Today, Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving monarch in British history, and the third-longest ever, will celebrate her platinum jubilee. The media and politicians from the UK’s major parties are in agreement that, as the Labour leader Keir Starmer put it, it is every Briton’s “patriotic duty” to celebrate the occasion. In moments such as these it is clear that the greatest achievement of Britain’s monarchy is that it has entrenched, at the highest level of the state, a culture of groveling fealty and deference to authority. This culture pervades British society. It is evinced in the unelected peers which make up the House of Lords; the Eton-educated minor aristocracy that fills the ranks of the Conservative Party; the plethora of Order of the British Empire awards handed out yearly by the UK’s unelected head of state; and the pledge of loyalty to the Crown, which is required of MPs before taking office. Far from being a quaint holdover, the accompaniments of monarchy represent the most reactionary elements of British culture.

For its so-called services, the Crown enjoys an “annual sovereign grant” (worth £86.3 million in 2021–22), and in March of this year, Prince Andrew was able to pay out a £12 million settlement to Virginia Giuffre, one of the many victims of the billionaire sexual predator Jeffery Epstein, who had accused the prince of sexual abuse. It remains unclear if this settlement was partly funded by the Queen’s estate or the taxpayer.

What has undoubtedly been funded by the taxpayer is a selection of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations taking place across the UK this coming weekend. The government has already spent £12 million on a “patriotic” commemorative book of the Queen’s seventy-year reign. While Conservative MPs debate whether the poorest children are entitled to free school meals, the book will be shipped to every primary school pupil in the UK.