It is the day before the Jubilee and outside Buckingham Palace is full of people in uniforms shouting instructions and making preparations. There are Union flags hanging all the way down the Mall and St James’s Park is filling up with Portaloos. Close to the palace itself, a small group of ultra-royalists have pitched tents in the rain to make sure they get front row seats for the coming days’ parades. We wanted to find out what motivated the intensity of their love for the Queen — so we went down there to find out. 

Viewed from one angle, it’s easy to have a chuckle at the lengths they’ve gone to. For what? To catch a glimpse of a minor royal, or a golden carriage? And yet, for these royalists it is far from a joke. The existence of the monarchy evidently provides a real sense of security.

Where politicians come and go, in a Kingdom they not constitute the state. They are middle managers. For true monarchists the sense of continuity and stability provided by the royal family clearly makes a real difference to their lives.