The Meaning of the State Opening of Parliament
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This article by John Papworth appeared originally in the July 2005 issue of localist newsletter Purton Today and was republished with permission in the September 2005 issue of Sovereignty. It was published on this site on 14 May 2012.
Free download of "The Jubilee Song", sung by Edward Tudor Pole here www.travelman.co.uk/jubileesong
The Queen's Speech is the grand Parliamentary occasion of the year, the one where our crowned and anointed Monarch outlines the intentions of Her government which we have elected to do our bidding.
But theory in these matters is nowadays turned upside down and inside out in order to advance a long running plot to destroy the power, the significance and the meaning of our Parliamentary rituals.
The Queen's Speech is an event of grand pageantry and ceremonial, one of elaborate pomp and circumstance designed to register and to emphasise the sovereignty, the dignity and the majesty of our nationhood, to remind us, the British people, of the glories of our history and the supreme triumph of our achievements in establishing the sublime dignity of democratic government in the Mother of Parliaments and all that pertains to our sense of justice, freedom and the rule of law over the forces of arbitrary powermongering and dictatorial chicanery.
But our real rulers today have other ideas about our destinies.
Our television bosses, instead of highlighting the occasion, so that the cameras enabled us to see and enjoy every moment of the great spectacle of our monarch's ceremonial exercise of her unique function, where the exercise of royal power and prerogative is welded to the imperatives of democratic order, they permitted us to catch only brief glimpses of the powerful symbolism of the occasion.
All the vast uplifting spectacle of monarchical ceremonial pageantry that might remind us of who we are and where we are as a people and as a nation, all staged with such elaborate sense of national dignity and occasion, was reduced to brief, tantalising glimpses of royalty in full regalia in procession to the throne from which the great speech was to be delivered.
It might have been the report of some event of some insignificant territory on the borders of Venezuela; then we were fobbed off with chatter, chatter, chatter of know-all-windbag commentators distracting us from what matters with mountains of words.
And of course it is all deliberate, all done to play down our sense of our own history and our national identity in order to ram this EUropean boardroom plot down our throats.
Harold Wilson described the Treaty of Rome as "The Magna Carta of the Western European Multi-nationals", which of course is all it has ever been, global economic forces, boardroom boys ruthlessly seeking more elbow room to make more money by sweeping away our national frontiers and any national powers or institutions which obstruct them.
So their media servants damp down the majesty of a royal occasion, just as the other servants from the same stable lose no chance to denigrate and belittle the members of our royal family and all that it signifies.
So our local Royal Wiltshire Regiment here is going to lose its title in order to became a unit in an EUropean army even now being formed and plotted for to fight bigger wars despite promises of peace and progress from Brussels to those of us who are as gullible as goldfish.
On Armistice Day they recite some words about the sacrifices of two world wars and solemnly intone "We will remember them".
The dead today are not being remembered they are being betrayed.
Footnote, added 14 May 2012:
An edited version of the following letter by Alistair McConnachie was published in The Herald on Monday 14 May 2012. The value of our heritage has to be constantly explained because every generation has its Philistines who would prefer we raze down everything of the past, and start again at Year Zero, based upon their materialistic view of the world.
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On the occasion of every State Opening of Parliament there is always one person who will write to complain because he objects ideologically to the spectacle, or because it baffles him, or on the spurious ground of its alleged "cost". In that regard, I notice that Ian Thomson upholds this approach quite well (Letters, May 11). Since the benefits of putting on a grand show to open the Mother of Parliaments do not appear to be immediately apparent to him, let me explain. Regarding the "monumental flummery": The ceremony, ritual, and symbolism, and the associated pomp and pageantry, are intended to remind us where we have come from in order to get where we are today. It is intended to link the national consciousness of the present to the national story of the past. This has the practical benefit of grounding our lives within a meaningful national context. That is to say, by knowing where we've been, we have a better idea where we should go, while those who don't understand history are destined to repeat it. Regarding the "fanciful and archaic practices": The search for gunpowder is pretty obvious. We even have a national day to commemorate that one. The reason Black Rod, the Monarch's representative, strikes the door to the Commons' Chamber and is initially refused entry is to symbolise the independence of the Commons from the Monarch. That is hardly a "deferential ritual" or an "outmoded symbol". The idea of its cost being an "extravagance" we cannot afford is bogus. All the public servants were getting paid that day, whether or not they were working at the State Opening. There is no cost attached to putting on one's "robe of velvet and fur" or wheeling out a horse-drawn coach. And even if there were, it would be worth it! Yours faithfully Alistair McConnachie |
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