Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrates a 70-year peaceful reign.

It makes her the third longest serving monarch of a sovereign state behind Louis XIV ‘The Sun King’ and Rama IX. It is a victory of political and personal endurance, rarely seen, in which Elizabeth II has dedicated nearly a century of faultless service in an era populated by elected politicians who struggle to make it through three years of ‘good behaviour’.

A hint of jealousy may be detected in the circling vultures of the Australian Labor Party. One of Prime Minister Albanese’s first (and callously timed) acts has been to create an Assistant Minister for the Republic – a republic that doesn’t exist and certainly wasn’t advertised during the federal election. Had it been, Albanese would have lost.

Deceit is not a good way to start if Albanese intends to crown his Labor mates – most of whom have been thoroughly rejected by the people.

If the Australian public have learned one thing during the Covid Years, it is that the political class grasp hungrily for power and are perfectly happy to spread fear in order to justify expanding their legislative control. At the height of Covid, most state premiers sank to dehumanising, coercive, and derogatory language as a means to intimidate citizens and – perhaps worse – encouraged society to ostracise and blame dissenters for the failure of government.

These are not the sort of politicians you trust with absolute and unguarded power.

The damage done to the social fabric of Australia by inexperienced ministers in love with the limelight will take decades to unpick, and that is only if their vile behaviour is not repeated during the next crisis. If MPs wish to compare themselves to the Crown, they have come off poorly at the first test.

In stark contrast to the media circus of Australian politics, the tone of Elizabeth’s reign was set in 1947 on her twenty-first birthday when the Princess’ celebratory speech in Cape Town, South Africa, was broadcast to the Commonwealth.

‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.’

She added:

‘If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing – more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world – than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.’

Freedom and prosperity – they are the words of a statesman, even though the Crown is rightly separated from the politicking of Parliament.

Unlike the monarchies of European history, which politically ignorant republican personalities wrongly conflate with our current system, Elizabeth’s reign was founded in security, protection, and duty. Her pledge was to serve, not rule.

She represents the antithesis to Marxist immaturity, where her primary function is to unite – not divide – and her character is bound by what she believes to be a sacred duty to protect every citizen from predatory politics and existential threats. We are all equal citizens as far as the Crown is concerned, no matter which corner of the empire we live in. Her duty is to ensure our Parliaments behave themselves and honour our rights and liberties afforded under the laws of the realm. It is a truly progressive concept that progressives naturally hate because it cannot be exploited by activism.

The concept of 96 years of relentless dedication to one task is as alien to a Millennial as dial-up internet. Even so, an increasing number within the younger generation have recognised that there is something missing from their lives. Interest in the monarchy has been rekindled, largely because the Queen has demonstrated an emotional quality desperately lacking in the ‘burn it all’ culture offered by Marxism.

The Queen represents stability. This is an intended and necessary feature of a Constitutional Monarchy.

It is often observed that dictatorships, whether they be collectivist or theocratic, benefit from the sustained focus of a single vision. For all their terror, these governments ‘get things done’ – even if those things are catastrophic.

The monarchy provides the benefit of a permanent leader without the coercion of dictatorial rule. While democracies elect their government every three years, continuously throwing policy into chaos, the Queen has overseen every prime minister in living memory. She has sat opposite Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, and Johnson. In Australia; Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison, and Albanese. That is not to mention the rest of the realm.

Elizabeth II remains among the dwindling few who remember what it is for the world to go to war and what collectivism in the hands of autocrats can do if left unchecked. Given the dangerous historical illiteracy of our current leaders, there is an enormous benefit in a monarch who counsels new prime ministers and reminds them of the severity of their office, as too often politicians see the thrill of election as a game. Without this anchor of austerity, democratic politics quickly reduces itself to an arms race of broken promises repeating to absurdity until the system collapses, as most republics do.

For those that say, ‘ah but America!’ their republic is re-enforced by a Bill of Rights no modern politician would allow and maintained by (what used to be) the sheer will of the American people to pursue liberty. This is quickly fading, as is the strength of their republic.

Forget the emotion, nostalgia, national identity, and the personality of the reigning monarch. A Constitutional Monarchy is first and foremost a political mechanism to safeguard against dictators.

The great problem for all civilisations is that a political system requires absolute power to rule, but absolute power turns into tyranny – so you have to divide power to preserve liberty. The monarchy, in a Constitutional Monarchy (a Crowned Republic), is the perfect constraint.

Its complicated creation – after England learned that politicians made worse kings than actual kings – benefits the people over the political class and would never be willingly chosen by politicians.

While the Crown (represented by the Australian Head of State in the Governor General) maintains the ability to sack the government, the Crown cannot rule. All the Crown can do is return power to the hands of the people in the form of an election.

The Queen is the guardian of democracy.

Her motivation for interfering must be the ‘interest of the people’ because if she gets it wrong and deposes a popular government, she could lose her entire reign. This personal risk is sufficient to mediate any short-term whims.

If instead, like most republics, you have a president policing a prime minister, the nation ends up with two politicians who have nothing but self-interest and party politics at play. Imagine President Kevin Rudd babysitting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese… It is a system easily corrupted, always partisan, and replaced too swiftly. This is why republics tend to collapse in a continuous cycle of upheaval that always come back looking worse for wear, like a phoenix with singed feathers.

The safety net of a Constitutional Monarchy is the chief reason why politicians on the Left work tirelessly to dismantle it. Those fond of the Big State and absolute government don’t want an adult to knock them off their autocratic perch. When they say a republic is about ‘self-governance’ what they really mean is ‘absolute power’ – not for the citizenry, but for them. The last thing Labor leaders want is a safety net against a dictatorship.

Her Majesty’s hereditary privilege saw her born into a feathered prison that asked of her a life of service and the maintenance of many nations. She became a peacekeeper, diplomat, role model, institution, and guardian angel.

As such, Australia has been blessed with the safest political system in history.

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Alexandra Marshall is an independent writer. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.  She is also a young ambassador for the English Speaking Union and Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.

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