September 16, 2022 - 7:00am

British anti-monarchists are having a moment. Hashtags like #NotMyKing are trending on social media and fatuous tweets like this one are getting more attention than they deserve. 

They’ve been helped by our increasingly idiotic police, who seem to think that protecting the public from other people’s opinions is more important than clearing up crime. Every time that a republican protester is arrested, the anti-monarchist campaign gets stronger. If your whole schtick is portraying the status quo as reactionary, then seeing some placard-waver bundled away by the coppers is propaganda gold.

And yet the republicans are making a big mistake of their own. As progressives always do, they’ve assumed that the arc of history bends in their direction. But that isn’t always the case. 

25 years ago Tony Blair came to power promising change. Among his reforms was a pledge to take Britain into the European single currency. This was opposed by the Conservative leader, William Hague, who made keeping the pound his signature issue. And so that is how the pro-Europeans framed the issue: one could either stay stuck in the past with the clapped-out Tories or move into the future with New Labour.

But, as we now know, that wasn’t the real choice at all. What British Europhiles had failed to foresee was that the status quo — Britain in the EU but not the Eurozone — was the best they could have hoped for. 

The first sign that the arc of history was bending away from them came with the 1999 Euro-elections. In Britain, this featured an outfit called the Pro-Euro Conservatives, which was created to undermine Hague’s Tories. But despite being hyped up in the mainstream media, this spoiler party failed to win a single seat. UKIP, however, made its first big breakthrough, sending three MEPs to Brussels (including a certain Nigel Farage). 

It was the start of a process that would culminate in the referendum of 2016 — and Britain’s exit from the European Union. But in 1999, misled by its progressive scheme of history, the Europhile establishment had no idea what was heading its way. 

As progressives campaign to abolish another British institution they should bear this lesson in mind. The alternative to the status quo isn’t necessarily what they think it is. They may assume that the natural progression is from constitutional monarchy to egalitarian republic, but that doesn’t mean that history can’t take a different direction.

This time the warning signs are plain to see. Earlier this year, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally became the second biggest party in the French parliament. In Sweden, a party supposedly of the far-Right is set to gain a share of power. In Italy, an even bigger shock to the system is expected later this month. Meanwhile, polling across the western world — including Britain — shows a growing disenchantment with democracy (especially among the young). 

It’s against this background that republicans want to remove the keystone of our constitution. Let’s hope that they — and we — never experience the consequences.


Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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