weddings, state visits, OBEs, MBEs, and other honours, inaugurations, visits to different towns and donations to charities, does pose an interesting question. How relevant is the monarchy today? It’s still keeping the past alive, by being present and active today. But is it really needed? In the past, during occasions like wars, the monarchy was successful in raising the morale and confidence of the people and providing support. They were considered glamorous and very much needed. But now, its popularity is steadily declining and people are left questioning whether the monarchy should really continue or should effectively become inert. After the death of Princess Diana, the monarch’s biggest critic, people lost their faith in the system and attacked it for its old fashioned ways. What I absolutely hate is when a non-royal is described as a ‘commoner’. It shows that there still seems to be some sort of a class system, which is a constant reminder of the monarchy’s superior status. They've come under fire for their poshness, snobbery and an old-fashioned outlook to life. Heavy expenditure incurred on their part for visits abroad, just show the dearth of wealth they’ve been furnished with. Is an institution as gargantuan as the monarchy, that’s been around since the 11th Century, really required to still co-exist with a fast-paced nation?
An interesting fact: before Queen Elizabeth’s wedding in 1947, the Parliament asked the designer of her wedding dress to give a detailed explanation of the expenses incurred on the dress, including the type of silkworms to be reared and the nationality of the silkworms in question. Now that’s royalty!
Monarchs cannot make laws and cannot engage in politics. They can only rule. But Britain’s got a full-fledged modern-day democratic government, making policies and transforming the nation. So the monarchy right now, is just…there.
BBC Entertainment has started airing documentaries on the British Monarchy. They show what the members of the royal family get upto each day, the copious amounts of work undertaken by the royal staff and how The Queen is kept apace with the country’s political affairs by the Prime Minister. The real purpose seems to be that they want to show an actively working monarchy, not just aging aristocrats who lounge in chairs and eat scones all day. Members of the royal family are really shown to be working, though not in the usual sense of the word. They’ve been shown to sign important documents that are needed to be signed, inaugurating and attending events and engaging in the art of small talk and asking of questions and supplementary questions. It is quite exhausting, but there’s always a massive car with armed bodyguards to accompany them.
One thing we’ve all got to remember is that the monarchs are people who are born into the job. They’ve got a predestined future ahead of them. Some have it easier than others but the ones who are slated to be future kings and queens hold a real burden since they can’t really be anything else other than what is required by the monarchy. They’ve got to undergo a thorough training of how to behave in public, in order to perform royal duties. If they try to have a normal job like the rest of us 'commoners', they are brutally attacked by the media. Their personal lives are constantly scrutinized and documented. In a way, they do lead a normal life. Just a disconcertingly different normal life.
Today, the royals are promptly trying to connect with all sections of British society to show them ardently and diligently going about their work. With the press and the internet at their disposal, they’ve been making efforts to reach out to the public. They are heavily engaged in charity work, especially Princess Anne, who is a patron of over 200 charities.