Opinion on the monarchy
Posted in Social on June 1st, 2012 by Leo – Comments Off on Opinion on the monarchyThere have already been two polls on opinion about the monarchy over the last week and I’m sure there’ll be more in the coming days.
The Guardian last Thursday found a ‘surge in royalism’ despite doubts about whether Charles should take the throne. Another in today’s Independent apparently found similar lack of excitement about Charles.
I’m away for a bit, so won’t be going through any more monarchy polls as they’re published. But from these new polls the analysis I did a few months ago looks still to hold:
1) As the Guardian poll suggests, British opinion remains firmly committed to keeping a monarchy. Perhaps it’s become even stronger since the royal wedding and the jubilee, but the idea of a republic has never appealed in recent decades.
2) Yet, this is perhaps more about hostility to the idea of Britain becoming a republic, rather than love for the monarchy. Over the late ’80s and early ’90s there was a significant shift from people thinking Britain would be worse if it lost the monarchy to people thinking it would make no difference. The last polling I’ve seen on this is 10 years old, so perhaps things have changed, but it does suggest that people no longer buy the argument that the monarchy brings benefits to the UK.
3) As both recent polls suggest, there is indeed currently a problem with the succession. Of course this could well change when – if – it comes up and ceremonialism takes over, but at the moment there are very clear doubts about what should happen next.