The Jubilee

Today marks the start of the four day weekend celebrations of 60 years on the throne. The reason I am choosing to blog about this event is not just from a feminist point of view, it is also from a frustrated Republican point of view. Walking down our local high street for the last couple of weeks every shop window has been slowly taken over by flag/monarchy related items. Including some unusual choices such as an accountants!

From a frustrated Republican point of view it marks another barrier to true equality in Britain, it also marks the fact that the church will never be separate from power as our head of state is also the head of the church. How then can we work towards a true secular society in which all are free to practice what they believe? Republic put it so much better than I could ever hope to and their site is well worth a read. In particular the information about how schools should be expected to behave during this period. An article in The TES also points out that schools would be violating sections 406 and 407 of the Education act 1996 if they do not present a balanced view about the monarchy.

This is where it gets interesting as you could argue that language such as 'glorious 60 years' as seen in many news articles (and no doubt on tea-towels and heard in conversations across the country) such as this one in the Daily Mail is not presenting a balanced view. Why should they? Much in the same way that I blog from my point of view, they write from theirs. But, what schools and educationalists will need to have thought about is how they use language to present this event. If you delivered material about the 60 glorious years it could be argued that you were presenting only one way to view the reign of the queen. If you read the earlier TES linked article you will note that this is an issue that seems to divide teachers.

Finally, to get to the feminist point of view perhaps. It took until late 2011 to end primogeniture in Great Britain, see here for a piece about this, that is 59 years in which our monarch reigned under a system that discriminated against first-borns within the royal lineage if they were female. A bizarre rule that perhaps harks back to a period in which women could not inherit property or have power over divorce. As a Republican I find myself questioning whether our monarch could have done more to end this sooner.