It’s six days after QEII’s funeral now, and it’s probably safe to raise my republican head above the parapet without being accused of being disrespectful and unpatriotic, and hurting the feelings of monarchists. Probably.

I am against monarchy because I think that all people are born equal and do not think that one person should be considered better than everyone else through mere accident of their birth. It is the opposite of democracy. In this country the influence, privilege and wealth that goes with the UK royals and their extended families and their hangers-on is astounding. It has nothing to do with merit or wisdom. Experience and knowledge are not heritable. Why should one family command such influence over us, unaccountable for their actions and insulated from the struggles of their fellow citizens for the whole course of their lives?

I simmered with indignation throughout the ten day official mourning period as I read about people being arrested for voicing their objections to members of the royal family or the monarchy in general. In these times, where a single protestor can be arrested with the threat of a long jail sentence for a protest that has the potential to annoy someone I think this is a dangerous and frightening precedent.

She was not my grandma. She was not yours. I don’t understand the personal grief for the Queen. Only a small proportion of those mourning will have met her, still fewer will have known her well. Most people will have gained their impression of her only through the media. Yes, of course, she was a doughty and lately frail old lady who did her duty to the country for 70 years, but she lived in luxury, and everything was done to make her life comfortable. Yes, her passing after her long reign was historic but I really have no understanding of all the weeping. I have heard that people were projecting their unresolved pandemic grief for relatives whom they could not mourn properly onto the mourning for the Queen. I wasn’t here. I do not know.

Succession passed immediately to the Queen’s son, now King Charles III, during the Accession Council, consisting of Privy Councillors. There was no time for any debate or questioning about whether this process of choosing a new Head of State was still suitable for the 21st Century. It just happened. Why the haste? Are the Privy Council not also supposed to be accountable to Parliament, which in turn is supposed to act on behalf of its citizens? Where was our opportunity for input?

Monarchy in this country, with its collective fawning and deference over a small coterie of people, is analogous to a religion. Why are we supposed to curtsey? Why are there such arcane rules about addressing people with these titles? How are these convoluted ways of behaving relevant to a modern social democracy?

Television channels ran nothing but burbling speculation for days. People who questioned this mass hysteria were shouted down as unpatriotic, yet there was still room for spiteful controversy about Harry and Meghan. It disgusted me.

Why did people take any questioning of the role of the monarchy in modern Britain so personally, as if we were insulting or sneering at them? We can’t seem to take anything seriously in this country? Why is intelligent debate considered awkward or boring or impolite? 

I think that a more democratic system would see an elected head of state much along the lines of other countries around the world, Ireland for example, where the President can refer bills to the Supreme Court to check their constitutionality.

When you say this to people, their first response is usually to cite the experience of the USA. “Trump was an elected president. We might get President Boris.” My argument is that the US elected Trump, yes, but also elected Presidents Obama and Carter. The fault for Trump lies inter alia with people’s poor education, poor shared values; manipulative media and a corrupted electoral system. Yes, they elected Trump, but they also got rid of him. We cannot get rid of our Head of State, and even without being elected President, “Boris” and his mates have still trodden this country into the mud.

Our constitutional monarchy has not been a check or a balance on our recent succession of egregious, corrupt and self-serving prime ministers ending with Johnson, has it? They have still wreaked their havoc. Most of us have had our lives damaged under their cruel policies and venality, and we’ll continue to suffer under Truss, and that’s not to mention the embarrassment on the world stage that that Oaf in Chief has dragged us through.

I was ambivalent about the monarchy, half buying into the constitutional arguments, until the Queen did nothing in 2019 to prevent the unlawful prorogation of Parliament, which stopped any discussion of the government’s plans for a Brexit that would bring this country to its knees. So much for the check on power provided by the Monarch! It did not happen, because the Queen (anti-Brexit as we now know – too late) felt that she could not get involved. In which case what is the point of the monarchy?

People then tell me that our monarchy is good because it draws tourists to the UK. The lack of monarchy does not prevent the tourist incomes to France does it? There’s no dearth of visitors to Versailles.

The state mourning was accompanied by impressive and historic ceremonial, the pomp and splendour that the UK does well because it belongs to another era that has now passed. It was a temporary distraction from the misery that awaits us.

The music was wonderful and the massed ranks of the armed forces were spectacular, but I could not help wondering whether it would have been just as inspiring with half of the participants, the money saved going to the aid the living in need of support during what promises to be a harsh and bitter winter. Of course, this government and its supporters would never allocate those funds to those people because they simply do not see them but there is always money for bread and circuses.