by Baz Wade
“Prince Richard.”
“So if I stand against him, what will be his reaction?”
“I don’t know yet – I haven’t raised the subject with him – but he’s got no veto, he’s abdicated.”
“I’ll have to discuss all this with Kirsty.”
“Of course, but if you don’t stand, you will probably regret it for the rest of your life. You can really make a difference as King – how about mediating in the Middle East for a start?”
“There’s no guarantee anyone will listen to me – I’m not even thirty yet.”
“Don’t write yourself off like that – it may take time, but once you’re elected, that will be it, you won’t need to stand again in five years time like a politician.”
“It must be a fair contest. Can you give me your word you will encourage Richard to stand?”
“Of course, I’ll be telling him it’s his patriotic duty to stand.”
“Fine, how long can you give me to think about this?”
“Get back to me by this time next week – are you okay with that?”
“If I say yes, what happens then?”
“It’s written into the Act that candidates have to be approved by the Government – any alternative could have been farcical – everyone’s banking on you and Richard being the only two approved candidates. It’s likely there will be two ballot papers in the referendum, one will ask for a decision on the re-introduction of the Monarchy, and the second will ask the voter to decide, hopefully between you and Richard. Obviously if fewer than 50% vote yes to a Monarchy on the first ballot paper, then the second ballot paper will be irrelevant.”
“Assuming Karim Khaled is a Government approved candidate, then we need to back him. Richard represents the old order and his case is weakened obviously by his abdication,” said Sheikh.
The editorial conference at The Sun was in full swing and Andy Sheikh was determined to generate maximum enthusiasm amongst his staff and readers for Karim’s candidacy.
“Karim’s wife, Kirsty, is a super girl as well – I went to their wedding in Scotland.”
One of his newsroom editors was more sceptical.
“Isn’t it weird to have an elected Monarch – surely you should inherit the Monarchy, not be chosen for it. Besides, Karim is a Muslim.”
“Well, he’s related to Charles II via his mother’s family, so that makes him a Stuart, and so am I a Muslim – less than half the Electorate say they are Christian these days, so what’s the problem?”
Harry, the Oxford History graduate, then chipped in:-
“The best precedent for choosing a Monarch is in Sweden in about 1810 where a group of worthy citizens invited Count Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s Generals, to be their King. They were impressed by his humane treatment of some Swedish prisoners of war. He accepted the invitation and became Charles XIV, ruled for at least twenty years and was generally regarded as a very successful Head of State.”
“Thanks, Harry, you’ve just earned next month’s salary with that contribution – convert it into a feature and I’ll make that two months’ salary!”
“Fine, Andy, it’s a deal,” said Harry.
A couple of days after his call to Karim, Ibrahim called Prince Richard.
“Sir, I have an important proposal to make…”
“What’s that?”
“I expect you’ve seen in the media we now have a Restoration of the Monarchy Act.”
“Yes – if this means restoring me, I reckon you can count me out.”
“It’s not quite as simple as that, sir – we wish to have a ballot as an add-on to the referendum, with at least two candidates, of which we would like you to be one…”
“Who’s likely to be the other candidate – David Beckham, perhaps?”
“No, Karim Khaled.”
“I see – but he’s a Muslim and could not, therefore, be head of the Anglican Church.”
“I reckon we can get round that problem. With less than half the Electorate now calling themselves Christian… believe me, sir, many people will be wanting to see you on the list of candidates – you can promote yourself as the Anglican candidate for a start – I’m sure your mother would have wanted you to stand – it’s your patriotic duty, surely?”
“What guarantees can you give me that I won’t be assassinated as soon as I set foot in England again?”
“I will give you a special protection squad of twenty SAS regulars – I would add that you wouldn’t need to stay here throughout the year – you could spend, say, ten months of the year in Canada with the rest of your family.”
“Yes, that would appeal to my wife and kids, I expect – I will talk it through with her and get back to you within four or five days. By the way, I assume you will be supporting Karim Khaled in all of this?”
“No. I’ve taken the decision not to campaign and not to vote – I see that my patriotic duty to England, my adopted country, is to organise the referendum and election, and be impartial at all times in the public interest.”
“I’m sure that’s very noble of you.”
“Forget about whether I vote or not, please sir – we need you to campaign in this referendum and stand in the election.”
“I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Thank you sir.”
Both Richard and Karim had their work cut out to persuade their wives and families to agree to their putting their names forward to be Monarch – both eventually succeeded, and both got back to Ibrahim within the week to confirm their willingness to stand.
On hearing from each of them that they had decided to stand, Ibrahim gave both of them, separately, the same spiel.
