Corona Británica (Continuación)

EuropaUnión Europea,

La boda de Su Alteza Real el príncipe Guillermo con la hasta ese momento señorita Katte Middleton, y a partir de ahora Su Alteza Real la princesa Catalina, ha despertado el habitual revuelo en los medios de comunicación británicos e internacionales. Especialmente, y no tiene sentido ocultarlo, en la prensa del corazón; pero explicita simultáneamente, y además de forma más importante, muchos de los rasgos que refrendan la vigencia de la institución monárquica. Una condición, la de princesa, que ha de saber ser asumida tanto por la persona afectada, dada su ya especial dignidad, como por los ciudadanos, que no deben confundir la cercanía de la Corona con una vulgarización mal entendida.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Amid the flag-waving and the street parties to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton today, bigger questions about the relevance of the monarchy to modern Britain lurk like uninvited guests. Extravagant living in a time of austerity abrades public sensibilities; unearned privilege is resented, while snobbery and elitism are seen as dangerously outmoded. The usual arguments in support of the monarchy — continuity, tradition and dignity — are no longer enough. The royals need to earn their keep.

While only a small minority here favor a republican government, many Britons hope the wedding might signal the dawning of a more populist monarchy.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

A muchos les parece que la Monarquía británica es una superviviente de otra generación, un recuerdo de la época dorada de la expansión imperial y las hazañas navales. De los «60 gloriosos años» de la Reina Victoria, como lo expresó la actriz de los años cuarenta Anna Neagle. De la vieja canción The Vicar of Bray, que conmemora inmortalmente al Rey Jorge «a la hora del postre». En cierto sentido, esa interpretación es cierta. Porque el pasado fue un pasado monárquico en casi todos los sentidos.

Pero hay un error fundamental en esa imagen. En los primeros años del siglo XX, la fuerza de Gran Bretaña parecía reflejada en su sistema parlamentario, sus responsabilidades imperiales y coloniales, sus logros literarios y científicos, así como en su estabilidad constitucional garantizada por el Rey y la Reina en el Parlamento.…  Seguir leyendo »

Monarquía: la supervivencia de una ilusión

EuropaUnión Europea,

Al comienzo de la brillante película El discurso del rey, protagonizada por Colin Firth, hay dos escenas que tienen un significado especial para comprender mejor el papel de la Monarquía. En una de ellas, el primer ministro que encabezaba el Gobierno británico en 1936, Stanley Baldwin, expresa firmemente al rey Eduardo VIII que debe abdicar porque la nación no aceptaría su matrimonio con la divorciada Wallis Simpson; y, por supuesto, el monarca abdica. En la otra escena, Firth (que encarna magistralmente al duque de York y posterior rey Jorge VI) muestra su consternación cuando se entera de que tiene que asumir el trono, por la renuncia de su hermano mayor.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Si las cosas continúan en Reino Unido como hasta ahora y el príncipe Carlos sucede a su madre para reinar hasta su muerte, a edad muy avanzada, entonces, hacia 2040, la joven pareja que se casa hoy en la abadía de Westminster serán el rey Guillermo V y la reina Catalina. Por el mero hecho de haber nacido en la familia en la que ha nacido, Guillermo será jefe de Estado de lo que quede de Reino Unido actual. ¿Me parece bien? Mi respuesta es: en teoría, no, pero en la práctica, seguramente, sí.

Si Guillermo y Catalina se portan bien, a diferencia de otros miembros más revoltosos de la familia real, y contribuyen al desarrollo de una monarquía constitucional modernizada y reconvertida, la situación será tal vez mejor que las alternativas más probables.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

¡Tenemos boda! Este viernes se casa Su Alteza Real el Príncipe Guillermo con la señorita Kate Middleton. No intentaré competir con la prensa del corazón especulando sobre el traje de la novia, la lista de invitados (y no invitados) ni demás elementos del evento. Cualquier lector de la revista «¡Hola!» estaría mucho mejor informado que yo.

