Kmflett's Blog

The Royals & feudal employee relations

The Guardian broke the story that many people working for King Charles at Clarence House have been served with redundancy notices during the official mourning period for the Queen. The notices carried the usual employment law rubric that those impacted might be redeployed into other roles or offered enhanced redundancy. The question remains why Charles, now one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, needs to make anyone redundant. Much of the work he had oversight of around the Duchy of Cornwall and as Prince of Wales will now be taken over by William who clearly doesn’t have people on hand to do it.

The story developed further when the Murdoch Times (15^th September) that numbers of workers at Buckingham Palace faced redundancy since they had ‘death’ clauses in their contracts that stipulated that their employment ended with the death of the existing Monarch. It sounds feudal and it is. The same or very similar roles will exist under King Charles. No doubt however he wants to bring an entourage with him from Clarence House (those he isn’t sacking).

That in itself hardly speaks of good employment practices with fair competition for roles and a commitment to a diverse workforce.

Some Royal Employees are already unionised. After the events of this week, others may well be signing up. The reality behind the Royal pomp and circumstance is distinctly shabby

Other Royal Traditions: Tony Benn on the marriage of Prince Charles July 1981

Sat and watched the Royal Wedding on TV. There were perhaps two million people out in London and this tremendous ceremonial display was watched throughout the world by 750 million people- without any doubt the biggest television audience that had ever seen anything. The image presented to the rest of the world was of a Britain about as socially advanced as France before the French Revolution! We are slipping back to eighteenth century politics. We’ve got to fight like anything to recover the position that we had even in 1945… It was feudal propaganda, turning citizens into subjects.

Diary Wednesday 29th July 1981.

Benn was then and remained in his views in a minority in the Labour Party and the labour movement. Some see themselves as loyal subjects and many others take the view that there are more important things to do than go on about the monarchy. If the comparison is made between Britain’s hereditary constitutional monarchy and the elected Presidency of America one can see the point.

The republican tradition moreover has not always been associated with the left, although I’m not sure there is a huge market for Tory republicans.

The left however has been a significant part of that tradition going back at least to the Chartist paper, the Red Republican, edited by George Julian Harney in the late 1840s and early 1850s. It published the first ever English translation of the Communist Manifesto and Harney was, up to a point, a co-thinker of Marx and Engels

The Campaign for Real Conkers

Media Release. Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

15^th September

A genuine British tradition: 2022 Conker Season in full swing

The Campaign for Real Conkers, that opposes bans on conker playing and unnecessary rules and regulations in games has said that that with windy and wet weather during the first half of September there has been a significant conker fall and the 2022 season is in full swing

The campaigners they are maintaining their usual ‘anything goes’ approach to conker games, to encourage people to play without arbitrary rules.

Campaign Organiser Keith Flett said, we anticipate a full and safe conker playing season over the next month or so, until at least the so called World Conker Championships on October 9th which the campaign traditionally boycotts. Conkers is a genuine British tradition not one we have just invented.

Guide on how to play real conkers safely in 2022

1] Select your conker. Do this yourself. DO NOT use a conker provided by someone else who may give you a poor specimen.

2] There is no specific kind of conker that makes a good game winner. Large conkers may more easily splinter for example. Some prefer conkers with flat and sharp edges

3] You may use the conker ‘as is’ known as ‘organic’. Alternatively you may seek to harden it by baking it, soaking it in vinegar etc. There is no guarantee that an artificially enhanced conker will perform any better than an organic one.

4] Drill a small hole through the conker. A nail will often achieve this. Again you must do this yourself

5] Thread the conker through the hole you have drilled. A strong chord, perhaps a shoelace is best

6] You are now ready to play.

7] Make sure that the chord is long enough to allow you to stand at least 1 metre plus away from your opponent. This would generally be the case as space is required for the conker swing.

8] Players take alternate turns to try and hit and destroy their opponent’s conker

9] Those with poor aim may hit the knuckles of their opponent more often than the conker so you may wish to wear gloves.

10] The winner is the player who determines their opponents conker unusable in further rounds, usually by causing it to splinter into two or more pieces

Play safely and enjoy!

