While creeping towards the throne, our monarch-in-waiting said this. “What is wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? People seem to think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability. This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history.”
Prince Charles has had no need of “natural ability” - or any other qualification - in his assumption of sovereignty (without the accident of birth, of being his mother’s son, the heir to the throne might be selling shoes or manning a desk in some local government office). At the moment of his coronation he will also become head of state, head of the armed forces and head of the Church of England. And a hereditary head of state, as Thomas Paine once wrote, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary physician or a hereditary astronomer.
Instead of waving a union jack, or attending a street party, I've been watching baby avocets at North Cave Wetlands. Pic by Alnus (Creative Commons)...
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