I used to be more monarchist. Not ardent go-out-and-flag-wave - though when in 2002 for Queen Elizabeth II's 50th jubilee, the royal car passed through my town and I went out to join the crowd and wave. I had a certain affection for the institution because it was a reminder on some small level of the traits that Britain wanted to project to the world - stiff upper lip, carrying on in the face of adversity, doing one's duty, all that stuff. These were values I respected - even if the reality was a little more uncomfortable.
After Her Majesty's passing, however, I found myself re-evaluating it. Whatever influence she herself had brought to the institution, that quiet calm, that reserved thoughtfulness, it had been eroded by the utter swamp of Her Majesty's Government in the last few years.
I found myself considering that I had been less a fan of the institution and more of how Elizabeth herself carried the institution; Charles is not one of my favourite individuals, he's got a reputation for being a bit of a meddler in ways I'm not sure I agree with, and the whole acrimony with the rest of the family isn't helping.
At this point, between the bad blood, Prince Andrew's indiscretions, and the wealth of the family vs the cost of the coronation being borne by the public at a time of cost of living crisis... no, I think the institution needs to rethink its place in the modern world, very seriously.
For a nation whose government is so hellbent on the neo-liberal dream of privatising everything, why not make the Crown into a company, lock stock and barrel, make Charlie the CEO, leave his money to him and his, and then anything has to be earned like any other company. No exemptions on taxes. I wouldn't strip him of his money; I think that would be cruel because it's not his *fault* that he and his were born into that life, so I wouldn't make them try to survive on the same playing field as the rest of us, but I'd certainly look at stripping out the more egergious 'benefits'.