The British Monarchy Is Officially Toxic

What could be more non-U than throwing republican protesters in jail?

My late first wife Marjorie Williams used to joke about starting a support group called Adult Children of Anglophiles. We both came from Anglophile households, hers much more than mine, and I retain that inheritance. But I never went the whole Marmite, and I’ve always favored the republican cause (which of course is very different from the Republican cause, which I abhor). I don’t care for this business of kings and queens.

Faithful Backbencher readers, assuming there are any, will have taken note of this. In 2021 I lampooned Queen Elizabeth as a union-buster, and last fall I shared my fear that Charles III, though anachronistic from a governance point of view, stood on the cutting edge of what Thomas Piketty calls patrimonial capitalism. I don’t take sides in the spat between Harry and the royals because I think he’s a twit, too, and I resent that merely reading reviews of his memoir left me knowing more about Spare’s penis than I do about my own.

Anyway, my British anti-royalism has always felt like a bit of a goof, given its inconsequentiality. But events during coronation weekend prompted me to rethink that. You can read my New Republic piece about that here.