Interesting and pretty funny article I thought and one piece that stuck out to me,
But there is also something more sinister brewing here. Hospital appointments on the day of the queen’s funeral are cancelled. Food banks are closed. Normal people’s funerals are also cancelled. On the day the queen died, Liz Truss, our new prime minister, quietly lifted the ban on fracking in this country and also announced a plan to relieve Britons of crippling energy bills this winter without explaining where that money is going to come from. I’m not suggesting that anybody offed the queen early for political expediency, but parliament will now be closed for a month: again, to respect the dead queen.
Yeahhh. All of this, despite the genuine affection I realize many people (hell, even myself as an American) had for Lizzie really stinks of the archaic energy of monarchy. But I digress.
The important thing to note is that these decisions were taken by the government, not by the King or even 'the Palace'. Rather amusingly it has already been briefed that he does not approve of everyone going full Stop All The Clocks over his mother's death and that the decision to call a Bank Holiday at very short notice (which has caused the largest amount of disruption, particularly in the health service)* was entirely down to the government - which, of course, it has to have been. It is certainly possible that a new administration is trying (rather ineptly and it would seem not particularly successfully) to use the Queen's death and funeral for political ends, but that would not be on the monarchy itself, either as an institution or as a general principle.
N.B. on fracking we can be... aha... reasonably sure that our new monarch is not a massive fan. Not that he can do anything other than complain in private, but it means that joining the dots, again, leads to political decisions by the elected government, not the institution of the monarchy (whatever you think of it).
Again, there's nothing but long-standing convention keeping King Charles from expressing his political opinions. The guy pays all the taxes he's legally required to, why shouldn't he express his opinions on subjects he cares about?
I rather think that not expressing their opinions on matters is a detriment to the popularity of European Royalty. If King Charles actively engaged in promoting good things such as environmental protections and so forth, on issues he has a passion for, and actively engaged in keeping His Government's feet to the fire, the public would, I think, thank him for it.
