Royal wedding has some Brits sneering
Anti-monarchists are greeting this weekend’s royal wedding with a mix of boredom and contempt.
WINDSOR, England — How about a lovely set of Meghan-and-Harry tea towels? Mmm, no thanks. Champagne celebration in front of the telly? Pass. A jaunt to join the crowds outside Windsor Castle? Don’t think so.
It’s a lonely time to be an anti-monarchist in the United Kingdom.
As Meghan Markle and Prince Harry tie the royal knot on Saturday, polls suggest some Britons — a minority, but a substantial one, hovering in the low double digits — would like to see the monarchy done away with altogether.
The House of Windsor remains an enduringly popular institution, weathering storms of scandal and the near-constant perception of creeping irrelevance to survive as a national symbol — and for much of the outside world, an exemplar of British branding at its finest.
But the spectacle of a royal wedding, swooned over by so many, also serves to revive complaints that the sprawling family tree presided over by Queen Elizabeth II is rotten at its roots — a drain on public resources, the epitome of a stiflingly unequal class system, a bizarre deviation from democratic values that Britain has historically claimed to hold dear.
The anti-monarchy movement has followers both passive and passionate. Large numbers of Britons, especially the young, are greeting this weekend’s wedding hoopla with bored nonchalance, grumbling about wall-to-wall media coverage and complaining about the cost.
Security expenses are borne by the public, with the royal family picking up the rest of what has been reported to be a $43 million tab.
“It’s just not a big deal to me,” said Paul Winstanley, 23, who lives less than 10 miles from the wedding venue.
A considerably smaller subset of royal nonenthusiasts is not merely dismissive of the wedding hype, but stands actively in opposition to the notion that a pampered and traditionencrusted hereditary dynasty should play such an outsized role in the public life of a supposedly modern, egalitarian society.
The country’s main monarchy-abolition movement, which is called Republic and wants royals to be replaced by a directly elected head of state, is planning a pan-European gathering Saturday in London, just as the world spotlight is on the wedding at Windsor Castle.
But Republic head Graham Smith said the timing is coincidental, as the conference date was announced before that of the royal nuptials.
No one is looking to rain on Meghan and Harry’s parade, Smith said — only to cast a spotlight on the monarchy’s true costs to a society that aspires to hold all as equal citizens.
“We wish the couple well, but it’s fair criticism,” he said. “It’s not about them in particular; it’s about the institution.”
They acknowledge it might not be the most opportune moment to make their case because both bride and groom are seen as so likable.
The anti-monarchists believe that lingering devotion to things royal may be shaken by succession, whenever that comes to pass. The queen is 92. Her son and heir Prince Charles is 69.
Although the years have brought a measure of public forgiveness over the prince’s protracted and messy 1996 split with Diana, and his marriage after her death to his longtime paramour Camilla Parker Bowles, the prospective crowning of a King Charles III excites almost no one.
The idea of a generationskipping ascension of 35year-old William instead has considerable traction, according to polls, but no mechanism exists for making that a reality.
And the young royals, for all their popularity, may never achieve the powerful emotional connection that many older Britons feel for Elizabeth and her late father, King George VI.
Smith said he didn’t expect public sentiment to change overnight, but that the passing of the generational torch will likely make all the difference.
“The debate will carry on for some time,” he said. “But things can change — things will change.”