There are posts in the QEII RIP thread on
the story that the Palace wants to seize all but an hour's footage of the funeral/accesssion (Guardian), but I thought it better to post here.
First, this shows that the UK monarchy is not just a 'constitutional monarchy' with no power. It is covertly powerful, and has the power to shape the national narrative. In the interest of parliamentary democracy, it needs reining in (I had to be careful with the spelling there).
Second, it shows how the control of 'access' can be enough to constrain the press. We see this in the way the parliamentary lobby dare not criticise the incumbent government because they will be deprived of 'sources'. The monarchy is doing the same here, implicitly threatening to freeze out any dissenting media.
Third, it shows how the Palace is completely out of touch with the modern world. Digital media are so easy to duplicate, and so easy to publish (especially in jurisdictions in which the Palace has no recourse) that this kind of 'D-notice' approach to control of media can only fail.
The Palace request is so wholly reactionary that it must be resisted. My (admittedly childish) reaction would be to urge the media companies to collect an hour of the clips that the Palace wants to suppress (boos at Cardiff Castle, heckling of Andrew and Charles, police suppressing people holding blank pieces of paper, all the bits that the Scottish independence movement might use to bolster their arguments, etc.) and send it to the Palace instead of an hour of 'solemn mourning'. I think we can all agree, it's a good job I'm not in charge.
