Buckingham Palace

PEOPLE used to say about Princess Diana that she was so very popular because of a perception that she was separate from the institution of monarchy.

It may sound perverse, but the same could be said of the Queen, who commanded a special kind of adulation from such a wide range of people.

Central London was pretty much in a new lockdown last night as thousands flanked the River Thames, from Lambeth Bridge to Bermondsey, hoping for a close-up glimpse of her coffin.

Was the majority there in support of an unelected head of state? More likely to remember a seemingly benign, polite and proper mother and grandmother to a nation.

You don’t have to be an out-and-out monarchist to have felt deeply unsettled by the end of such a traditional fixture of British life.

Equally, you don’t have to be a card-carrying republican to see the difficulties in inherited wealth and power.

It is not so terrible to be enthralled by pageantry and pomp. But can those that are at the same time be counted on to stand up for the people who need our help the most?

It was refreshing to hear a voice from inside the Labour Party this week calling on the public to demand better rather than simply accepting whatever is given to us.

Councillor Matt Cooper told the council chamber: “We should use the opportunity in this country to exercise our right to tell the monarchy what we want of them and to make sure that they are on our side all the time.”

This moment is absolutely the right time for a debate about the role of the monarchy in modern Britain. The immediate and automatic proclamation meant there was no time for such a discussion.

The Royal family, in striving for popularity in the truest sense of the word, should have welcomed the chance to talk and not been frightened of feedback.

It must be open to hearing what we from them, as Cllr Cooper suggested, rather than telling us what we are going to get.

Shutting out alternative views, especially at a time when so many feel desperate about their own lot would only be self-destructive

A two-way conversation is perhaps the only chance for monarchy to modernise and be relevant, and ultimately to survive.

We may stand corrected, but there isn’t the greatest hope for that with Charles at the helm.