End of the line near for this medieval relic

COURAGEOUS campaigner Peter Tatchell has declined an invite to join over 100 national treasures at the Platinum Jubilee pageant.

The republican accused the Queen of snubbing the LGBT+ community for 70 years as he resisted the seduction bid from a royal machine expecting compulsory celebration.

It is not an easy moment to be a democrat demanding the head of state be elected rather than an influential position that always stays within a privileged family of misfits with servants and footmen.

MPs are effectively banned from criticising in Parliament a protected medieval relic, although fawning is encouraged.

So the case for discussing whether we need a monarchy, or that Charles must win a public vote to succeed mammy, is suppressed and he’ll be crowned automatically to avoid debate.

Republican politicians such as Labour’s Clive Lewis, who stood for the party leadership in 2020, tend not to make a song and dance about it at the moment.

He argued recently it would be impossible to square wanting social mobility in a fairer country with retaining a hereditary billionaire whose children go on to replace them automatically as head of state. Graham Smith, head of the Republic movement running a Make Elizabeth the Last drive, insists there are more MPs like Lewis who will be more vocal when the Queen’s gone. Smith, holding an online conference on Saturday with speakers such as the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard and Lib Dems’ Norman Baker agitating for change, is hopeful. The young are increasingly sceptical about the monarchy.

And the 27% of Brits who pollster YouGov found want an end to the hereditary monarchy is higher than state propaganda would suggest.

It is likely to expand when the throne is gifted to a less popular royal. Yesterday was Oak Apple Day, marking the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following the English Civil War.

Charles II replaced beheaded Charles I after an 11-year Roundhead republic collapsed following Oliver Cromwell’s death. Anybody failing to wear a celebratory sprig of oak risked a pelting with bird’s eggs or thrashing with nettles. Charles III may secretly yearn for bygone days but the outdated institution is not as safe as this weekend’s fawning festivities will pretend.