What republicans understand about monarchy

What ridiculous figures we republicans must seem on the eve of Elizabeth II’s funeral. We sound like desiccated rationalists who cannot understand that emotion, not reason, makes people identify with their country. Instead of joining in shared celebrations and mourning, we ask carping questions about the transparency of royal finances or the basic failure of our head of state and her advisers to stop Boris Johnson’s unlawful proroguing of parliament.

We think we know our history and sociology. We say we understand that nations are ‘imagined communities’, which unite strangers with common symbols and emotions. Yet when faced with the power of monarchy to hold the United Kingdom together, we complain about feudalism and our Ruritanian love of pointless display. We fail to recognise that all countries need shared myths and ours are less harmful than the myth of Russia’s holy mission to rule the Slavs or of America’s manifest destiny to lead the world.