What function does the royal family serve? What is the point in spending £200 million a year on an institution that has abdicated all of its responsibility? Why do we have a democracy wherein the head of state cannot be removed? The royal prerogative* and so-called powers of the prime minister allow the government to exercise the queen’s power in return for political support of the monarchy. We are assured that the queen “acts on the advice of the prime minister”. In other words, she “does what she’s told”. The queen is intended to serve little purpose politically. She can, however (on the rare occasion such as a hung parliament), take a role in choosing a prime minister. In reality the queen is the symbolic head of the old ruling class of cronies and nepotists. Supposedly, under the constitution an unaccountable, unelected monarch has absolutely no right to interfere with the political process.
Why then is our current prime minister, David Cameron, the queen’s fifth cousin twice removed? Cameron is the most aristocratic prime minister since sir Alec Douglas-Home. His mother, Mary Fleur Mount, is the second daughter of sir William Malcolm Mount, 2nd baronet, and is descended from a long line of tory MPs. At age seven Cameron entered Heatherdown Preparatory School, attended by princes Andrew and Edward. Cameron’s father, Ian, and grandfather, Ewen Donald, were both Eton-educated senior partners at stockbroker Panmure Gordon & Co. His great-great grandfather sir Ewen Cameron helped the Rothschilds sell war bonds during the Russo-Japanese war. His cousin, Davina, was one of the prince of Wales’s earliest girlfriends, and another, Jane, was lady-in-waiting to princess Margaret.
Is it by chance that our constitutional monarchy has a royal family member for a prime minister? Is it dumb luck that fifteen of Cameron’s front benchers are old Etonians from equally privileged backgrounds? Is it mere coincidence that the three most influential politicians (David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and George Osborne) were members of the notorious, elite Bollinger club? Make no mistake: the royal family represent everything that is bad in Britain—nepotism, cronyism, extreme privilege, and excessive wealth.
According to “one of the largest ever studies of class in Great Britain”, conducted by Mike Savage and Fiona Devine [1], the UK population is split into no fewer than seven different classes, from the “elite” to the lowly “precariat”. Each class is defined by its share of economic, cultural, and/or social capital. The results were obtained by analysing people’s income, assets, peer group professions, and social activities. Savage and Devine divide the classes as follows:
“° Precariat: This is the most deprived class of all with low levels of economic, cultural and social capital. The every day lives of members of this class are precarious.
° Traditional Working Class: This class scores low on all forms of the three capitals although they are not the poorest group. The average age of this class is older than the others.
° Emergent Service Workers: This new class has low economic capital but has high levels of ’emerging’ cultural capital and high social capital. This group are young and often found in urban areas.
° New Affluent Workers: This class has medium levels of economic capital and higher levels of cultural and social capital. They are a young and active group.
° Technical Middle Class: This is a new, small class with high economic capital but seem less culturally engaged. They have relatively few social contacts and so are less socially engaged.
° Established Middle Class: Members of this class have high levels of all three capitals although not as high as the Elite. They are a gregarious and culturally engaged class.
° Elite: This is the most privileged class in Great Britain who have high levels of all three capitals. Their high amount of economic capital sets them apart from everyone else.”
The queen and the entire tory front bench belong to the elite class, the most privileged group of people in the UK. Britain is a failed democracy, and the royal family is a failed institution. Why do we pay for these leeches to usurp our government and drain our tax money? The Meritocracy Party will ensure an end to the family dynasties that deny the British people the right to rule ourselves. We will end the £200 million-a-year tax burden the queen demands from us. Any head of state will be elected on the basis of merit, and not for which family they happen to be born into. In a Meritocracy the precariat will be afforded the education usually reserved for the elite class and will have the pleasure of living in the most socially mobile nation on earth. Your name and family are irrelevant. Your talent and effort? Everything.
Are you happy being a compliant subject of the old order, or are you prepared to join the resistance? Stop supporting the aristocrats. Stop advocating avarice. Stop bowing to them just because they are wealthy. Manipulation does not define merit, privilege does not generate merit, and parentage doesn’t determine merit. If you support equal opportunities, support Meritocratic Democracy, where every child, regardless of social status, gets an equal chance—to shine.
by Thomas Payne
* We are Meritocrats, and do not capitalise royal titles or terms. Capitalisation is under consideration for titles such as Plumber, Chef, Student, Construction Worker, Teacher, etc.
References
1. Mike Savage and Fiona Devine, “The Great British Class Survey—Results”. BBC Science. 03 April 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/21970879
