What Charles shouldn’t do

One of the most regrettable trends of the past few decades is the creep of politics into every aspect of our public life. Institutions tasked with preserving our heritage, such as Tate Britain, Kew Gardens and the National Trust, are busy holding themselves to account for their historic links to slavery and colonialism, while the police, the civil service and the Church of England have embraced the mantra of equity, diversity and inclusion. The people in charge of these organisations – liberal, urban, highly educated – don’t think of these values as politically contentious, while those of us who don’t fall into those categories – probably the majority of the population – cannot help but feel alienated and disenfranchised. I fear that the death of the Queen will accelerate this trend.

The reason I say this is because, under Elizabeth II, the crown symbolised the politically neutral parts of the state. I don’t just mean that employees of the state, such as armed forces personnel, owed their loyalty to the Queen rather than the prime minister, although that was important. I also mean that the values the Queen embodied – patriotism, duty, public service, fortitude, self-sacrifice – provided those who work for our public institutions with a sense of meaning and purpose. Her values were their values and after a lifetime of public service they could look forward to an honour. I’m sure that’s still true for some, but one of the reasons fashionable causes such as anti-racism have taken such root in organisations like the British Council is because those traditional, old-fashioned values no longer motivate their workforces in the way they once did. For many, feelings of moral duty are now not directed towards crown and country but to the cause of social justice.

I think Charles is unlikely to reverse this trend for a couple of reasons. First, he’s a passionate advocate for environmental causes, including net zero. That is the other great crusade that has replaced patriotism as the thing that gets public employees out of bed in the morning. Yet for people of a sceptical, conservative bent, it is no more politically neutral than equity, diversity and inclusion. On the contrary, it seems to embody the same puritanical contempt for ordinary people and their unruly appetites, the same reverence for highly credentialed ‘experts’ and the same underlying hostility to capitalism. For adherents of the woke and net zero cults, Britain is uniquely evil, not just for its loathsome empire but because it was the first country to industrialise and thus set in motion the rape and conquest of mother Earth.

Second, Charles seems determined to embark on a job share with Prince William. No doubt this is prudent because William is more popular than him and their close links will temper any republican sentiment that is fuelled by the Queen’s death. But the 40-year-old Prince was educated at Eton and St Andrews, two of the wokest educational institutions in the UK, and not only does he share his father’s enthusiasm for green mumbo jumbo, but he’s also bought into the fashionable notion that traditional masculine virtues like competitiveness and emotional restraint are ‘toxic’ and bad for your mental health.

With William whispering into his father’s ear, we can expect a repeat of the embarrassing episode earlier this year when Charles apologised to Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda for ‘slavery’s enduring impact’. I wouldn’t be surprised if our new monarch embarks on a hand--wringing apology tour of Britain’s former colonies in the belief that drawing attention to Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade is the best way to keep the Commonwealth together.

This, I think, goes to the heart of why so many employees of our public institutions have jettisoned a commitment to public service in favour of trying to make amends to those Britain has wronged in the past. For them, our constitutional monarchy doesn’t represent a politically neutral set of values that are worth preserving in public life; on the contrary, those values are inextricably bound up with the sins of the British Empire. That’s why they would prefer to bow to the high priests of the woke cult than to the crown. They mistakenly believe the way to make their organisations ‘relevant’ again and to justify the taxpayers’ money they receive is to force a ‘reckoning’ with our colonial past – and I fear our new King will conclude the royal family must do the same. But I suspect it will have the opposite effect. By conceding so much ground to the monarchy’s critics, Charles will do little to placate them and just further alienate those of us who would be its most ardent defenders.