Basta con decir que, a partir del viernes en el caso improbable de encontrarme yo con la Princesa Catalina me pondría en posición firme, inclinaría la cabeza y me dirigiría a Su Alteza Real en tercera persona. ¿Por qué? ¿No representa este tipo de comportamiento una sociedad elitista, deferencial y contraria a los valores más esenciales de la igualdad del hombre y la mujer en la sociedad democrática?…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

When Prince William and Kate Middleton marry on April 29, they will join a select group, even among royals. While the site of their wedding, Westminster Abbey, has been the place of every coronation since the Norman conquest, only 15 royal couples have been married there since it was founded in 960.

The first wedding to take place at the abbey was that of King Henry I of England and Princess Matilda of Scotland in 1100. The bride wore a crimson robe, a fashion choice Miss Middleton will likely not follow. While the great and good looked on and those less connected cheered outside, the archbishop of Canterbury married the bride and groom, as his successor will do in less than two weeks.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Across the front pages of newspapers all around the Western world on Wednesday was news of an English royal wedding. In the excitement, some readers may have missed last week’s other big royal story: the discovery of Richard II’s glove.

The royal wedding is of course the one to come next year between Prince William, grandson of the queen and likely one day to be king, and Catherine Middleton, a “middle class” girl whose parents, the papers say, run a mail-order business called Party Pieces, selling supplies for children’s parties. (All agree that the Middletons are millionaires.)

The Richard II news is more 14th-century, and it is that the fragment of what was almost certainly a glove belonging to that controversial king has been discovered in what looks like a cigarette box in the basement archive of the National Portrait Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Our little Paki friend... Ahmed.” Oh boy. I've heard that one before.

But not as recently as the friends I spoke to yesterday in Oldham, a place where racial tensions spilled into riots not long ago. Apparently, they still get called Paki all the time. By whom? “Oh, just little kids on the street. What can you do? They're only children.”

Prince Harry is not a child. He is unlucky only in that, unlike most young men, his worst moments end up splashed across the front page of newspapers. That he thought it acceptable to use the word Paki to refer to a Pakistani colleague represents a pathetic failure in his upbringing.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

Twenty years ago, when The Post decided to send me to South America as a foreign correspondent, the first thing I did was run out and buy a copy of Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop." Published in 1938, Waugh's great comic novel charts the misadventures of William Boot, a mild-mannered columnist who normally ekes out a living by writing, badly, about the English countryside -- "Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole," goes one classic Boot line -- but mistakenly is sent to cover a civil war in the fictional African nation of Ishmaelia. High jinks ensue.

One of the book's many delights is its over-the-top depiction of the swashbuckling, cutthroat, hilariously amoral British press.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoEuropaUnión Europea, ,

It might seem all’s well that ends well. Prince Harry should never have been sent into harm’s way to fight in Afghanistan. The British media should never have agreed to keep silent about it. But given that he was and they did, and now that we know, a great deal of good seems to have come of it in the event – or at least in the lack of any event.

Almost everyone has come out of it well. Harry has emerged from interviews filmed in Afghanistan as an unassuming, sensible, endearing and brave young man; clearly popular with his men and well regarded by superior officers, he is (despite a couple of lapses at clubs and parties) altogether a man his country can be proud of.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoEuropaUnión Europea, ,

On the one hand, it was nice to see Prince Harry in a British army uniform, as opposed to one of Hitler's. It's a little bit like Pokemon, really. I'm hoping he'll give us a highly collectible Hutu warrior snap soon. Gotta catch 'em all! On the other, is there anyone over Pokemon-playing age who believes it was really worth it? The sheer number of man-hours and money lavished on allowing one young man to experience job satisfaction is mind-boggling. It has to be the most fatuous use of Ministry of Defence resources since Geoff Hoon.

According to the executive director of the Society of Editors, who helped establish the controversial media blackout, it was not designed to mislead readers and viewers but to ultimately give them "a deeper insight into a new side of Prince Harry".…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

La vida breve de la princesa Diana ha dejado tras de sí la pregunta ineludible sobre lo que habría podido llegar a ser. ¿Habría llegado a desarrollar todo su potencial como activista de causas humanitarias a escala mundial, como pareció apuntar con la última campaña que emprendió contra las minas anti personas, brillantemente llevada a cabo, o habría caído en el vagabundeo lujoso de cualquier princesa famosa indiferente a todo, como pareció apuntar con su postrer idilio con un coleccionista de aventuras como Dodi Al Fayed?

