8 September

I’m a fan of the monarchy. What I think is so important about it is two things mostly, one being that it’s a form of government that puts custom and tradition at the heart of what we do. Institutions. The second being that I think we need spectacle and regal splendour in our lives, of some form. (People know I’m a Freddie Mercury fan, that was his actual project, to offer people that.) Magnificence. We can pretend those things aren’t important, but then people will reinvent them with pop stars and social media influencers and their bling lifestyles instead. We don’t want societies run by those people. Look at the alternative to monarchy we have now in politics. Populism. It’s society as a high school, where only what’s popular gets done. The whole world gets reinvented with every 24-hour media cycle, public policy gets replaced with what’s ‘trending’. Monarchy to me is one of those things you can reject in your youth, and then come back to with a bit more life experience of age, as you look at the alternatives.