A fairy story already going wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Petulant Prince” or “The Cantankerous King”

     It sounds as if it ought to be the title to one of the fairy stories that Oscar wrote, a seemingly simple tale, told directly and simply with a poignantly heart-warming moral at the end.

     But this is what is laughingly called real life and though it has a ‘real’ prince, he is not the handsome ingenue all golden curls and peachy skin, no, this is an ageing man who has endured decades of being on the side-lines and now can almost feel the impress of the coronation crown on his head.  He’s well past retirement age and the passions that filled his heir apparent youth, middle age, and early old age, must now be supressed for the greater good of maintaining the position of ‘The Firm’ in the public imagination.

     The image of ‘The Firm’ (a term coined by a man who often unsettled the fantasy of the importance of the Royal Family himself) is a delicate balancing act to maintain, and there have had to have been a certain amount of dynastic acrobatics to keep ‘The Firm’ alive and well. 

     Although The Queen has played her role almost to perfection, in her studied probity, determined neutrality, and political vacuousness, the same cannot be said for her children and other members of the wider family.  Scandal, corruption, speaking out of turn, crassness, divorce, fire, and death – the back story of King Charles III is well worthy of a much saltier series than the reverential TV saga presently working its way towards the present.

     The Transition is a delicate time for any organization, but much more so for an institution that defies reason, logic, and democracy, and really needs the political and social version of smoke and mirrors to justify its existence.

     And what has our Petulant Prince (aka The Cantankerous King) done to ease the transition from QEII to CIII?  Apart from making his every public utterance sound as if he is auditioning for the Boris Karloff role in something like The Sombre Crypt, he has shown all too clearly his pettiness.

     The YouTube films doing the rounds are concerned with pens, and the intolerable pressures that such writing implements put on our new monarch.

     The first bout of pen pressure came during the televised signing of the proclamation of his new position.  The proclamation was on a large sheet of vellum (?) and Charles found that the inkwells were in the way and grimaced and imperiously tried to wave the thing away with regal hand flips while saying “I can’t be expected to move the thing!”  No indeed, moving a small piece of desk furniture is obviously a no-no for a man who has servants to iron shoelaces flat and put toothpaste on his toothbrush!

 

 

 

 

 

     The signing of the visitors’ book in Northern Ireland was even worse when, having first written down the wrong date, he discovered that his pen was leaking.  He did a mini-rampage and swore, “bloody thing!”

     This would all be quite amusing, if such entitled petulance was not from a man who had just been made head of state.  If he finds it difficult to cope with a misplaced inkwell and a leaking pen, it really doesn’t say very much for his future ability to cope with issues that might be of a little more moment!

     But if you could laugh at his various hissy fits over ink and the way it is applied to surfaces (including his fingers) there is nothing funny about the story that, while a thanksgiving service for the Queen was in progress in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, warnings of redundancy notices were issued to staff working for the former Prince Charles in Clarence House. 

     While the move from being ‘Prince’ Charles and the heir to the throne, to being King Charles III would of necessity entail some movement – physically from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace, and administratively from Prince to King – the optics of telling staff, some of whom had worked for the Prince for decades, that their jobs were on the line while a commemorative service for the Queen was happening and before she had even been buried, was bad to say the least.  Or crass.  Or unfeeling.  Or even, un-kingly.

     Some people have been quick to defend the king and make the point that his mother had just died, and he found himself under great stress, no matter how long he had waited for the moment and how many plans had been made for a smooth transition. 

     And that is the point, plans have been made for years, every detail has been considered and planned for.  The movement of staff, or their replacement, or amalgamation or whatever must have been planned for, long in advance, so why the hugger-mugger inept and insensitive speed with which to tell long serving employees that they were going to be sacked.

     It remains that the public face of the king is now seen as a that of a petty old man, who demands everything be ‘just so’ and is enraged when it isn’t.  He could, of course, have turned any slight inconvenience into something of a joke and passed-off the moment with deft insouciance.  But he didn’t.  Because he isn’t that sort of man.  And, slight though the ink-related issues might be, the staffing inconsideration is much more worrying.

     I think that Charles starts his reign with an overarching sense of, “it could have been done differently.”

     Perhaps that might just sum him up.

    

 

A Resolution?

 

NEW LOCKDOWN: Day 9, Saturday.

 

An unsettled sleep, not because of cheese eating too late at night, but rather because we were awakened at 5 am by raised voices and the flashing lights of police cars. 

