I was never a royalist and I am still not. I tend to think England has a rich enough history and culture to be able to stand on its own two feet, without being propped up by an outdated ideal. Reduced, some might say, to a living old-world theme park for the rest of the world, especially America
“Inherited importance” is the crown jewel of the class system- although I tend to think a system based on breeding probably has more about it, than a system based on merely wealth.
All that being said, the passing of Queen Elizabeth, leaves a sad gap in the British psyche.
In a way, it really is the last of our England- “our” being those from a certain age, span in history and value system (please note this has nothing to do with skin colour)
If Elizabeth was the bridge from Empire to modern Britain, then now she has gone so has the bridge.
We are now firmly in the modern world, where Englishness, at least the kind I am connected to, is almost entirely gone.
You may find the odd, throwback here and there, in a small village in Devon or something but beyond that, it’s nowhere to be seen
In fact, “Englishness” is almost entirely a hated notion by large swaths of England.
Orwell pointed out in his 1941 essay England Your England “It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box.”
Sadly, the thoughts that only swirled around half-lite, dusty rooms of academe in the 40s, are now, very much the thoughts of the “right on”, university brigade up and down the British Isles.
It’s gotten so bad, that for the last 20 years or so, London the nation’s capital, no longer thinks of itself as part of England. Lots of the people who live in the city, look down sneering at the rest of the country. Thinking they are enlightened. Thinking they are part of a world city detached from the rest of the country and its history, apart from the country’s values and codes
You only had to read social media around the time of Brexit to see how bad it got.
Lots actually said things like ” I want London to be its own country and stay a part of Europe. I think of myself as European not English, let the rest of the country fend for itself ”
Orwell, again shows that this mindset isn’t anything new, it’s simply more widespread now. In his essay I mentioned above he says “In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized.
They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country, they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles, it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution”
In my experience, the people in London with these views are, rarely “Real Londoners”- That is to say, the people who were born and bruised in London.
It’s nearly always people who moved to London from another part of the country. These people, at times, have a certain self-hatred and tormenting inner shame (ironically quite an English quality)
It’s like the moment they got off the train at Kings Cross, they suddenly became different people.
When they got on the train, they were shy students from Dudley but when they got off the train they had turned into Laurance Llewelyn-Bowen.
Once in London, they wanted nothing to do with the towns that made them – this is because they probably do not want to be reminded of who they actually are.
Moving to London for many is about reinvention. Thus, when one has built oneself up as a regal world citizen who lives and breathes culture, with avant-garde DNA It isn’t helpful to be reminded that one was actually raised in a rented house on a council estate. With a family whose idea of culture was going to the pub every weekend and watching Blankety Blank
Those in England (not to mention from around the World) who loath the notion of “Englishness” and who mock anyone who dares to be “proud” of their country, wasted little time with providing a now-to-be-expected, plethora of pathetically nasty Tweets- from attention-seeking journalists, university staff members and adult children, among others.
YouTube had a rash of “influencers” who made petty videos about her death for “clout”.
The common thread among nearly all these snide remarks was a, almost, complete and utter lack of knowledge about English history and what the Queen had done during her reign.
Some of the more clueless pop culture fans posted their Sex Pistols “Good Save The Queen” and Smith’s “Queen Is Dead” videos and record covers. Each one priding themselves on being independent-minded while showing instantly that they were utterly unoriginal
Most of them got it wrong, thinking both John Lydon and Morrissey (singers with the before-mentioned bands ) were attacking the Queen personally. If there is a point, you can always trust this kind of person to miss it.
They do not have the intellect to see the Sex Pistols were rabble-rousers attacking a system and Smiths delivered a work of art that mixed a state of the nation address and a more personal comment about dealing with one’s gender/sexuality – in short, it’s just as much about “A” Queen, as it is “The” Queen
John Lydon (the only real “Punk”) made this view explicit by posting a Comment on social media giving his heartfelt condolence to Elizabeth. John you see has always been a thoroughly decent and principled man.
Thankfully, the noise from the hateful was almost entirely drowned out by report after report of people praising the Queen. There was lots of footage of grown men and women crying in the street and during interviews because she had gone.
To me, there seemed to be widespread understanding that when Queen died, so did an era – similar to when David Bowie died.
It’s often said, “The past is a country you can never return to”. With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, I fear England is also. Yes, you can stand on the land but that land, maybe, all that is left
Diarist 