“I need to make clear to you, the Electorate will consist of citizens in all the so-called Commonwealth realms, as well as Britain. So that will include Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada plus Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados and around six others, mainly in the West Indies. They have all had the English Monarch as their Head of State, so they must be allowed to participate. Assuming the Cabinet will approve both your candidatures, which is almost certain, then I will get back to you with the wording on the two ballot papers, so you can be familiar with what will be involved. My office will also need to liaise with the BBC and ITN about official interviews and who they want to conduct them, and when.”
Within four days the Cabinet had approved the two candidates and the draft wording for each ballot paper.
The Voting Form for the referendum was to be on light green paper and was to read:
Do you approve the proposal that a Constitutional Monarchy be restored for Britain and the Commonwealth realms as previously existed in 2016? Yes or no.
There was some debate on the wisdom of using such terms as constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth realms, but the Treasury Legal Department insisted this was the correct legal position, and it was decided that an impartial publicity campaign would need to explain such terms to the Electorate.
In regard to the light blue ballot paper to decide who would be Monarch in the event of a yes majority, the wording was agreed as:
Place an x next to the name of the person who you would wish to be your Constitutional Monarch.
□Richard George Charles Windsor
□Karim Ali Stuart Khaled
There had been a discussion on whether or not Richard should have his various titles included on the ballot paper, but Ibrahim had requested a level playing field between the candidates, and Richard was easily persuaded that his name should go forward shorn of his various hereditary distinctions.
As soon as the candidates’ names became public knowledge, the campaign started in earnest.
The liberal progressive Press were in favour of Karim’s candidacy. These papers included The Sun, Guardian, Mirror, Times and New Statesman.
Richard’s side inc
luded the more conservative traditionalist papers like The Telegraph, Mail, Express and Spectator.
The BBC, still smarting from allegations of bias against Brexit in the EU referendum, tried to be scrupulously impartial, but some seasoned commentators detected a slight bias in favour of Karim.
ITN also attempted to be impartial, but was rumoured to favour Richard.
Eventually the interviewers were selected – each candidate would have one interview with each of two interviewers – Piers Wheatley from the BBC and Hamish Buchanan from ITN.
A list of likely questions would be provided to each candidate as neither candidate was a professional politician, and it was felt that an ability to prepare, maybe with some professional help, would ensure a fairer and more meaningful contest.
After some debate, it was agreed that each candidate would be interviewed alone, firstly for thirty minutes by Wheatley, and then, after a break of an hour, for a second thirty-minute session by Buchanan.
Wheatley would ask about family background, education and leisure pursuits, for example, while Buchanan would concentrate on political and religious beliefs and ambitions.
All interviews would be shown on both BBC1 and ITV1.
Meanwhile, the campaign on social media quickly went into overdrive.
Anticipation of the interviews sent social media into a spin. Contributions and observations were a mix of popular commentary on the merits of the candidates with the presentability of their wives as much as them. Kirsty always looked striking. She had a creative penchant for re-fashioning clothes she had purchased from charity shops, always stylish and often daring. Sophia, by contrast, was modestly turned out, consistently tasteful and elegant, so reassuring to Facebook users of a more conservative bent. Many tweets resurrected the standard that both women would be compared to, as photos of Princess Caroline were posted, of her for example in 1994 arriving at the Serpentine Gallery in a gown by Christina Stambolian.
Where opinion differed on the political substance of the contest, it broadly split along lines of preference for a resumption of tradition and a more daring strike toward a multi-cultural and apparently classless future. Supporters of Richard tweeted he had a duty to rule and the idea of a popular vote was inconsistent with the principle of monarchy. Richard replied on Twitter he had no more right to rule than his half-brother. This sparked a Twitter storm of constitutional argument. Many pointed out that Karim was not the son of an existing Sovereign but of a liaison between a divorced Princess and a commoner, and a foreigner to boot.
Most supported the democratisation as a healing process after so much conflict, regardless of the result. Both candidates tweeted messages about their respect for each other and how much they were looking forward to an opportunity to meet. This was very popular on social media. Ibrahim anticipated a high turnout would result from the worldwide Electorate which he would publicly interpret as an endorsement of the further democratisation of constitutional monarchy, even if there were a lot of posts and tweets that reflected highly partisan passion for one or the other candidate for the throne.
The TV interviews took place on 20 August 2018 around six weeks before the referendum.
Karim was the first to be interviewed by Piers Wheatley.
“I would like to ask about your adoptive parents and family out in Dubai. Was it a close-knit family?”
“It was a very close and affectionate family – I never felt deprived either materially or emotionally – I was very lucky.”
“I know this is a sensitive question, but what was the personal impact on you when you discovered your natural parents had died in very unfortunate circumstances?”
“I suppose I was about thirteen when I became aware that my father’s car crash may not have been accidental – that it may have been orchestrated by someone.”
“Who did you suspect?”
“I only had the rumours circulating on the internet to go on and many of those mentioned rogue elements in MI6.”
