Five (notes) – present
We returned to a discussion of the Monarchy again and the media coverage of DoE’s death [and his life in great detail – oh, that I had his BBQ skills]. BBC responses designed to head off attacks. [Ian said his specialist subject in Mastermind could now be ‘The Life of the Duke Edinburgh’ after the wall to wall coverage.] They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Is it a national broadcaster or a state broadcaster and it did not want to be seen as lacking respect? What does the hysteria say about us as a nation [as in The Sun – “We are all weeping with you now, Ma’am,” – implication is that if you are not emoting you are unpatriotic]. When current Head of State dies will it be a time for serious questions to be raised and are we able to have that national conversation? We [ie this group] seemed to be ‘lazy republicans’. We looked at other arrangements for HoS and alternatives to monarchy. The HoS is a symbolic role above the day to day of party politics. Our current structure is an hereditary system which underpins the class system because of its links to the aristocracy. The vast array of military uniforms on show on state occasions sets a tone. We have become infantilised by both celebrity culture and the ‘otherness’ embodying ‘mystique’ and a deferential process. Attitudes have swung for and against. Monarchy is becoming more politicised – how patriotic are you? Large number of flags in the background of a politician? Current role holder has fulfilled the role asked of her – what of the next Head of State? He spoke of environmental issues before they were mainstream and was pilloried for it. There are issues eating away at democracy with this cynical government and its use of royal symbols and their narrow take on what patriotism means. We looked at the ‘role’ rather than ‘person’ of the Head of State.
We moved on to the Report on Race and Ethnic Disparities and discussed the concept of Institutional Racism. Different views on the helpfulness of the term. Neil produced a very good example from his university days which showed how an organisation can carry unexamined assumptions.
Best comment of the night from Val – “This is not a Chumocracy – it’s a Pedigree Chumocracy” re Cameron and Greenshill.
It was a lively discussion with some good humour. We tentatively arranged for another Zoom meeting on May 17th at 7.30.