For his monologue this week, U.K commentator Neil Oliver notes the miles-long lines of British citizens, paying their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II as she lays in state, as yet another appearance of the silent majority. The silent majority do not often surface, but when they do -whether in politics or culture- they make a dramatic appearance from every corner of the United Kingdom.
The political rulers of the constitutional monarchy would be well served to take heed of the millions who are traveling from every town, village and hamlet to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. Their very visible appearance is representative of who really holds the power in the nation. Politicians, regardless of their sense of grand importance, are mere fleas when compared the scale of an assembled nation.
A united people have more power than any small group of rulers. Their assembly in collective mourning is a visible and timely reminder to those who have disconnected themselves from this understanding. WATCH:
[Transcript] – When Winston Churchill lay in state in Westminster Hall, in 1965, journalist Vincent Mulchrone described two rivers running through London, one made of people, dark and silent as the night-time Thames.
Now another river of other people is flowing through an altogether different London, all the way to that same Hall and, this time, the coffin of The Queen. Westminster Hall is still there. Britain is still there. I’ve wondered if it’s a glimpse, at least in part, of the silent majority we hear so much about but seldom see.
It would be wrong to generalise, to imagine we could know the motivations of every person in that long line. But so many people moving as one, in the same direction at the same time surely suggests something shared. My hunch, for what it’s worth, is that many are also grieving the passing of the world they grew up in – a world of long-lived certainties – old certainties that seem to have died too at some point in the past few years.
Over and over again the silent majority, whoever they are, wherever they are, seem to defy expectations, much to the annoyance and frustration of those who wish they would simply disappear, once and for all. Brexit defied those expectations; so too an 80-seat majority for Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. The silent majority won’t do what they’ve been told, that much is clear.
They are silent, that majority, but they are still there, silent yes, and stubborn too, and from time to time they stand up and make their point about what Britain means to them, indeed, what they mean by Britain, and British, and how they want things to be. I say this is one of those times – and what those people, some of them at least, are making clear, not by words, but by deeds, is that they want the way things used to be – and could still be, should still be.
Lo and behold, and given the chance, all manner of silent people – people with no platform from which to speak – have demonstrated what they mean, what they would say if they had the chance, by their quiet, respectful actions in the aftermath of the death of the Queen
A figurehead, someone who had been there, whether foreground or background, for all of their lives, was gone. Yet another sudden absence from a Britain that feels like it’s being deliberately dismantled, taken apart bit by bit in the manner of an old family-owned business being asset-stripped for all that might be sold off cheap.
That thousands upon thousands of those people have chosen to stand in line and be part of the process of declaring affection, if not love, not just for Elizabeth II but for all that the monarchy represents, says something profound – something that anyone with any sense at all should listen to and understand, and also respect. Whatever efforts are made to strip the Britishness out of Britain, only reveal another, deeper layer of Britain. It turns out, it’s Britain all the way down.
Those thousands are saying a respectful goodbye to the Queen, but by taking part in that ritual of remembrance – and no one does ritual and remembrance better than the British – many at least might also be declaring, loud and clear, what matters to them deep down where it counts. And what apparently matters to them is the Britain they have known and, which is much more important, the Britain they wish to continue to know.
The pressure to accept change is all around us – incessant and relentless. Surrender this; forget about that; take this instead whether you want it or not … the push is powerful but so too, and perhaps more powerful when it finally matters, is the determination to hold on, and to be what we have been for a time longer than anyone alive might remember. Standing in line to make an indelible memory of the death of the Queen is, for many of those taking part, about remembering who WE are, who WE want to continue to be.
Against the expectations of some, the death of Elizabeth II has made plain and visible not what separates the peoples of the four countries of the United Kingdom, but the ties that bind. Those with a mind to insist the time of a United Kingdom, even a Britain, has had its day, would have had everyone believe the mass of the population had outgrown concepts like constitutional monarchy. Those progressives would like it better if Britain was governed not by the pesky, independent-minded British – with their traditions and their ancient laws and customs – but by unelected bureaucrats elsewhere and answerable to no one.
Symbols matter and the king or queen of a constitutional monarchy symbolises the people. We are all sovereign individuals – and the monarch is the first sovereign among equals. Under the terms of the coronation oath, the monarch vows to defend the people and the realm, to keep safe all our essential freedoms as free people. It is potent and meaningful stuff. We live in a constitutional monarchy – all the pomp and pageantry of recent days insists that we do. In ways that should matter, the monarch is there to protect the people, every single one of us, from the ambitions of here-today-and-gone-tomorrow politicians.
In a constitutional monarchy there is a deep and powerful truth which makes it worth having above all alternatives – which is to say that in the end it is the people of a true constitutional monarchy, that govern the country. Protected by a constitutional monarch living and embodying the reality of their coronation oath, no institution – no monarch, no parliament, no judiciary, no civil service – outranks the people. Put simply, we tell them all what to do – and if they are playing their sworn and honest parts as described by the constitution – they get on and do what we have told them to do.
In the end, each of us is answerable only to a jury of our peers – and each and every jury is empowered also to judge the very justice of the law itself.
In a constitutional monarchy, we the people have all the power we will ever need to protect ourselves from any and all. It is the living out day by day, of the constitution – not just voting once every five years – that manifests, and so makes real, the true power of democracy.
