Opinion

Alex Kane: Even republicans like me are sorry the Queen has gone

Alex Kane

Alex Kane

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and political commentator and a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party.

King Charles III follows the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, London. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire
King Charles III follows the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, London. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire King Charles III follows the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II during the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, London. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

We ran out of cliches within the first few hours of the news breaking.

It was the end of an era. It was the beginning of an era. It was a week which saw a new prime minister and a new king within two days.

It was, for most of us, the first time we had to consider a new monarch on stamps and banknotes. When QC’s became KCs. When the national anthem sounded different. When hundreds of thousands of people—many of them not quite knowing why—laid flowers at any building linked to the late Queen. When people who rarely bought newspapers or listened to the news much beyond the headlines bought armfuls (“for the grandchildren”) and sat in front of Huw Edwards for hours on end.

There was only one topic of conversation: and everybody wanted to join the conversation. Not all agreeing, perhaps, but all with an opinion: from people captured in video footage singing “Lizzie’s in a box” to those placing Paddington Bears and marmalade sandwiches at pop-up commemoration sites around the United Kingdom. We all knew something was different. How could it be otherwise when someone who has been a fixed presence in our lives for seven decades was no longer there?

By next Tuesday morning, though, our lives will begin to return to normal. We’ll watch less news and more soap opera and game shows. Other things will preoccupy our minds. We’ll remember Liz Truss and wonder what her plans were to lessen inflation, slow down recession and ensure we can afford to pay for oil, gas, electricity, petrol and food. The Christmas TV ads will start airing again, postponed after September 8 and the supermarket shelves will be crammed with Halloween knick-knacks. It’s not that we’ll suddenly forget the Queen. We’ll just move on.

And maybe that’s one of the reasons the monarchy will survive for decades more. Yes, there will be the usual complaints from the usual suspects about how much the monarchy costs and why it’s wrong to sustain the concept of ‘being born to rule.’ But the anti-monarchist lobby will continue to beat its head against a brick wall: no more likely to succeed in its aims than it has ever been. The occasional opinion poll will note a swing away from monarchy when the next scandal comes along (as it probably will), but there’ll never be the numbers to represent a serious campaign in favour of republicanism.

I think it’s something to do with the fact that while there are valid arguments against the institution of monarchy, people tend to focus on the occupant on the throne rather than the palaces and the funding of lifestyles. The overwhelming majority seem to quite like—or at least seem willing to tolerate—the existence of a King or Queen. Maybe it’s something to do with the air of magic or fantasy in which royalty appears to be wrapped. Or maybe we quite like the idea of a head of state who belongs to all of us rather than being elected by one particular political group or another.

To be honest, I don’t really know why our monarchy has survived for so long. I am, as some regular readers will know, not a monarchist. And yet there hasn’t been a moment in my lifetime when I have felt like joining any organisation which wants to replace the monarchy with a presidency. Perhaps I just got used to the Queen (who came to the throne three years before I was born); or maybe it was something to do with the fact that I reckoned she was actually doing a pretty decent job. Certainly, no worse than some of the people I can think of who would have campaigned to be President of the United States of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mind you, being a ‘republican’ unionist in Northern Ireland was never going to be an easy sell, of course. There were enough other problems for me without having to explain that I wasn’t ‘that kind’ of republican. But in the days after Queen Elizabeth’s death, I can’t help thinking that the United Kingdom was rather lucky to have her.

There is no such thing as the perfect head of state—they all get tarnished with one brush or another. But after inheriting the throne she surprised many by her gifts of statecraft. Surprised us so much, in fact, that even republicans like me are genuinely sorry she has left us.