The role of the British Monarchy, Popularity and Future discussion

[TLLK]

A thread to discuss the Role, Popularity and the future of the British Monarchy.

The Role of the Monarchy

Monarchy is the oldest form of government in the United Kingdom.

In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State. The British Monarchy is known as a constitutional monarchy. This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament.

Although The Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she continues to play an important part in the life of the nation.

As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and representational duties which have developed over one thousand years of history. In addition to these State duties, The Monarch has a less formal role as 'Head of Nation'. The Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of voluntary service.

In all these roles The Sovereign is supported by members of their immediate family.

The role of the Monarchy | The Royal Family

Royal news - Prince Harry just as popular as the Queen | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

The Ipsos Mori survey, which is compiled from 20,793 interviews online focusing on adults under the age of 65, found that Prince Harry was named the most-liked member of the Royal family in Britain and South Africa with 42 per cent of the vote.

The Queen was most liked by 11 out of the surveyed 28 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and China.

Royal fans from the US appear to admire the Duchess of Cambridge the most and the Duke of Cambridge is most popular in France.

The ginger prince today enjoys the same public popularity as the Queen, with 23 per cent of the public vote in a survey.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge followed with 17 and 18 per cent of the vote.

Prince George got 10 per cent of the vote, Princess Charlotte got nine per cent and Prince Charles received eight per cent.

Here is the link to the actual IPSO Mori poll. It surveyed people in the UK and around the world.

Royal Wedding 2018: International perceptions of the Royal Family

[Curryong]

IPSO Mori is a well respected polling company. These internationl polls are quite unusual, actually.

[TLLK]

Yes I was surprised that they conducted an international poll especially since they polled opinions outside of the Commonwealth.

[wannable]

But in third place favorable, which has to do with impression of the Royal. Quite right, as William impression perception is superior.

I knew Kate is the most popular in the USA.

[TLLK]

  Going to overlook the tabloid headline and point out some of the details. Unfortunately I cannot find a link to the actual poll results on the Opinioum site so I'll "dissect" the Express article."

Summary:  Support for the monarch continues to be high in the UK at 63%. (Don't have access to the poll so I don't know what the "neutral/no opinion/unsure or unfavorable results were." The most popular royals are the same three with the following favorable ratings:  Prince William- 73%, QEII-70% and Prince Harry-70% who jockey from first to second to third by just a few points depending on the poll and the year.  IMO this has been a  consistent  pattern for years now. Catherine as usual comes in  fourth 62% and a bit ahead of her sister-in-law Meghan 39%.  Meghan does well IMO considering that she is still new to the Windsors. The ones that have to be concerned continue to be the next monarch/consort: Charles 40 %-tied with DoE and Camilla-24%.

In other words, nothing really shocking in the latest poll.  :D :Jen: :windsor1:



Royal family: Kate ahead of new mum Meghan in popularity poll | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

[Curryong]

38% are neutral towards Meghan, 12% have an unfavourable view, 9% are very unfavourable. 65% agreed with the Sussexes' decision to keep details of Meghan's pregnancy and birth out of the public eye and 77% think Meghan has settled in well in her new role since joining the Royal Family.

[sandy]

I truly think HM belongs at the top and deserves it. Just my take on it.

[Curryong]

Generally speaking, the top three, Will, Harry, the Queen, have been the same in poll after poll, whichever polling company is involved. They just exchange positions sometimes. The one who is really in trouble IMO is Camilla, though Charles's position, considering he is POW and a workaholic, is pretty diabolical. This polling over and over again for years won't please those at CH.

They didn't ask the specific question this time AFAIK about her being crowned as Queen. She probably will be but it may well be against public opinion. And, as Camilla has taken up many worthwhile causes I can't see that these results for her in poll after poll year after year are attributable to anything but the events of a quarter of a century ago.

(Though, to be fair, in this poll we don't know whether Anne, the Wessexes, the Yorkies etc were included. If they were they might be behind Camilla, though considering Anne and Sophie do great work too, their figures shouldn't be low. They generally are in such polls, though.)

