16.11.1995

Queen puts the boot in

This week the queen told us to bow down and accept more attacks on our living standards and rights - more power to landlords, MI5 and the police. Of course, the queen is above politics and knows best ...

THE QUEEN’S speech on Wednesday sparked off a political row. Both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats huffed and puffed about how the speech reflected “party politics” rather than the “national interest”. Why? Because the Tory Chairman, Brian Mawhinney, told journalists that many of the measures outlined were designed to “smoke out” the opposition parties.

 Presumably, we are supposed to be outraged by the Tories ‘unpatriotic’ behaviour - how dare the Conservatives ‘abuse’ the queen’s position and turn her into a political tool!

What a load of hypocrisy. The function of the queen’s speech has always been to give royal blessings to the government of the day, by lending its programme an air of almost divine approval. We, the humble ‘subjects’ of the queen, are meant to feel powerless before the combined forces of history and god.

This is an obscene ritual, which perfectly sums up the capitalist system. One of the wealthiest women in the world, who can travel anywhere in the world at will, announces a crackdown on ‘illegal’ immigrants and ‘bogus’ asylum seekers. A woman who has numerous homes and palaces tells the homeless that privately rented slums are good enough for them.

We should have absolute contempt for Elizabeth Windsor and everything she stands for - by fighting for a world where parasitical monarchs, princes and capitalists alike no longer exist.