the brilliantly leaping gazelle

The queen’s speech on christmas day, quite aside from the fact that the very idea of a monarchy still existing in the second decade of the twenty-first century, quite aside from it helping to perpetuate the notion of a hierarchical structure of society, where everyone should know their place and show due deference where needed.

Quite aside from these and many other reasonable objections to the monarchy, the most pertinent reason not to like the queen’s speech on christmas day is because it’s a bit of a downer.

I’m well aware that there are many things you can say about this queen, but witty raconteur isn’t one of them. I know that intimates and other flunkeys who know their place say that she is quite funny, however, they have vested in suggesting that there exists a side to her we have never seen. For appearances sake, to appear regal, we are told, she has successfully managed to keep this side of her personality hidden. Shouldn’t she at least crack a smile once in a while, we pay for everything else she does, we might as well pay for the stitches? I mean, I can’t be the only one to have observed that she mainly laughs or looks animated only when confronted by a creature with four legs.

And also, the idea of an elderly woman on living on state benefits – which is after all what she is – telling us what a difficult year she has had or how many holidays she’s had, is both grossly insulting and a profound lack of awareness to the actually hardship endured by the people who fund her lifestyle. Not in the cosseted circles of lickspittles, toadys and hangers on in which she mixes, but in the real world in which real people live. Only last week the Joseph Rowntree Foundation produced a scathing report on the plight of pensioners who have to choose between heating or food, as they can’t afford both. The Queen is spared such vulgar realities.

What is amazing is not that I don’t have time for the Queen, but that many people do and at 3pm on Christmas Day to boot.