 

 

 

It turned out that an empty property next door but one had been occupied by a person who was homeless and the alarm system had alerted the police.  Given how loud the altercation was I was amazed by how uninterested our neighbours were, or perhaps by how soundly they were sleeping!

     Eventually three or four police cars were involved and a white van which had the locksmith.  So, after the shouting had settled down and the man was escorted away from the premises, we then had to contend with early morning drilling as the lock was changed and the outside gate was made ‘safe’.

     All the disruption allowed/forced me to look at my mobile and to gnash my teeth with frustrated impotence at the unchanging nature of Biden’s Electoral College vote.  And it was raining.  Which made my eventual earlyish morning bike ride a damper and more bracing event than usual.  Though I think that I have now worked out how to get my new watch to note my exercise and download it to the accompanying app.  Usually.

     The generally sullen climate and cloud covered skies forced me to turn on the newly installed (by me) light on the bike and I therefore blazed my way through the puddles and other stretches of standing water along the paseo.  The heavens only really opened as I got near home, so thought I was wet by the time I locked the bike up, I was not soaked and a few minutes in the tumble dryer was sufficient to get my shorts dry and warm and a quick towel was enough for other extremities.

     Considering how dull and unfriendly the conditions were, there were plenty of runners, joggers, striders and dog walkers.  We bike riders were definitely in the minority, but from our privileged position we are better able to observe the looks of dull, apathetic acceptance that runners and walkers possess when they are going about their voluntary exercise.  You don’t see many smiles from those on foot; you half expect to see electronic tags around their ancles ensuring that they complete their punishment.  There is nothing like freewheeling to show that you are living a life apart from the foot sloggers!

     So, after my ride, damp and self-congratulating, I yet again checked my mobile and then started to work out where the US of A must be in time relationship to us.  When you start that computation by saying to yourself, “Well, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so when it is lunchtime here, they must be waiting for lunchtime there” you realize that the accuracy is going to be limited.

     And, anyway, the glacial counting of ballots by some of the states is obviously being governed by a completely different time system altogether but, with the wisdom of past assemblies in my mind, “This too will pass” encourages patience and eventually even the Byzantine electoral system of that wondrous collection of states has come up with a result and, to the general delight of all my friends, Biden is going to be the 46^th President of the United States of America.

     And this is a time to rejoice and be exceeding glad, because One-Term Trump is dumped; or at least in our reality that is what has happened.  In a scenario that surely cannot be true, and yet with Trump anything is possible, he is scheduled to make some sort of speech in the Four Seasons Total Landscaping which is situated next to an Adult Bookstore.  You can’t make these things up!  With Biden at 290 Electoral College votes and counting, Delusional One-Term is not only claiming that he has won, but that he has “won by a lot”.  It is more than likely that the frivolous litigation will be blown away like the insubstantial shadows that they are and then we will be in for a most unedifying period from now to the January inauguration of the new President.

     How will Trump ‘play’ the transition?  I cannot imagine his being gracious in facilitating a smooth hand over of power!  And I cannot imagine many of Biden’s appointments to governmental agencies even wanting the half-wits that Trump imposed to pretend that they know anything useful about their positions.  Can you imagine Betsy DeVos having a meaningful conversation with a Democratic replacement about any aspect of education after one has listened to her embarrassingly revealing confirmation hearing?

     It is a long time from November to January, and during that time Trump will be president.  He still has the capacity and the wilfulness to create mischief.  Trump deliberately ignored briefings during his transition period to bring him up to speed with the workings of government: apart from the civil servants in government, who is there in the Trump ‘Administration’ who is capable of giving a meaningful briefing to incoming politicians!

     And can you see Trump sitting quiescent in the audience behind the new President in the company of other past presidents as the inaugural address is being made?  Carter, Clinton and Obama are Democrats, and Bush loathes him.  He is going to feel very isolated, especially if the other presidents are welcoming and civilized in the way they treat him.  Trump could usefully spend the months until January practicing his “naughty boy sulking, hands between his legs, tie dangling” stance that he adopts when with any other leader who momentarily takes attention away from himself.  Will he turn up?  Will he be able to bear it?

     Or will Trump take the opportunity of the next few weeks before the inauguration to stir up his base and encourage them to come to the ceremony with the intention of disrupting it?

     It is perhaps a sign of my desperation that I take encouragement from TikTok and brief videos that show young Trump supporters folding up their Trump banners and posting messages of support for the President Elect.

     Perhaps, after everything, reason will prevail and healing can begin.