The Headless Crown Awaiting the UK

I’ve always been a dedicated republican; yes, yes, a Republican, too, but it this case I do mean the old lower-case-r republican who dislikes monarchies on principle. And I’ve never had much use for the British royal family, especially the heir-head-apparent Prince Charles, who stands as a cautionary tale against generations of inbreeding among European royalty.

So it is with great delight that I read Lord Monckton’s throwdown to Prince Charles for Charles’s recent comments attacking climate skeptics as being “headless chickens.”  The pouty prince really ought to be more careful about calling anyone “headless.”  I gather he’s forgotten what happened to a previous fellow named Charles who wore the crown.  As Monty Python put it, “The most interesting thing about King Charles, the first, is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign but only 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it.” Heh.  The most interesting thing about the current royal Charles is. . .  actually, I can’t think of a single thing interesting about him, with the possible exception of his late wife, who as we know was forced upon him.

Anyway, over on WattsUpWithThat, Lord Monckton invites Prince Charles to a public debate, but also suggests that Charles preemptively abdicate, to save everyone the embarrassment of his prospective reign.  Here’s a portion:

Now that Your Royal Highness has offered Your Person as fair game in the shootout of politics, I am at last free to offer two options. I need no longer hold back, as so many have held back, as Your Royal Highness’ interventions in politics have become more frequent and less acceptable in their manner as well as in their matter.

Option 1. Your Royal Highness will renounce the Throne forthwith and for aye. Those remarks were rankly party-political and were calculated to offend those who still believe, as Your Royal Highness plainly does not, that the United Kingdom should be and remain a free country, where any subject of Her Majesty may study science and economics, may draw his conclusions from his research and may publish the results, however uncongenial the results may be.

The line has been crossed. No one who has intervened thus intemperately in politics may legitimately occupy the Throne. Your Royal Highness’ arrogant and derogatory dismissiveness towards the near-50 percent of your subjects who no longer follow the New Religion is tantamount to premature abdication. Goodnight, sweet prince. No more “Your Royal Highness.”

There’s more, including Option 2–a public debate. Enjoy.

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