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Pom & circumstance

[unclear: Clive Thmshy]

From the international viewpoint the 20th century has been a disastrous period for monarchical systems of government. However, in complete contrast to this trend the British Monarchy seems to have undergone something of a renascence. It has attained its widest diffusion when the original concept of kingship has long since ceased to exist, and when the social framework by which it was traditionally supported is being dismantled. For while its power and authority have decreased its popularity and adulation have multiplied.

The Monarchy was destined to be a tourist attraction, but to think of it as primarily so is a sign of decadence. After two centuries of strategic retreat from the political arena it still has a political role. To say that the Queen reigns but does not rule is a commonplace. She has inherited very extensive theoretical powers: for instance, she can, by royal prerogative, without consulting Parliament, sell the Fleet, declare war, create peerages and universities by the hundreds, or dismiss the entire civil service. But she does not, because in practice these nominal powers are restricted by precedent and the lessons of history-from Charles I downwards. Yet the Crown remains the pivot upon which the British Constitution turns; every act of government is done in the Queen's name.

The Monarch has the constitutional right, as Bagehot put it, to be consulted, to advise and to warn. When a reign has run for some time the Monarch will have acquired a knowledge of the affairs of state much greater than any individual politician. In fact the Queen is more than just a rubber stamp of formality, but she must be, and be seen to be, above party politics.

If, as seems to be the case, a certain amount of ceremony, pageantry and leader-worship form an intrinsic part of any form of government, it is better that this involve someone who docs not hold the real power. Without a Monarch to play this role some politician may assume the trappings of Monarchy. A Constitutional Monarchy separates the pomp from the power, giving the citizen a permanent outlet for both adoration and parricide. He can safely adore his Queen, as almost sacrosanct, because he can at the same time attack her ministers and throw them out of office.

This may be all very fine in the British context but it has little relevance for New Zealand. For all practical purposes the Queen is Queen of England and her other realms can do little about it. Instead, we have a sometime medic, who was appointed on the suggestion of the Prime Minister, as her representative. An absentee head of state seems to suggest some form of national inferiority and political immaturity. Nevertheless the Monarchy still plays quite significantly on Kiwi sentimentality, although this may be more apparent than real. In many respects 1969 was a very good year for royalty. As a result of an extensive public relations campaign the Monarchy (almost a new model) is very much back in business. More than ever we are in the age of the Media Monarchy and publicity has not diluted its magic, despite Bagehot's warning: 'Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight on magic.

The early Hanoverians, with their own social and sexual fancies, were truly German and detested the country of their adoption just as its inhabitants detested them. George I never spoke English and George III went mad, and was all the more popular for doing so. But with Queen Victoria virtue became popular and with it royalty adopted an image of domestic felicity, a model of traditional family rectitude. The Queen's sole reason d'etre was to be Queen, and as such she had to behave in a manner and exemplify those qualities that were popularly esteemed to be queenly.

Today the Monarchy is a kind of ersatz religion, where the Queen must not only wear a crown but a halo also. She has the seemingly impossible task of being at once both ordinary and extraordinary. The Monarchy is an emotional concept with its own magic and mystique; an emotion that need only be expressed by a few vocal Tested interests for the public to be happily swept along in its tidal wave. Relentlessly the press churns out fodder to satisfy the people's apparently insatiable royalist appetites. People seem to be capable of the most ridiculous absorption of the minutiae of royal doings.

Such sycophancy is by no means a British monopoly. The U.S A. and France are both very proud republics but they have succumbed to the mystique of the English Crown. Royal soap opera singer and teleguru Malcolm Muggeridge recalls the amusing occasion when one of the chief executives of a VS. TV network said: 'Don't you realize that this Queen is the only bulwark against Communism?' One can imagine the smiles in the Kremlin, but even Russians have been heard to speculate that Britain will be the world's first socialist monarchy, whatever that may be.

This year's Royal Tour is intended to remind us that our antipodean visitor is Queen of New Zealand. As before, the genuflecting town councillors and the cheering schoolchildren will play their part, symbolic, like the enduring Christmas decorations and the recently planted flowers, of the sparkle that Her Majesty graciously adds to our parochial simplicity. As she performs her peripatetic duty we will loyally repay her with humbug and tedium, or plain indifference as the case may be. She parades before us as the only tangible bond that holds together the Commonwealth, that extraordinary conglomeration of states, a not very happy family of nations that includes several republics and an indiginous elective monarchy.

In Britain, where such concepts are conceived, the survival of the Monarchy is assured, simply because, like Mount Everest, it's there. But in New Zealand the situation is different. One thing that the last year has made clear is that the Monarchy in New Zealand still has a secure base where it matters. As a result it will be quite some time after we have come to the conclusion that we no longer want the Monarchy that we will consider taking Prince Philip's advice and get rid of it.