Do Britons even like the royal family?

BRITAIN IS A funny old country. How does one begin to explain its obsession with queuing? Its Morris dancers? The heated debate over Marmite? The full might of its eccentricities will be on show on May 6th as the country crowns a new monarch. King Charles III’s coronation will involve parades of carriages and sparkling jewels. London will be filled with royalists and far too many men in tights. But for all the fanfare it is fair to ask: do most Britons even care about their royal family?

Pollsters have been wondering about this for decades. One of the earliest surveys about the monarchy was asked by a foreigner, George Gallup, a pioneering pollster in America. Gallup asked Brits in 1937 whether Edward VIII, who had recently abdicated to marry a divorcée and was in exile in Paris, should be invited to return to Britain. Despite the abdication crisis, three-fifths responded “yes”. When Gallup asked Brits in 1946 whom they most admired, just 3% said the then king and queen, who came a country mile behind Winston Churchill (24%).

To most Britons, the royals provide spectacle more than substance. Asked in 1957 what the most memorable events of the year were, British respondents to a survey placed Elizabeth II’s tour of Canada second, behind the launch of the Soviets’ Sputnik satellite. A survey in 1968 asked what influence the monarchy had on the future direction of Britain; 55% of respondents replied “little or none”. But spectacle seems to suit many people. Gallup had been surveying in Britain for nearly four decades before he plucked up the courage in 1973 to ask what now seems an obvious question: whether Brits wanted to ditch the royals. The response was unequivocal: 80% preferred a monarchy. Just 11% said they would like a presidential system like America’s.

Britain’s National Centre for Social Research has taken the reins on the republic question ever since. In 1983, when it first asked the question, just 3% of people they polled said they would abolish the monarchy. They didn’t bother asking again for a decade. That figure has now risen to 14%; among 18-34 year-olds it is 21%. Greater support for the monarchy is stronger not only among older people but also among those who have right-wing politics and those who say they are proudly patriotic. But even youngsters are in no mood for revolution. To the question of whether Britain should perpetuate the inherited privilege of the monarchy, Britons of all ages just shrug.■