Inventing Royal traditions

The 1871 Bank Holidays Act was replaced by the 1971 Banking and Financial Dealings Act. It essentially says that any activity that doesn’t take place on Christmas Day or Good Friday doesn’t need to take place on a Bank Holiday. 50 years have passed and Easter Sunday more than Good Friday is now the day when restrictions apply.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/80/section/1

The death of Queen Elizabeth II, the period of mourning and funeral have given rise to some new Royal related traditions covering both mourning and funeral. Some it must be said appear to relate to nostalgia for lockdown authoritarianism. Supermarkets for example do not normally close on a Bank Holiday

Supermarkets and other retailers closed all day (as opposed to just for the funeral)

McDonalds closed

Queen’s bees told of her death and hives bound in black ribbon. The tradition of telling the bees is not new. Placing a black ribbon around the hives likely is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telling_the_bees

Queue for the Queen’s lying in State over several days with people reportedly deploying tents

Food Banks closed

All traditions are of course invented which may come as a surprise to numerous BBC reporters.

22 years ago this week Iain Duncan Smith was elected Tory leader: Tony Benn’s view

…A minor bit of news. Iain Duncan Smith has overwhelming beaten Ken Clarke for the leadership of the Tory Party

Diary 13th September 2001

Duncan Smith isn’t up to much

Diary 28th July 2002

I heard that Iain Duncan Smith has been defeated as Tory leader by ninety votes to seventy five

Diary Wednesday 29th October 2003

Beard Liberation Front

14^th September

Campaigners say a beard can enhance use of a mobile phone

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that after review it can confirm that wearing a beard can enhance the use of a mobile phone provided care is taken.

Placing the phone on or close to the beard can provide a modest amount of additional gravitas to the conversation.

Holding the phone at arms-length to the beard may still have some positive impact on gravitas but it will be reduced the further away from the follicles it is held

Care should be taken when holding the phone or near to the beard as this can create a small electrical charge which may disrupt any conversation that is being held.

The BLF says that pogonophobic claims that the beard can muffle the voice when the phone is used have no scientific basis. On the contrary the follicles amplify the voice rather than muffle it.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, wearing a beard can enhance any telephone conversation provided BLF guidelines are adhered to. Caution should be taken however in having lengthy calls with a beard as this may give credence to the pogonophobic myth that beard wearers drone on and on

The wealth of the Royal Family & the cost of living crisis

With the death of the Queen and the appointment of King Charles III he becomes one of the wealthier individuals in the world. The Financial Times (10^th September) published some details

The Monarch oversees a Royal Household of around 400 people and is the non-executive Chair of the Firm, the Royal businesses. The Crown Estate which has a £15.6bn property portfolio covering Regent St, St James, and the seabed up to 12 miles offshore which has in recent times seen profits from wind farms.

Since 1760 the Crown Estate has been managed on the Monarch’s behalf with profits going to the Treasury. From this a percentage is paid back to the Monarch known historically as the Civil List. The percentage was increased in 2016 from 15% to 25% to pay for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

The FT notes that a more direct source of income is the Duchy of Lancaster. This owns extensive farmland in the north of England, the Savoy Estate in London, mining and offshore rights and is valued at £653 million. The 2021/22 surplus was £24 million and under recent reforms is used to fund the wider Royal Family beyond the King and Queen (in 2022).

The King also holds privately Balmoral and Sandringham, the Royal Stamp Collection and the late Queen’s race horses.

Finally as the Duke of Cornwall Prince William now has charge of the Duchy of Cornwall which has assets of £1.05 billion and made a profit of £23 million in 2022.

Its fair to say that the new King won’t be facing a cost of living crisis this winter. The same may not be true for those of his employees he plans to make redundant.

King Charles in ink blotter crisis

King Charles III is a noted letter writer. The Guardian reported on his ‘black spider’ letters.  These were written by hand and sent to Government Ministers in an official attempt to change policy.

The point being (here) that the King eschews such new fangled things as laptops and still writes his missives by hand using a fountain pen.

For those reading who don’t know what a fountain pen is, it has a nib and is filled with liquid ink. In more recent times ink cartridges have been used but traditional models are filled from an ink bottle.

Either way they can be quite messy and in the traditional office the blotter is used to deal with this. The blotter is usually a piece of absorbent A3 paper slotted into a rectangular board. They are not a feature of the modern office, although my central London office (aka the museum)  has several

When the fountain pen malfunctions the blotter absorbs the excess ink.

