“A people mentally poisoned by the adulation of royalty can never attain to that spirit of self-reliant democracy necessary for the attainment of social freedom.” - James Connolly
The spectacle of the monarchy crumbling beneath its own failings and inadequacies is a surprising delight for everyone suffering after a year in lockdown. The pantomime has a host of characters beyond Meghan and Harry and their families. Alastair Campbell, Nicholas Witchell, the Dimblebys, Piers Morgan and Kirstie Allsopp all jostle for airtime in the media frenzy.
Morgan even walked off the set of Good Morning Britain set after co-presenter Alex Beresford defended Harry and Meghan and condemned Piers' treatment of them in yesterday's programming, confirming his status as Britain's most over-exposed snowflake.
Photograph: ITV
But if the whole affair has a comic element, with Oprah memes emerging on social media like confetti, the crisis is a very real one, and the threat to the actual institution of the monarchy dire. There's three reasons why this is more than just this week's media moment.
The first is that the accusations are genuinely shocking and widely exposed. The ITV showing of the interview reached over 11 million UK viewers and the online re-production of it can treble that number. In other words this isn't a containable event. The treatment of Meghan Markle has been an appalling display of racism and misogyny.
The second is that this latest crisis follows a pattern of recent events in Britain. Britain is bitterly divided on a number of levels, by class mostly but also by age. Attitudes to the monarchy, on race and racism and to Meghan herself are riven by a generational divide - the same generational divide that can be seen mirrored across Brexit and the Scottish referendum. So the constitutional crisis has a demographic elements to it - and it's not one that favours the older end of the equation.
The third is that the royal family's problems are mounting not receding. It's difficult to put this politely, but Prince Philip and the Queen will one day die. It's hard to see how the institution survives beyond that because what you will have left is Prince Charles becoming king, and Camilla his queen. This will re-surface the obsessions of the Diana Cult and the whole pantomime will resume.
Charles is deeply unpopular and the tabloids will have a field day. Charles's disgraced brother will have to be hidden away. The coronation will have none of the (fleeting) glamour of Harry and Meghan's, or William and Kate's, it will be two elderly and unpopular figures parading in a gold carriage.
But there is another element to this. Harry and Meghan are like Truman and Meryl Burbank escaping Seahaven Island on the Truman Show. That's a problem for the monarchy, because it destroys some of the central myths that surround them: that they are hard-working servants dedicated to public service; that they are above and beyond the everyday, that there is something unique and special, magic even about them.
READ MORE: Harry and Meghan interview: How British newspapers responded to racism accusations
Harry and Meghan's obvious humanity and likeability ironically shatters these myths even more than the sordid accusations about Prince Andrew did. They're just not very remarkable or even interesting people, and this puts into question the whole bizarre concept of choosing your head of state from the gene pool of one family. Harry and Meghan show us that this is just celebrity feudalism.
They will go off and start a new life with fewer responsibilities (beyond running an Instagram account) and quite a lot of, really, our money. Like for Truman and Meryl there will be some cheers, but also some questions.
Do we get a refund?
As they depart the scene, two things become obvious. This is a bitter and perhaps fatal blow to the institution of the monarchy. They have exposed the level of racism that's endemic in the British press and widely mirrored in attitudes in the older population, despite the ridiculous and comic statement from the Society of Editors.
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