Republicanism on the Left has traditionally been the counter-part to a keenness for the Gold Standard on the Right: a useful indicator that the beholder has a fondness for ideas comfortably outside the political mainstream.
With the coming Jubilee the UK faces another round of ersatz debate over the monarchy. It is pointless because the relevance of this conversation will remain in stasis until the death of the Queen. Her personal popularity obfuscates any analysis of the monarchy as an institution itself.
The republican movement wastes time and precious oxygen by protesting the Jubilee. However the lifeless sails of republicanism will soon billow and strain from the hot air produced by our current Dauphin. Darwin made no comment on whether being prone to gaffs is a trait which is able to percolate through the genetic line. If it is then Charles is a child strongly of his father’s patrimony.
The ascension of Prince Charles to the throne will be a victory for Republicanism on a scale not seen since Darth Vader reordered the constitutional foundations of the Empire by throwing the Emperor down into the abyss of the Death Star. The British people have an affection for the current Queen which is measured by the only metric which seems to matter in modern life, opinion polling. Only the most ardent Royalist would suppose it extends to Charles.
In a liberal democracy a constitutional monarchy is popular and possible when the monarch in question realises the limits of their influence, a necessary limitation Charles has constantly chaffed against. His influence peddling for the practitioners of pseudo-science is distasteful in particular and scrutiny over how he has used his influence will increase as he moves closer to the throne.
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