Secret | This document is the property of her Britannic Majesty’s Government | 4 March 1983<\/p>\n
The recently declassified draft of a speech to be given by Britannic Majesty Windsor in the event of nuclear war draws attention to the difficulties in the monarchist notion that the \u201croyal\u201d family has a commonality with a \u201cnational family\u201d, uniting where otherwise there would be damaging divisions.<\/p>\n
It is obvious that this is not the case with republicans. They are likely to be alienated by monarchy. But, as we know well, republicans count for nothing with a British elite that is unable to engage with republican thought in a serious way. When it is unable to deny their existence it tries to brush them under the carpet or, during Windsor weddings, lock them up.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the \u201croyal family\u201d can unite the rest of the nation. This draft speech confirms the doubts about that.<\/p>\n
Possibly the most striking word in the draft speech is \u201chuddled\u201d to describe Windsor and her sister as children listening to their father’s speech about war in 1939. Sitting in the luxury of their palace or castle home, one of many paid for by the people then and now, they really had nothing in common with the \u201chuddled masses\u201d that emigrated to the United States and which the word draws to mind.<\/p>\n
That did not deter the writer. The British masses, Windsor’s subjects, were supposed to identify with the \u201croyal\u201d family, however different their lives might be. \u201cWe\u201d is used in places in such a way as to leave unclear whether it is the Windsor family or the nation that is referred to.<\/p>\n
Windsor was to have described war as \u201cmadness\u201d. But in truth, whatever anxieties British citizens might have had about the prospect of war, the state she represented had often sent its citizens to war to protect the Empire that preceded the Commonwealth that she says had shared her \u201cjoy\u201d at Christmas.<\/p>\n
Windsor was also to have referred to nuclear weapons as an \u201cabused technology\u201d. Perhaps the speech writer was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament sneaking in a good word for the cause. But that seems unlikely. The state Windsor represented was one of the few to have nuclear weapons. Those weapons had and do divide the UK. Monarchy could do nothing to change that.<\/p>\n
Windsor was to have told us that her family prayed \u201ccontinuously\u201d for the safety of her son in the armed forces, and for all members of those forces. Continuous prayer seems unlikely from this Anglican family. But the idea seems to be that her super-privileged clan is no different from other families with a child in the armed forces. The truth is that most soldiers serve in the ranks of the often class-divided armed forces. They do not have the privileges of the Windsor boys, always officers, who have always being able to choose whether or not to serve, and where to serve.<\/p>\n
The suggestion that the \u201cbond of family life\u201d will somehow help protect against nuclear attack is, of course, absurd. It seems to be a very ill-judged attempt to justify and give special significance to the \u201croyal\u201d family by giving family life in general a power it does not have. The previous wars to which Windsor was to refer in the speech were very disruptive of family life.<\/p>\n
Her proposed statement that “If families remain united and resolute, giving shelter to those living alone and unprotected, our country’s will to survive cannot be broken” continued the absurdity. There were and are elaborate plans to protect Windsor’s life from nuclear attack. But most Britons would have no protection, whether they were \u201cunited families\u201d or \u201cthose living alone\u201d. Windsor was to rely on the full resources of the British state. Her \u201csubjects\u201d would have to rely on themselves.<\/p>\n
The final words of the speech were to have been \u201cGod bless you all\u201d. No separation of church and state. No recognition that many in the \u201cnational family\u201d do not believe in a god. By why would there be in a state so shameless as to have a state church, setting Anglicans above other citizens, as the monarchy sets the Windsors above the rest of us?<\/p>\n
\u201cWeak, if not bizarre\u201d was how Charles Crawford described the draft speech in the monarchist Daily Telegraph. It was \u201cbizarre\u201d but no more so than the British monarchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secret | This document is the property of her Britannic Majesty’s Government | 4 March 1983 The recently declassified draft of a speech to be given by Britannic Majesty Windsor in the event of nuclear war draws attention to the difficulties in the monarchist notion that the \u201croyal\u201d family has a commonality with a \u201cnational […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-republic"],"yoast_head":"\n