“Do you still believe that?”
“Possibly – it looks like they had a motive – to prevent my father, a Muslim, from getting too close to Prince Richard by becoming his stepfather. And also to prevent him from fathering any children with my mother, who would then be blood relatives of Prince Richard.”
“Have you met Prince Richard?”
“No, not yet.”
“Do you want to meet him?”
“Yes, very much so.”
“Why?”
“Well, blood is thicker than water, as they say – I want to ask him about our mother, among other things, but I don’t wish to go into detail on this – it’s too personal.”
“But by standing against him in this election, are you not inviting him to be hostile towards you?”
“No – he was the one who abdicated, not that I blame him for doing so. By subsequently standing for election, he’s accepted the rules of the contest and he’s already said that he will accept the voters’ decision. I believe he knows he can’t be Monarch by divine right – those days have gone.”
“What does your wife think about being Queen?”
“To her, it’s really a way of being able to make a difference to people’s lives by charitable work – we both see that as a continuation of my mother’s projects.”
There then followed another ten minutes or so of straightforward questions, followed by an hour’s break, during which Karim looked at the list of questions to be raised by Hamish Buchanan, ITN’s chief political correspondent. The scripted questions seemed manageable, but there were bound to be unscripted questions that could be problematic, and so it proved.
“I see you studied Politics at University – does the role of the Monarch change, or do you think it should stay as it is?”
“Yes, I remember studying British constitution during my first year at SOAS. We were taught that a British Monarch has three rights – the right to be consulted; to encourage and to warn – this was according to Bagehot, the Victorian journalist. This all sounds good stuff to me, but I’d just like to add some obligations. In particular, the obligation to get stuck into some serious charity work and also to mediate, if invited so to do – I am mainly thinking of international disputes here.”
“Are you thinking of Commonwealth disputes, as you would be head of the Commonwealth?”
“Yes, but also those in the Middle East, perhaps, where both sides feel they can trust me.”
“Would you say that your mother was let down by the Establishment and this explains your reputation for having radical left wing views?”
“Yes, that’s part of it, but also I was brought up in Dubai as a Muslim and I became aware of the Western bias against Muslims in history, starting with the Crusades.”
“But the fact that you’re left wing and a Muslim will both be seen as reasons why you should not be chosen for this role, surely…?”
“Well, if I was a right wing Christian, some would say those are reasons I should not be chosen. I am not a Jihadi – I’m sure everyone knows that, but I understand Islam and I believe moderate law abiding Muslims should be looked after – we should cater for their aspirations on the same basis as other citizens, including Christians.”
“But the Monarch is supposed to be Head of the Anglican Church, so you can’t fulfil that role as you are not an Anglican?”
“No, but we can separate Church and State and the Archbishop of Canterbury can have that role, and I can remain as Defender of Faith, not necessarily the Christian faith. The Government can obviously do this by a single Act of Parliament.”
“As you are setting out your CV, may we please know about your leisure pursuits?”
“Certainly – I am very keen on skiing and music.”
“Do you play an instrument?”
“Guitar and trumpet – enough competence on the former to play in a band – n
ot so good on the latter, but very keen. I acquired an interest in jazz from my dad – my adoptive dad – in Dubai.”
There followed a few more basic questions not causing Karim any great difficulty and the interview ended.
Next up was Richard, being interviewed by Piers Wheatley, the arch-enemy of his father and stepmother.
“Good evening sir (it was actually midday, but Wheatley knew the programme would be screened in the evening and had decided to try and con the audience into thinking the interview was live). I’m sorry this must all be a chore from your viewpoint – having to stand for election when you could have been crowned as King earlier without any such fuss.”
“Well no – I decided to abdicate for what seemed like good reasons at the time. I’ve now decided to stand in this election and, if I win, it will reinforce a sense of legitimacy that maybe I wouldn’t have otherwise had.”
“Fine – but as this is an election, sir, I’m obliged to ask about your qualifications and so on. It’s well known you went to St Andrews University – was there any particular reason you chose a red brick University when you could have gone to Oxbridge, presumably?”
“It’s not red brick for a start, it’s more like grey granite. Most St Andrews students past and present would be horrified to hear St Andrews described as red brick.
I chose it because it’s the top University regularly in the top five of all the league tables and I’ve always been keen on all things Scottish, like many other members of my family.”
“I see, sir – please remind me and our viewers what you studied and what class of degree you obtained.”
“History of Art and Classical Civilisation, and I obtained an Upper Second.”
“Fine, what leisure pursuits did you cultivate at University and since?”
“Skiing and polo mainly, when family commitments permit.”
“Of course, and what about politics – would you say you’ve inherited the reactionary views and desire to interfere which were a hallmark of your father’s term as Monarch?”