A Republican on the road to nowhere

The Sunday Age of 1st March 2009 could not have chosen a more appropriate title for an opinion piece of Guy Rundle: “On the road to nowhere”. Rundle dug deep into old prejudices and gossip to unearth whatever seemed useful to him to show how he despises the Australian Royal Family. Even the most decayed rumours had to mentioned by this Australian writer living in England (The Sunday Age).

But what kind of a royal expert is Guy Rundle if he doesn’t even get a basic known name right? The Queen Mother was not born Mary Bowes-Lyon, but Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. According to Rundle, after her death in 2002 she “almost completely faded from public consciousness".

However in July 2008, when the memorabilia of her former man servant William Tallon were auctioned, the 700 items fetched record prices. A note from the Queen Mother instructing Tallon " to pack two small bottles of Dubonnet and gin . . . in case it is needed" was expected to fetch up to $620, it went to a phone bidder for $33,000. Top-priced item was a portrait of the Queen Mother by Sir James Gunn, dated November 1945, which went for $62,000 -- five times its estimate. (Details see: William Tallon's royal mementoes send auction prices soaring)

It is understandable that this auction did not catch Rundle’s attention, because at that time he covered the US primaries, which cost the record sum of US $ 1 billion and culminated in the inauguration of Barack Obama on 20th January 2009, which cost the equivalent of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. But why does he write on something he does not know well?

Calling the Prince of Wales “inveterately odd” may be republican speak, but the fact remains Prince Charles talked about climate change long before Penny Wong imagined there might be a ministerial job for her on this topic. And when it comes to Prince Charles’ opposition to GM crop, well, he is certainly in accord with the majority of the Australians ... how odd!!

Nothing is too cheap for Rundle not to use it: “[Queen Elizabeth’s] husband – a surplus unit of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glückburg branch in, as the name suggests, Greece – had an attitude closer to the old Habsburg grandees who were fond of winging peasants with a musket.” I’d like to know, if Rundle could name any Habsburg, even less one who winged peasants with a musket. And ridiculing Prince Philip’s Greek origin should be beyond someone who styles himself as an intellectual. At least he knows - I think - that Prince Philip’s grandfather was born into the Danish Royal Family – which bears the name Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glückburg – before the Greek Parliament chose him as King of the Hellenes in 1863. Does Rundle play the game of nationalistic Greeks? Nobody in Sweden gets upset because their dynasty is called Bernadottes and can be traced back to France. Royal dynasties are beyond nationalism, therefore they can serve their respective nations. I consider that a great advantage in times of nationalistic fervour everywhere.

Not even in math is Guy Rundle firm: “Queen Elizabeth’s mother and aunt [the former wife of the Australian Governor-General, the Duke of Gloucester] both lived past 100, compos mentis to the last, and she seems determined to hang on, presumably in the hope that Charles will predecease her, and the crown will pass directly to William. By then, Australia will have been a republic for two decades or whatever pieces remain of it, in 2030.” What utter nonsense to suggest the Queen would be waiting for her eldest son to predecease her! Since our Queen will celebrate her 83rd birthday this April, she would be 104 in 2030, two and a half years older than her mother was when she passed away. Should Australia have been a republic for two decades by then, Guy Rundle must hurry up to bring it in, in 2010. But there is no Australian republic on the horizon, thank heavens and thanks to people like Guy Rundle who with their mud raking actually help to make people reflect on our Royal Family.