Do we need this?

The Royal family are idolised figures that only extend our unhealthy infatuation with celebrity culture in this country. Any news about the Windsors automatically overshadows everything else. We miss out on important information because of an obsession with even the most minute happening in what is no more than dressed-up celebrity. Everything that happens to the royals is blown ridiculously out of proportion, things that take place on a daily basis for ordinary people becomes the main news story.

Take for example the discovery that the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant, a completely normal human thing to happen and yet it dominated the media clouding everything over. The royal correspondent standing outside the hospital just repeating the same thing, rephrasing, resorting to historic trivia to fill out the gaps, Diana comparisons a-plenty. It was a strain to try and see past this onslaught of nostalgia that the BBC news was drenched in. The BBC is meant to be a reliable and balanced service; however it is clear that they want us to be sucked into the royalist hype so that their countless royal biopics will seem justifiable.

But don’t the royal family give people a sense of unity? Take for example the Diamond Jubilee; did it not make us all proud to be British? Personally I felt it was all rather tasteless with mind-numbing BBC blanket coverage, commentators blatantly stating the obvious with the odd tedious statistic to flesh out the ceremony. The concert was an excuse to bask in sentiment with musicians who were clearly too old to do any of their songs justice. These hugely extravagant events do not provide a sense of unity, they only emphasise the distance between the monarchy and ordinary people. There is so much time wasted on pointless ceremony, every event dragged out and enlarged. We lose many working days to the monarchy and these are the causes of economic dips.

The Royal family adds to the disgusting glorification of the military in this country. As a pacifist I may be biased in this but I believe having the princes in the military just seems instil a weird sort of superiority of people who join the army. Like an immunity people have from criticism, everyone who comes home from war is hailed a “hero.” People who join the army do not die for Queen and country; it is a profession, international security. All the big ceremony, the endless pity inducing propaganda is it all just a farce to stem our guilt?

The whole concept of the monarchy is an aristocratic relic form a bygone era which is unnecessary and irrelevant in a society that claims to promote equality. When we are busy toppling dictators in the Arab nations is it a little hypocritical to have a non-elected head of state? Does having a leader who is also that of the Protestant church not add ammunition to the claim that the west is fighting a crusade against Islam?

At the end of it all, what does the monarchy actually do? The Queen has no political influence at all, if she decided she wanted to then that would be the end of the royal family. Her speeches are written by someone else and are always neutral votes of thanks and support for the current government. We spend so much taxpayer’s money for what? So we can have patrons of charities? Why not put this money to use by actually investing in these services themselves rather than celebrity figureheads?

But aren’t the Royal family better role models than today’s celebrities? No, they just live on an inherited fortune and the government’s money; there is nothing inspirational about that. You cannot aspire to be born into luxury and is marrying into money really something we want to encourage? Royals are just as likely to be involved in scandal, perhaps more-so as they feel the need to rebel in private such is their aloof public persona. Apart from being in the royal family they are just ordinary people, is their name alone really worthy of celebration?

But the monarchy brings tourism doesn’t it? Take Americans for example don’t they come to Britain to see all its great royal residencies such as Buckingham palace and the Tower of London? Surely the main reason they come to Britain is the shared language. If the royal family moved out of its residencies then they would be much more accessible to the public and thus potentially more profitable.

In conclusion, the royal family are not relevant in today’s society because they contribute nothing to politics and are an outdated unnecessary element of a hierarchy system which has been phased out in most aspects of modern life. They have become little more than an extension of celebrity culture and a general excuse for random public holidays and cringe-worthy patriot’s comments.