by Kevin De Sabbata *
For many Italians England is essentially London and the Queen. So these days, too, the narrative in our country seems to be dominated on the one hand by theElevation of the iconic character of Elizabeth II and the emphasis on the folklore of funeral rites, on the other hand by those who are quick to explain now that she is no longer at Buckingham Palace, The days of the monarchy are numbered. In reality, seen from the Midlands of England, where I am writing from, the situation is more complex (and interesting) than it appears. Great Britain is very different from the rich, dynamic, cosmopolitan and cool London we know. The rest of the country is often much greyer, more conservative and islander. There are vast areas that, beginning with the Thatcher era, feel utterly deserted and that governments for the last twenty years have made sure they make it through as little funding as possible.
As London Underground lines mushroom, in Stoke on Trentthe city of the university where I teach, It’s hard to find a bus after six and a pub serving you after eight. Here the queen often (and paradoxically) seems to be the only reliable institution on the side of the people. So the announcement of his death left even more of a mark here than anywhere else a feeling of emptiness and uncertainty. As someone here told me: “The Queen made us a promise and kept it; and today no one does that”. This is not to say that the UK is not yet an economically dynamic nation, with a dynamic and performance-oriented labor market and a normally efficient bureaucracy. However, in recent years one has the impression that all this is collapsing and the country is not governed even in things that were once fundamental (lately I’ve heard enviously about the punctuality of Italian trains).
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With the Reputation of politicians at all-time low and increasingly unstable governments that tend to create crises rather than solve them, a politician as head of state doesn’t seem like a good idea, regardless of the stature of the heir to the throne. Ten days ago, at the obituary, there was indeed oneAtmosphere of Armageddon and the doubt that Carlo could not fully collect his mother’s inheritance. Now many of those doubts seem to have disappeared. The British instinctively tend to believe formal statements more than we Italians do. It is evident in daily life, in political debate and in relations with the bureaucracy. So that was skillful and moving enough speech of the king two Fridays ago to reassure many skeptics. Also, Protocol gives King Charles a big hand.
After decades of silence Elizabethan Innovations, the palace rules now stipulate that every minor event is televised live and that the new king keeps popping up in different corners of the nation to meet people and shake hands. Like this, after a week of ceremonies with him everywhere in almost closed networks, always saying what the nation expects, I and the others who, like me, have camped out on the streets of London to witness the impressive funeral processions in honor of the sovereign, we had the bizarre feeling that Charles had been on the throne for years; definitely a lesson not to underestimate in the age of the image and total communication.
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Of course, all of this tastes different depending on where in the country it’s viewed from. But monarchy is also less popular in the nations of the kingdom the game seems to have worked so far. dying in balmoral, so Scotland involved In a collective ritual that would otherwise have reappeared Anglocentric, it might have beenlast stroke of genius by Elizabeth. There was dissatisfaction in Wales at the king’s decision to confer directly on his son the title of prince, which the Welsh are contemplating usurped by the Windsors without prior public debate; However, the local pro-independence and republican movement appears to have less mobilizing power than in the 1970s and seems to have far more problems with the British government than the monarchy in Northern Ireland, particularly post-Brexit.
We’ll have to see how the situation will develop after the wave of emotions is over and how many mistakes the new ruler will avoid, but as long as the reputation of politics in England continues to slide down so steeply, the crown of Charles III. be safer than planned.
* Law Professor at Keele University, in the Midlands (UK)