Anti-Monarchists Tread Lightly After Queen's Death, but Their Goal Persists
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/anti-monarchists-tread-lightly-queens-122027882.html
“We will be campaigning pretty hard from not long after the funeral through to the coronation,” said Smith, the head of Republic. The queen, he said, was a “heat-shield that deflected a lot of criticism, and you just don’t get that with Charles.”
“It’s going to be a very much easier campaign to run,” Smith added.
While the queen was generally seen as a paragon of personal virtue, Charles’ judgment and propriety has been the subject of perpetual scrutiny from his time as a young prince even up until a few months ago.
Among other controversies, the police announced an investigation in February into allegations that one of Charles’ charities offered to help secure a knighthood and citizenship for a Saudi businessman, in exchange for a large donation. Charles’ spokesman said the royal had been unaware of any deal, and a top aide stepped down under pressure over the transaction.
Charles is also remembered for his fractious divorce during the 1990s from his first wife, Diana, in which the news media often presented him as cold and distant. The public has largely moved on, as has Charles with his second marriage to Camilla, now the queen consort, but the impression that the split created has not entirely dissipated.
Republicanism is also rising among a younger generation of Britons. An estimated 41% of Britons 18 to 25 said they wanted an elected head of state, according to polling from 2021 — 15 percentage points higher than in 2019.
Demand for a republic has remained fairly static for decades — the most recent polling suggested nearly 70% of Britons support a monarchy, about the same as in the early 1990s.
But some commentators and historians believe that public backing for the monarchy is based less on a strong belief in the institution than on affection for the queen herself — giving republicans a glimmer of hope that they can swing opinion their way.
Much of the current grief for the queen “is a reflection of her particular contribution to the nation and longevity of her reign,” said Edgerton, the historian. “It’s not a reaffirmation of the essence of the hereditary principle or an aristocratic principle — or even, actually, the notion of a constitutional monarchy.”
Part of the queen’s appeal was in the opacity of her beliefs, said Laura Clancy, who researches the public image of the royal family at the University of Lancaster.
The queen revealed little about her personal opinions, creating an aura of mystery about her core beliefs, allowing others to project onto her whatever views they hoped she might hold. Before and after Britain’s exit from the European Union, the inscrutability of the queen’s own position allowed both supporters and critics of Brexit to claim her as their own.
“You couldn’t possibly do that with Charles,” Clancy said. “Because we know what he thinks about lots of things.”
Article below dated May 2021.
Young people in Britain no longer think the country should keep the monarchy and more now want an elected head of state, with their mood souring over the last couple of years, a poll on Friday showed.