HARROWING TESTIMONY
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex pose for an official wedding photograph with (back row from left): Master Jasper Dyer, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, Ms Doria Ragland, The Duke of Cambridge; middle row: Master Brian Mulroney, the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Miss Rylan Litt, Master John Mulroney; Front row: Miss Ivy Mulroney, Miss Florence van Cutsem, Miss Zalie Warren, Miss Remi Litt in The Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle of the hereditary principle.
In a modern age of democracy, I think we should be free to choose our head of state in a direct election. As they do in France, and most other European countries.
Across the globe, monarchy is a dying institution. Yet we cling to it like nurse, for fear of getting something worse.
The arguments in favour are wellrehearsed. It provides stability, which is certainly true of our present Queen, but possibly not of the king to come.
It brings in tourists, which is partly true, but hugely overstated. Stonehenge gets more visitors than Buckingham Palace.
It is “value for money” – very debatable. Our monarch costs untold millions, despite owning vast personal wealth.
It occupies a unique political space. The monarch signs off all new laws. At the opening of each Parliament, MPs have to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen and her successors.
This is anomalous in a democracy. We elect politicians to make our laws.
The Commons should take back that right.
Then there is the military connection. As exemplified by Harry’s wedding ceremonials, the armed services are intextricably bound up with the monarchy.
Soldiers swear loyalty to Queen and country, not to the defence of democracy and our way of life.
Monarch and princes regularly appear in full regimental panoply with uniform, gold braid and medals.
Prince Charles hunches under all that ironmongery on his chest, though the nearest he’s been to a battlefield is Hastings.
There is a great more to be said. But that’s a start. HE harrowing testimony of PC Michael Caulfield to Bradford coroner’s court was moving to read.
He told how he tried to stop father of two Mwitumwa Ngenda, 30, from leaping to his death from Rainbow Bridge over the M62 at Scammonden.
Pc Caulfield begged him not to jump, saying: ”You have got me for as long as it takes. You will have a mate for life.
“If you want a cuddle, we will have a ‘man cuddle’.”
He could not have done more, as a police officer and simply as a fellow man.
But his desperate pleas, recorded on body camera, failed.
Coroner Martin Fleming said his evidence was “the most distressing transcript I have had to listen to.”
Hear, hear. But it should not end there.
This tragedy must give added force to demands for the Highways Agency to stop dragging their feet and instal safety barriers to prevent needless loss of life on the bridge of death.