Las circunstancias escabrosas de su muerte, hace ahora 10 años, ensombrecen el hecho de que, en los últimos meses de su vida, Diana se sintió más consciente que nunca del potencial de su proyección pública.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Las masas llenaban las calles de Londres y parecía como si el peso de los ramos de flores y los osos de peluche pudiera derribar las verjas del Palacio de Kensington. Los medios de comunicación británicos -con muy excepcionales salvedades- atacaban a la Familia Real británica por su frialdad y distanciamiento. Por primera vez la Reina -y en este caso mucho más que el Príncipe de Gales- era objeto del reproche público y publicado de sus súbditos. Recuerdo con nitidez cuánto me impresionaron las palabras de una amiga, de incuestionable, inteligente y muy efectiva lealtad monárquica: «Esto se ha acabado. Los Windsor se van a ir a su casa».…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

By Roy Hattersley (THE GUARDIAN, 30/10/06):

The critics have got it wrong. How the royal family behaves is not the issue. The Queen may well, as some newspapers have suggested, be working so hard that her health is endangered. On the other hand, it is equally possible (as other reports claim) that the Prince of Wales was driven to uncontrollable fury by the suggestion that he should be taxed in the same way as his future subjects. But to base judgments about the future of the monarchy on the conduct and character of the sovereign and her successor is to reduce the constitutional debate to the level of triviality that Jeremy Paxman managed to sustain for almost a whole book on the subject.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

By Minette Marin (THE TIMES, 17/09/06):

It is often said that the more you learn about something, the more right wing you come to feel about it. That may not always be so but it seems to be true of the monarchy, judging from Stephen Frears’s dazzling new film about the Queen.

The more he and his great leading actress came to know of the Queen, the more royalist they seem to have become. The result is that they have created a royalist film; it is practically a hagiography. The film The Queen will work public relations wonders for the House of Windsor.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

By Graham Stewart (THE TIMES, 22/04/06):

IT IS AS well that it is a job for life because a high proportion of Britain’s monarchs never reached what would otherwise be considered pensionable age. The point is illustrated by a startling fact — Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the third crowned head in British history to celebrate an 80th birthday. In this, she finds herself equalled by only two of her predecessors, King George III and Queen Victoria.

Of course, there are good reasons why many rulers did not make it to their dotage. Whether or not it was nasty and brutish, life in the Dark Ages had a tendency to be short.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Madeleine Bunting (THE GUARDIAN, 21/04/06):

There have been the official 80th photographs, the 80 facts for an 80-year-old monarch issued by Buckingham Palace, a respectful television programme on her extraordinary life and long reign. There will be plenty more celebrations come the official birthday in June, but as the Queen finally celebrates her landmark day, there's a thought that, however inappropriate, can't but rear its head: what happens to a monarchy that has become so profoundly associated with one particular person? Is the institution robust enough to survive its passage to a new incumbent?

So much of our understanding of the monarchy has been bound up with the character of Elizabeth Windsor; her combination of reserve, sense of duty and that quintessential English upper-class lifestyle of frugal and rural.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

By Libby Purves (THE TIMES, 18/04/06):

THE QUEEN will be 80 this week, and it is not hard to predict an outbreak of mass fondness. There is grudging affection among even those who find it hard to visualise a monarchy beyond her lifetime; those who find it a positively useful part of British life are prone to love her with almost demented extravagance, simply because she has done it so well, for so long.

Some will hate every minute of the celebrations: the walkabouts, the cheering, the church services, the larky June party filling Buckingham Palace with noisy children and delighted actors sweating in foam rubber character suits.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

By Simon Jenkins (THE TIMES, 16/04/06):

The Queen is 80 this week and still at work. In any walk of life that is a handsome milestone and to reach it hale and hearty is a cause for celebration. To someone who has spent half a century in the same job it is the more remarkable.

Unlike a jubilee a birthday is a personal, not a state, anniversary but in the Queen’s case person and position are one and the same. Eighty is an age at which most people are not just on bus passes and free prescriptions, but feel their responses are slowing and life’s pleasures becoming more intimate.…  Seguir leyendo »