November 20, 2012
Charlie’s Visit
Opinion: If you and I are on a wavelength, you'll be pleased that Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor and Camilla, his missus, left New Zealand last weekend.
As far as I'm concerned, they were never welcome here; Although, I suppose, they didn't do much harm.
That is apart from running up a hefty bill for their flash and utterly unwarranted holiday.
When it comes to harm, I'm more inclined to blame the mainstream media who kept gushing over them as if they are important to us Kiwis.
Technically, you could argue that they are significant because Charlie – as well as having a string of titles, including a KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK and QSO – whatever they are – is the official heir apparent to the throne.
And if his mum keels over before he does he'll be not only the King of England but, sadly, the King of New Zealand too.
If John Key had any gumption, of course, he'd put a stop to that by making the moves to set us up as a republic with a home-grown president and a commitment to us being a genuinely South Pacific country.
We would still have a good many ties with Britain – as I do through my dad's grandfather.
But we'd be another step removed from our days as a British colony and another step closer to working out our future where Maori and other Polynesian values are widely embraced instead of being treated as automatically inferior to what the Poms have delivered.
It's perfectly understandable that there should be a good number of Kiwis who are rapt with royalty.
Some of them are former Poms who grew up in a class-conscious society that isn't bothered by a wealthy aristocratic minority inheriting posh accents and privileges and titles and medals and mansions and estates and so on.
Other fans are Kiwis who are old enough to feel a bond with England because of our links and sacrifices during World War II.
Those New Zealanders were probably impressed by the way the royal family handled themselves through the Blitz and would have found their two little girls, Elizabeth and Margaret, quite appealing as well.
But you would need to be 80 or so to have much recall about those days.
Who else among us would go for royalty?
Well, the only group I can think of would be the mentally deficient – who, unfortunately, include a number of our mainstream media's news editors.
That's just about the only explanation for them plugging the royal tour in news bulletin after news bulletin.
It was sickening, wasn't it?
But at least it's now over.