And while for many, the Queen’s charm lay in her longevity and “her penchant for silence – you never knew what she thought about anything”, neither of those things applied to her son, Oliver argued. Charles ascended the throne at the age of 73 after a lifetime in the spotlight, a messy divorce and several public gaffes. “He doesn’t have his mother’s inscrutability, nor does he enjoy her level of public affection, and his ascension to the throne comes as the UK faces a cost-of-living crisis,” Oliver explained. Which prompted him to ask what the meaning of the monarchy is, both for the UK and for countries around the world for which the monarch remains the protagonist. The monarch’s job, he explained, is to be head of state, a symbolic position tasked with receiving incoming and outgoing ambassadors and heads of state and making state visits abroad. “Think of the royals as Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland – they don’t go on the rides, but they’re a mascot of the whole business and people kind of like to take pictures with them,” Oliver said. Royal defenders would say the ceremonial aspect is the point. The Royal Family website describes the sovereign as “a focus for national identity, unity and pride” that “gives a sense of stability and continuity”. “But that comes at a price,” Oliver said, pointing to the £100 million ($117 million) British taxpayers pay each year in government subsidies to maintain the royal family. Oliver pointed to “asterisks” for the government grant, as the royal family has other sources of income: private wealth whose figures are closely guarded and the Duchy of Lancaster, a huge property portfolio containing land seized by the monarchy in the 13th century. (The portfolio paid the Queen $27 million the year before she died.) There’s also the Duchy of Cornwall, another billion-dollar property portfolio now in Prince William’s hands, which brought in $26 million last year. “The wealth of the royal family, unlike their genealogy, is enormous,” Oliver said. The two ducats are exempt from corporation tax and Charles pays no inheritance tax, “and when you add it all up it starts to feel like it costs a lot more than a pound per person.” said Oliver. Oliver was honest about his feelings about the royal family: “It’s like a human appendix. We evolved a long time ago and need them and there is a compelling case for surgically removing them.” However, he acknowledged that he was in the minority for Britons, as 67% believe the monarchy should remain. Their role abroad, however, is a more open question. Oliver briefly summarized the role of the royal family in the transatlantic slave trade, established under royal charter. “I understand that people shouldn’t be held personally responsible for anything their ancestors did,” he said, “but trying to talk about Britain’s role in the slave trade without talking about the monarchy is like trying to talk about Jeffrey Epstein . without talking about the monarchy. They are inextricably linked, however inconvenient that fact may be.” He also reminded viewers of “one of the most brutal atrocities committed by the British”: the crushing of the Mau Mau rebellion by the Kikuyu people of Kenya, which occurred in the early years of Elizabeth’s reign. Kenya Human Rights Commissions estimate that the British executed, tortured or mutilated 90,000 people during the crackdown and held 160,000 in barbed-wire camps. “We don’t know what the Queen knew – everything she’s told is kept secret, very conveniently – but we know what was done in her name, by her government,” Oliver said. “If you are the symbol of a country, you represent what it does. Get our weekly pop culture email delivered free to your inbox every Friday Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “You can’t say you’re just a symbol and take no responsibility for how the institutions you lead behave,” he added, pointing to, among many examples, the Church of England’s role in Canada’s forced residential schools. for indigenous peoples. The royal family, he continued, “refused to reckon” because many Commonwealth countries have either left (Barbados) or are considering it (Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize). “Instead, they have continued to work hard to be seen as a mere symbol, while never taking responsibility for what that symbol justified, while ignoring calls for a true apology and reparation to those who suffered greatly because of what was done in their name ». “You don’t have to hate the royal family personally,” he continued. “I mean, Google ‘Prince Philip Raceism’ or ‘Prince Andrew Everything’ and see where you end up, but you don’t have to hate them. You don’t even have to think that the institution should not exist. “But if he’s going to continue, it’s fair to expect a lot more from them,” he concluded. “Because they too often hide behind the convenient shield of politeness and manners that often require the silence of anyone who might criticize them or what they stand for.” Oliver questioned whether his segment would even be shown on Sky TV in the UK, which had previously cut Oliver’s jokes about the Queen during the week following her death. “But if they cut it for disrespect, they should think seriously about why,” he said. “Why do they, and everyone else, work so hard not to offend a family whose name was branded on the skin of men” during the slave trade “and who sits on a pile of stolen wealth wearing crowns adorned with other people’s treasures countries”.