In Northern Ireland in September 2022 HRH had a fountain pen incident while signing an official document. There was no blotter on the desk. He handed the leaking pen to Camilla, as one does, and exited stage left (presumably to wash the ink off his hands- no easy matter).

Clearly the blotter is one Royal tradition King Charles plans to continue so there will be more blotter crisis to come.

Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor MP on the Treason Felony Act. Commons 12^th April 1848

Below is the speech Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor made in the Commons on 12^th April 1848 in opposition to the Treason Felony Bill then before Parliament.

The Monday event he refers to was the Chartist demonstration for the vote held on Kennington Common on Monday 10^th April 1848. The Whig Government were the forerunners of the Liberal Party founded in 1859

As O’Connor argued the purpose of the Bill was to criminalise protest and particularly criticism of the Monarch.  Section 3 remains on the Statute Book in 2022:

Vulgar men would be allowed to preach throughout the country what doctrines they desired; of them no notice would be taken; but as soon as any one man, opposed to the Government, spoke advisedly, they would mark him out their victim

MR. F. O’CONNOR: The proceedings of Monday showed that the people were loyally disposed, and consequently that no such measure was necessary. The prosecutions which had taken place in 1839, 1840, and 1841, were quite sufficient to show that the existing law required no strengthening; yet this measure was brought in by the Whigs. It was the pride of the Whigs of former days to be opposed by the Tories; but it was the guarantee of the Whigs of the present day to be supported by the Tories. This measure, if passed, would be a disgrace to the Statute-book, and a dishonour to the Go- 230 vernment. Let them pass this Bill, and that which was the safety-valve of the constitution being fastened down, discontent would at once explode; there would be no more an opening for the expression of public opinion. Vulgar men would be allowed to preach throughout the country what doctrines they desired; of them no notice would be taken; but as soon as any one man, opposed to the Government, spoke advisedly, they would mark him out their victim. Well; and if they were to fill the hulks with martyrs, he would tell them that for each martyr ten thousand new men would arise eager and willing to step into his place, and to bide the event. It was impossible that they could maintain Ireland in her present position. Something must be done for her, and that speedily. This Bill would not put her down—this Bill, which he denounced as treason against the Crown, and the person of the Sovereign. Such a Bill he never expected would have emanated from a Whig Ministry; in consequence of it, they had become the most unpopular Government that had ever possessed the reins of power in this country. Was it not well known that the Government had the power of selecting the judge and the jury? What chance, then, was there for the liberty of the subject? He entreated the House, he entreated the Government, to give the people an opportunity of expressing their opinions upon the Bill. He besought the noble Lord not to disgrace the high name he bore by thus pressing such an unconstitutional measure. He did not mean to taunt the present men in office with the treatment which he had personally received at their hands. He considered that it was but right that those who led the people should suffer any penalty which might attach to their position. He protested against a reformed Parliament thus stealing a march upon the people; he protested against the Bill, because he was a loyal subject, and because he objected to Her Majesty’s becoming tinged by the disloyalty of Her Ministry. He could not find language sufficiently strong to denounce his abhorrence of it. If folly or treason were spoken at a public meeting, the good sense of those present would put the surest extinguisher upon it. He had never allied himself to secret societies—he never would; but let them pass that law on that day, and on that day week hundreds of secret societies would be organised throughout the kingdom, which sooner or 231 later would result in a storm that would swamp the Government, and shake the empire to its foundations. Let not the noble Lord despise his warning—to be forewarned was to be forearmed

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1848/apr/12/crown-and-government-security-bill

Truss complained about ‘unfair protests’ in Tory leadership campaign. Anti-Monarchy protesters are in the frame

Liz Truss threatened to ban ‘unfair protests’ after protesters interrupted a hustings event she was addressing in Eastbourne in early August. Those who interrupted her were climate protesters but the well supported protest included anti-racists, socialists and trade unionists.

Truss is clearly not the history woman or she might have expected protests in Eastbourne. It was Engels favourite holiday resort. He often stayed in a  house opposite the pier at 4 Cavendish Place and his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head.

Truss is now Prime Minister and those protesting against the Monarchy after the appointment of King Charles III seem to be first in the frame for being ‘unfair’ protesters. It is not of course illegal to participate in a protest that annoys the Prime Minister, indeed that might be a purpose of many. But in a Tory ‘law and order’ Government actual legality ranks below right-wing cancel culture