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State of Monarchy in the Caribbean

9/21/2022

 
PictureCaribbean Realm Flags
Not too long ago there was some
controversy during the Cambridge's tour
of the Caribbean, although this was really
about some politicians and activists trying
to shake things up. Royal tours
everywhere spark debates all the time.

In reality this tour was very successful.

The Queen was evidently not seen as a
colonial ruler in the West Indies and
continued to be appreciated by many. As I’m writing this, I’m
thinking about my Jamaican-British classmate at music
school who told me that "everybody dances about the
Queen
" when she visited.

Picture
Crowds greet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Trench Town
​Attitudes to the monarchy appear to differ between the
politicians and the general public. A lot of these countries in
the West Indies have threatened to “cut colonial ties” for
decades now but in most places little progress was made with
this.


UK overseas territory Bermuda rejected independence in 1995
despite this being what their politicians campaigned for.
Bermuda would have remained a commonwealth realm even
if they had hypothetically voted yes. 
Bermudian politicians
continue to be nationalistic. Premier David Burt released a
statement following the Queen’s death, like most
commonwealth leaders, but what was rather concerning was that it read “I express sincere condolences to the Royal
Family and the people of the United Kingdom
”, implying that
he is not acknowledging the queen's role in Bermuda.

Despite this kind of attitude from the Premier, the Queen did
make her fair share of visits to Bermuda which were greeted
with enthusiasm by the Bermudian people.


The decision of the Barbados government last year was rather
appalling; going ahead with removed the monarchy with an
act of parliament rather than a public referendum. The
justification for this was that the party in power won every
seat in Parliament and were explicitly republican in ideology.
Although, if you look at the broader picture; both major
parties have republican sentiment so who else were the people
supposed to vote for? 
The new head of state of Barbados was a
president chosen by their one party parliament who had
previously served as the Governor General. None of this
sounds very republican of them.


Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced her intention to do
this with a rather patriotic tone, saying that Barbados will “cut
colonial ties with Great Britain
” on independence day. 

Polling data suggests that Barbadians would have either preferred a monarchy, or would have been indifferent about
change, but a majority wished to be consulted about the
change. 
It’s sad to hear that Barbados was allegedly
encouraged to do this out of debt diplomacy with the PRC but
this really says more about their government than it does
about royalty.


The backlash during Prince William's royal tour obviously
caused him to feel quite remorseful. He acknowledged the
history of slavery in Jamaica and even conceding in the future
to ‘let the people decide’. 
Overall, the process to ‘ditch the crown’ is an empty threat and has been much slower for Jamaica than in Barbados precisely because the people must
be consulted.


Republicans in every realm have to a large extent waited for
Prince Charles to ascend before beginning to push for a
constitutional referendum. This has finally happened, though
if they want to make this a serious campaign, surely they
wouldn’t want to start too soon. Approval ratings of King
Charles III have gone up greatly since his ascension.


Queen Elizabeth II was obviously known to take her role
seriously in the West Indies, and there is no reason why King
Charles III can’t prove himself willing to do the same now.


Loyally Yours,

Lord Ludichris

Blog Update: New Contributor

5/17/2022

 
Earlier today the maiden article was posted by a new 
contributor to this site. He has chosen Lord Ludichris as 
his pen name and is a UK citizen. As an 'outsider looking in' it 
is expected he will bring a unique perspective to articles on 
the Canadian monarchy. He will also be supplying articles on 
the wider Commonwealth from time to time. He has stated 
an interest in possibly getting into journalism in the future
and we hope that the practice here can help him with that. 

This is the first new contributor in seven years. On that note, 
The Maple Monarchists turns eight this month. We will 
have to rustle up some cake at some point. 

​Loyally Yours,
The Maple Monarchists

Prince Charles, His Detractors, and the Future of the Monarchy

5/17/2022

 
PicturePrince Charles
Prince Charles has been sometimes 
criticised for the way he expresses his views 
on matters of personal interest to him such 
as environmental affairs. However, a 
monarch being involved in political affairs 
is hardly something that would doom a 
constitutional monarchy. Charles’s image is 
really bound-up with the drama of his two 
marriages rather than his personality. 