This is a moment in our history, make no mistake. We will see in the days and weeks ahead how our future is being shaped.
But here’s the thing: in recent times the powers-that-be had seemed to relish telling us that it is not just change that lies ahead, but necessary pain. If the people must be cold and hungry, leading smaller, limited lives, then so be it, they said. It’s for the greater good. No pain no gain and all that. But as the world’s cameras made plain for all to see, the line filing patiently towards and past the Queen’s coffin was made not of faceless numbers, cogs in a machine, but of unique individuals, one after another in a seemingly endless procession.
The vast majority were maskless, every one of them visible. Pain will not be felt and endured by faceless masses, but by those individual people. Rather than hidden away out of sight – as they were for months of lockdown – the people of Britain, the silent majority among them, were there to be seen, if not heard.
In the end, that’s what Britain is, if it is anything at all worthy of the name – millions of equal, sovereign, free individuals who know who they are and what they want. World leaders will shortly descend upon London – leaders demonstrably minded to seize and hold on to unimaginable power over our lives. There will be no better time to be visible to those leaders, to have them look a sovereign people in the eyes.
Someone, somewhere better be paying attention.
Good Analysis:
Britain retains the values of the Queen, not Meghan Markle | Simon Heffer interview
Stop it! I’ve never seen so much rationalization. Most of you support the values destroying Western Civilization. Most of you disown your own history to appease these groups. We live in a country with 2 Federal Holidays committed to black people.
Megan Markle is a nobody in the UK. I suspect today was the first day that Harry realised exactly what he has walked away from.
THE QUEEN EMBODIED THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:
SERVICE
DUTY
FAITH
FAMILY
How many modern leaders embody these?
President Trump. Victor Orban.
Western Civilization is dying on her watch. Her Father left a much better world than she is leaving behind.
@nytimes
· Sep 15
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, which will involve elaborate processions, vigils and rituals, will be paid for by British taxpayers as they deal with soaring energy prices and high inflation. The British government has not yet said how much it will cost.
https://nyti.ms/3QO4gjn
Since the NY Times doesn’t do their research, I did it for them.
Annual costs to UK vs. US taxpayers:
Monarchy = £102.4 million
White House operations = £1.2 billion
Royal travel = £3.2 million
Air Force One = £425 million
Take a look at your own country before criticising ours
Amen. And every week the US is sending millions to billions to Ukraine for the money laundering
(I’m American)
Is the funeral being criticized here? It’s a moment of National importance and mourning for the UK at the very least. Did I miss something?
I think he is speaking to the NYT and the mouth breathers who follow it.
One if compelled to wonder why the Silent Majority in the USA is still so very silent. Is it the intimidation? The threats of cancellation by the “tolerant”? Despondency? A sense of hopelessness when faced with the black pit of DC Mordor?
Lions do not need, nor acquiesce to, permission to roar…
No, they don’t. They also don’t roar when stalking prey.
shhhhhh WW2 was won as much by silent running and quiet strategy as it was by visible combat.
…or sleeping.
We have had people roar and they are crushed by our side. Look at what happened to the J6 people and the McMichaels. Heroes are never perfect.
Unfortunately the psychopaths in power do not see individuals – only masses of expendables. Means to an end goal for them.
Spot on!
Well stated, Sundance.
There is a difference between supporting a monarchy and showing respect and grief for a woman who actually walked the talk.
In all of the current world, show me one other person who has carried themselves with the same grit, integrity, and devotion to the position they accepted. (and please don’t bother throwing Trump at me, he is a great many things, but a paragon of virtue is not one of them.)
Was QE II perfect? No, none of us are. But she is an example of what we CAN be.
At least in Britain they had someone to admire on multiple fronts.
Who do we have that we can look up to and admire without having to make caveat?
I watched the funeral and marveled that there remains some kind of dignity. For me the bigger truth is that she represents a generation that, in passing, takes with her a different world. Decency, integrity, honor, these are attributes no longer revered or even taught to our young, especically in our failed education system. I was five when Queen Elizabeth was crowned so I’m old enough to remember that lost world. I don’t mourn for her, she is well out of this mess. I mourn for my grandkids who inherit a world that seeks self destruction and seems to be fast tracked to that end. Well, even so, come Lord Jesus.
The pictures are worth a thousand words in describing what people supported the Queen and mourn her loss. I have new respect for the people in the UK that was lost under Johnson, May, Cameron and Blair. But I respect their love of their Queen. I can only hope her son doesn’t disgrace her as he has done in the past.
The comments on the silent majority reminded me of a line from the movie “Cromwell” spoken to King Charles. “Your majesty, it simply that the people, being “ordinary” would prefer to be asked rather than told”
During Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, the Gospel was proclaimed around the world in Scripture reading and song!
The viewership projected at 4.1 million views! The Scripture, John 14:5-6 which Jesus Christ says that He is the way, the truth and the life, was preached to billions of people.
breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/15/queens-funeral-to-be-most-watched-tv-event-in-history-4-billion-viewers-expected/
According to Matthew 24:4-14:
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Could Almighty God use the death of His servant, Queen Elizabeth II, to be the trigger that unfolds a great revival and awakening to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Good observation