It’s not like the younger Royals are paragons of contemporary Britain, either. Prince Harry’s penchant for turning up to parties dressed as a Nazi officer, and referring to Asian colleagues at Sandhurst as ‘Pakis’ doesn’t really chime with the reality of modern Britain as a diverse, tolerant country.
It’s surprising, really - all things considered - that there isn’t a much larger Republican streak running Britain. In fact, support for the Monarchy has remained consistent ever since the death of Diana, never really faltering. In a country where people take seriously the decision between voting for middle aged women dancing with a dogs or acne-ridden teenage magic troupes on TV talent shows, the fact that so few people think it’d be a good idea to also have a say in who are Head of State is says a lot about how ingrained the Monarchy is in British culture.
But that could all change. It’s naive to think that staging a hugely extravagant wedding in the midst of some of the toughest economic times in recent memory, whilst the public foots the bill for the security, will have no impact whatsoever on Brits’ perception of the Monarchy. In fact, it could well be an event that lights the fuse of a ticking Republican time bomb.
It’s hard to imagine that the sight of William and Kate gliding down the Mall in their gilded horse-drawn carriage will inspire affectionate Monarchist feelings in the proletariat, glaring at the TV screen over their Pot Noodle.
You shouldn’t expect, though, a French-style, blood-running-in-the-streets, guillotine-riddled execution. In the extremely unlikely event that we do, as a country, decide to rise up against the Monarchy, we’ll almost certainly do so in a very polite way, perhaps notifying the Queen of her eviction from Buckingham Palace via telegraph. We’d probably even let her keep her corgis, we’re so bloody nice.
Or, more likely, we’ll allow ourselves to be bribed by the extra day off, forget all about storming the Bastille and come to associate said free day off with William and Kate, searing the idea that they’re good people onto our brains forever. It’s probably for the best, really.
Commentary
My AS production piece was written in the style of a column in a quality newspaper, such as the Guardian or the Independent. I tried to emulate the style of columnists such as Charlie Brooker and Hadley Freeman, both of whom use sarcastic, subversive, and sometimes bizarre humour in their writing. The audience, therefore, of my production piece, would be young people, aged around 16 - 30, and perhaps culturally and politically liberal, considering the positions of both newspapers.
In the run up to the Royal Wedding, the media has been filled with hype surrounded the big day, and claims about huge viewing figures and massive public interest. The media also often uses language to represent the Royals in a positive light. I wanted to challenge this representation, and instead represent the wedding as an event people were not interested in, and one that would turn them against the Monarchy.
I began my piece with a rhetorical question, the answer to which I intended to be humourous. I did this to set the tone of the piece, and to show that I was using satire to represent the Monarchy as an institution that people don’t identify with.
The use of statistics, such as the ‘180 street parties’ was meant to further my attempt to represent the Royal Wedding as an event that the majority of people are apathetic about.
I juxtaposed the glitzy election of Barack Obama in 2008, when Americans were filled with hope after opening a new chapter in their history, with Britain waiting for Prince Charles to take to the throne. The contrast between the two heads of state and the two systems was supposed to highlight how outdated the Monarchy is compared to other systems around the world.
I used the metaphor of lighting “the fuse of a ticking time bomb” to describe how the Royal Wedding will perhaps make the public - who are suffering due to government cuts and the economic downturn - more Republican, on the whole.
Throughout the article, I try to humorously emphasise how the public are living in tough times compared to how the Royals are living. I inserted, for example, the subordinate clause “glaring at the TV screen over their Pot Noodle” to compound the act that the public are going through tough times, whilst the Royals, at the same time, are having an extravagant wedding.