The politician from across the Commonwealth who has really
trash talked Charles the most, is perhaps Maxime Bernier, at
least in recent times. Bernier in his days as a cabinet minister
never revealed any republican sentiment but as the
momentum of his right-wing populist movement has grown,
he has become more vocal over the issue. At this point,
Maxime is unlikely to return to Ottawa anyway even if the
PPC vote does increase by a large margin, but, this still could
put pressure on the Tories.
Picture
The monarchy in Canada has actually proven to be a pretty
resilient thing however controversial it may be. This might be
attributed to the Monarchist League of Canada having been
able to stay focused on presenting the argument for monarchy
in a non-partisan way and working to maintain a degree of
influence, to the extent of perhaps having the chairman sit
next to the leader of the opposition at a state dinner, or having
the deputy prime minister attend one of their events.

But the biggest threat to the monarchy in Canada is the
perception of Prince Charles being political. However, the
monarchy’s European counterparts show that this does not
need to be so. The other monarchies in Europe appear to
generally be suffering less controversy than that of the House
of Windsor despite being perceived as being more political. It
is also important to remember that whilst the financing of the
monarchy in the UK is part of the debate, Canada does not
send a single penny to Buckingham Palace. It would be
difficult for any politician like Bernier to use “taxpayers
money” as ammunition against it.

It feels pretty unrealistic that there will be any real appetite to
skip Charles, even if we had the option. It is important to
remember that constitutional monarchy can be refereed by
the public fairly easily. The royal houses have proved to be
highly sensitive to public opinion. In the UK this was
famously the case with Edward VIII’s controversial choice of
wife but more recently in Spain when their king was
humiliated into abdication by his own scandals. Spain appears
to be the only other European monarchy to be suffering the
same level of crisis in public image as the UK has. Despite
what tabloids like to shake up in the English speaking world,
such a “royal crisis” appears to be bigger in Spain than it is in
the UK, to the extent that quite a few mainstream Spanish
politicians have actually advocated a republic in contrast to
the very small number of British republicans in Westminster
and even smaller number of them who actually have tried to
campaign for a republic. Charles doesn’t face the same
pressure as Juan Carlos did.

People have at times raised an eyebrow over Prince Charles
(and his sons) acting ‘woke’. But Dutch royalty has been able
to work pretty well with ‘wokeness’, advocating LGBT,
immigration, environmental affairs, and other such things
related to social justice.  This does frustrate some
conservatives but not to the extent of fanning republican
sentiment. The widespread support for the royalty continues
to be preserved.
Picture
Prince Charles speaking at COP21
With the more recent generation of royals, marrying
commoners has become increasingly natural. The Nordic
royals have been doing this for some time now but even in the
very conservative Japan it’s now been accepted. Charles’ wife
Camilla has not used the title “Princess of Wales” but this
reflects the sensitivity related to Diana. There shouldn’t be
any similar reason why Camila won’t be Queen consort.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s behaviour is hardly doing
the monarchy any favours but their antics do not appear to be
damaging Charles specifically.

Many heirs to the thrones have faced skepticism during their
early royal careers both before and after ascending to the
throne. But the best news for Prince Charles is that his public
image has improved no doubt as a result of his own efforts to
downplay his more controversial interests . People are already
forgetting about the bizarre portrayals of him of the past and
are starting to view him as a benign figurehead. A few in the
UK have proposed becoming a copycat Republic of Ireland
but Charles alone does more public engagements than the
Irish President despite Charles not being the Head of State.
He is just that committed.

With Prince Charles filling in for the Queen more than ever
due to concerns over her health, for example stepping in for
the Queen at the recent state opening of Parliament, some
people have felt the need to stir up debate over his position
but, it seems this has been received very favourably by the
British public. The British public likes what they are seeing
and respect for Charles is growing at the right time.

Loyally Yours,
Lord Ludichris

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