Monarchy ‘endgame’ will be their own fault

I DON’T know what an ‘endgame’ is, apart from its usage for chess.

Will – would – the monarchy abdicate itself ? I doubt it will be allowed to. It’s a concomitant part of our establishment.

Will the monarchy cease to be relevant in a mid-21st century Britain? And how do we judge if it has? Why not ask when has it ever been relevant? Perhaps in the dark ages, when the monarch alone decided to go to war and we would simply do the fighting and dying.

The monarchs now remaining in Europe hold positions of little importance other than ceremonial. I think Spain will divest itself of its monarchy at some point.

Does any of us know the monarchy... I mean really know them... our Queen and her children?

I think they are referred to as ‘The Firm’. Everything they ever say is carefully weighed and pre-planned. We are not allowed to ask the Queen a question, she only speaks from a set-piece. “How’s your bad knee Ma’am? We will never know if she has one.

That it is institutionalised to the nth degree in its culture and habits and public image is a fact.

The new one will do what the previous one did, who did what the previous one did, going back

200 years... They will put on a uniform laden with various medals and go about meeting important local people, ask a few pertinent questions and pull the curtain on yet another edifice and read what is printed on the card.

I believe they are sincere in what they say and do... it just lacks any colour or impetuosity. Would it not be nice if just now and then they went to the pub and watched a darts match?

If it – the monarchy – reaches its ‘endgame’... when the King/Queen is impotent to the game... it will be their fault. And they are going in that direction, so it’s arguable that Hilary Mantel is pointing in the correct direction.

A lack of foresight, lack of originality, a failure to change as society changes; to throw off this impassive massive silent mystique of secrecy and aloof separation.

Diana was a breath of fresh air. The silly piece of paper stuck on a board outside the palace that tells us what the Queen thinks... something.

Why not come on the telly with a smile and say, hello everybody, I would just like to say... and tell us to our face what she thinks?

To survive, the monarch needs to be one of us – not above us... separate. It’s time to join the 21st century.

The monarchy has long been an irrelevancy to me, so I will not lose sleep if they all emigrate or remain. Whether it survives or not holds no interest and I would say it’s their fault I feel like that. The crowd of hangers-on gets up my nose.

I am not pro-monarchy, but neither am I anti. I like Queen Elizabeth as head of state. I do not like hereditary monarchs. I am cautious about presidents, particularly politically elected ones.

I am not of the opinion that Hilary Mantel insulted the Queen, or by expressing opinions on people. Newspapers do it almost every day. You should read what The Times said of Queen Victoria. The Queen, like her predecessors, dedicated her life to us. Nothing so unusual about that, many, many nurses and NHS staff gave their lives to us, fighting the Covid-19 pandemic for 18 long months and none of them will get a state funeral or flags at half mast.

Don Frampton

Newton Abbot, Devon