the fabric of our politics

That Day Some of you might be moderately surprised to learn that I'm rather looking forward to tomorrow and that with the usual caveats about how badly Diana was treated and Prince Philip, I'm quite the monarchist. I really shouldn't be. On two occasions, once when I was very young and stood for hours on Speke Boulevard and once when as part of a school choir who'd spent three weeks learning Zadok the Priest I've been ignored by the Queen as she scooted on past.

But I can't help my self. Kate's lovely. William seems a nice enough chap, his mother's son in all the right ways. Like Melvyn Bragg, I view tomorrow as history in the making, the next step in the line that reaches back beyond the Tudors in the dark ages, and though they don't really have any legislative power apart from in extreme circumstances (Oliver Cromwell has a lot to answer for) it seems important to the country's identity that we still have this family woven into the fabric of our politics. 

There's the cost of course, not just in terms of what amounts to their salary but also the upkeep of the castles and I can understand the view that they like the upper classes are symptomatic of a society that's fundamentally unfair.  But I'm not convinced that if we removed the monarchy such inequalities would vanish.  The likes of David Cameron would still offer jobs to his friends rather than offering a more open door policy.

So I'm just going to continue to enjoy the spectacle, and hope it lasts a little bit longer. Just to add some balance. Meet Melvyn:



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