insights from the british monarchy - BURA - Brunel University

36
Significantly, on the 25 th anniversary of becoming Queen she reaffirmed her
vow to Britain and the Commonwealth, even though most Commonwealth
nations were now republics.
‚When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people, and I ask for God’s help
to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days when I was
green in judgement, I do not regret or retract one word of it.‛ (Shawcross, 2002. p.
19)
Of course, the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Prince William
are, indubitably, celebrity brands in their own right. An examination of global
media coverage of the British Crown reveals that the activities of monarch
and royal family engender considerable fascination.
Although periodically tarnished by impropriety from within, the British
Monarchy as an institution still retains a charisma, distinctiveness, and worth
to its brand community within the Commonwealth and beyond. Consider the
phenomenal success of the award-winning film ‚The Queen‛ (Frears 2006) and
the insatiable public appetite for books on the British Crown such as ‚On
Royalty‛ (Paxman 2006) and ‚Monarchy‛ (Hardman 2007).
The British Monarchy does have its detractors who see the institution as an
outdated and expensive irrelevance (Nairn 1988). Such a stance has recently
been adopted by The Economist (2006 a) which argued that the institution was
arcane and had lacked utility and concluded, in short, that its ‚time has
passed‛.
In certain Commonwealth countries such as Australia, where the Queen is
Head of State, the monarch is, by some, seen as a vestigial element of British
administration and the institution would not appear to have been internalised
and accepted as a quintessential Australian institution. The Sovereign is a
non-resident head of state and this can understandably be viewed as an outdated
notion. Moreover, in recent years the national sense of self of
Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders has meant that many of them no
longer see themselves as having a meaningful affinity with Britain in the way
that, say, their grandparents might have done.
The current constitutional position of Australia is that it is a sovereign
constitutional monarchy; one that is separate and divisible from the United
Kingdom along with Queen Elizabeth’s other realms and where Queen
Elizabeth’s status is that of Queen of Australia as she is Queen of Canada,
Queen of New Zealand and so on. Thus, if the UK or one of the other realms
were to become a republic this would not alter the constitutional position of
the Queen in the other monarchies where she is Head of State.
36