Modernisers, not monarchists, have been shown to be out of touch
THE Queen Mother lies at rest in Windsor; the captains and the
kings have departed; the pageantry is over. But its implications
have still to be digested. There are some interesting
conclusions to be drawn from Queen Elizabeth’s obsequies.  Over
the past few years, some anti-monarchical assumptions had been
spreading. An increasing number of commentators had come to
believe that the monarchy would somehow wither away over the
next generation. Though they were always vague about the exact
circumstances in which the royal house would disappear, they
argued that it would gradually crumble under the combined weight
of public indifference and its own outdatedness.  After 11 days
of ceremony and mourning, there is only one retort: what
indifference, what outdatedness? It is not the monarchists but
the carpers and facile modernisers who have been shown to be out
of touch, as indeed were some courtiers who ought to have known
better.  There has been on