The Coronation is almost upon us. I’ve heard it described as “an event to bind the country together.” But what country? and how much binding power does it really have?
There have been a few newspaper articles on that subject in past few weeks. And the Guardian as been running series of articles about the failings of the House of Windsor. I suspect they’ve had those ready for a while waiting for the change of monarch.
I’ve been reading John Curtice’s take on it all.
You can read that here: “The Monarchy and the Union: A symbiotic Relationship?” Here’s the pith of comparisons between Scots & Brits, from 2021:
Or to show those same figures graphically:
What was asked by the pollsters:
Focaldata asked:: Queen Elizabeth II has now reigned as monarch for 70 years. When her reign comes to an end, which of the following comes closest to your view of the monarchy? With the options of answering: We should keep the monarchy for the foreseeable future. Or: The end of the queen’s reign would be the right time to move on and become a republic
The Opinium poll asked: Do you think Britain should continue to have a monarchy in the future, or should Britain become a republic?
Other Scottish Polling on the Monarchy
Last week, a YouGov Scotland poll asked: “Thinking about the institution of the monarchy in general, please say whether you have a positive or negative opinion of it. ” To which the replies came:
Last year, YouGov asked Scots whether we’d want an independent Scotland to be a monarchy or a republic. We wrote about that a few months back. See Charles : Last King of Scots? But just to remind you….
Conclusions?
I was having coffee with some other elderly, middle-class women the other day. None of them are very keen on Scotland being independent and one or two of them are strongly Unionist. But most of them thought the British Monarchy would end with Charlie. I was surprised to be in the minority in thinking that William will likely get a go at it but then he’d be the last.
Let’s hope George, Charlotte and Louis Windsor get themselves a good education and a decent non-Royal job.
In the meantime I might make a wee coronation quiche to have ready for our tea after Saturday’s Indy March through Glasgow.