[wannable]

The survey was 'commissioned' hence not yet available for 'free' public viewing at their site Opinium ? What people think, feel and do

Their search engine does provide 'old' royal polls, surveys, opinion pieces about the BRF. Once the new survey commissioned order is available for free downloading, it will probably be 1 year old. Time for a new survey.  A year in time may change polled opinions of the UK public.  Like YouGov site, this is quitesentially a British Co.

[Curryong]

That figure for support of the British monarchy in general, is lower than other polls taken. It has been suggested that this particular polling company is left-leaning and therefore their constituency would contain more republican voters than others.

[wannable]

They have a very thorough survey system.

For example: Approval for Meghan Markle doubles as nation readies for royal wedding - Opinium
Download the excel sheet, which tells us the tools used, only British nationals, the status of people surveyed, where they live, etcetera.
https://www.opinium.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Monarchy-Tracker-28-11-17.xlsx


Edit to add: Reading their old polls and surveys, it's important to the BRF, the firm, its advisors, staff in all three households BP, CH, KP to work with good PR, or Paradise papers deals a blow to the Queen's favourability ratings - Opinium   Basically, I agree with Richard Palmer's latest tweets about the actual May 2019 Survey, which @TLLK opened this thread, he basically says that those royals mentioned in the poll (their advisors, the men in grey, the royals themselves) should read what the Brits think about them, in order to improve their ratings.

[sandy]

Meghan before royal wedding technically was not a royal family member. Just saying.

[Curryong]

Well, I don't know how Camilla is going to improve hers, considering she tours overseas on soft diplomacy missions with Charles, goes on many engagements, has worthy causes under her belt and it was believed at CH that regular Royal work would improve things. You can't change the past, unfortunately for this couple, and Charles for instance cannot work more than he does.

Some things might play into Charles's low figures, a certain eccentric yet spoiled image, adoption of alternative causes, the Edwardian style of living as well as his first marriage. Yet how to explain Camilla if not for her role in the disintegration of the POW's first marriage.

In a way you can argue that polls don't mean anything, and it's true that members of the BRF keep on keeping on regardless and never cease to be Royal. On the another hand there would be few heirs to the throne and their consorts who would rejoice over those figures.

[sandy]

I don't think Charles will like this. It's been made clear that he won't step aside for William. Plus he has invested time and money in P.R.

[TLLK]

@Curryong, @wannable, @sandy-Thanks for your thoughts on the topic.

I do agree that the top three have been there for years now and will likely remain so for the coming years. I would be VERY concerned if I was at CH because those numbers rarely seem to move upward. Now I do expect a traditional bump for both when the new reign begins, but I could be proven wrong.

Besides the monarch, the popular members are the Queen's "working" grandsons and their spouses. IMO this does bode well for the monarchy, but anything is possible

Would love to see if the Queen's children: Anne, Andrew, Edward and Sophie were included.

[PrincessOfPeace]

Kate and William overwhelmingly loved by Brits ? Meghan fails to attract same popularity | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

BRITAIN remains a staunch royalist nation ? thanks to The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge. But pollsters found opinion is deeply divided over Prince Harry?s wife, the Duchess of Sussex, with the younger generation on her side.

[Curryong]

I'd like to see the full polling results for this survey, not just the cherry picking by the Express, which commissioned this poll. I'd like to see the positive/negative figures for Charles and Camilla. And for William. And which other royals were in this poll? Anne, Beatrice, Eugenie, the Wessexes?

I only know Harry got a 70% approval rating because of one remark by one of Palmer's followers (the Queen was on 73%) but Richard Palmer and the other Express journalists  apparently hid that little nugget in their anxiety to portray Meghan as disliked by the entire British population, something that didn't stand up when you get into the body of these Express articles.

And if Harry got 70% approval and Kate 67%, how come the article emphasises that 'the Monarchy is being upheld thanks to the Queen and Kate'. A bit of fudging of figures going on there, or what?

It would be good if I could find these elusive complete and full figures by the Public First lobby Company for Metro, which supposedly conducted this poll. I would like to see the methodology they used for this as well.

[wannable]

Here's the full poll spreadsheet http://www.publicfirst.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/PF_Royal.pdf
Here's the methodology and poll carried out for Metro, The Express basically copy/pasted the report.  New Metro Poll on the Royal Family - Public First  The poll was conducted yesterday.

[Curryong]

Thank you very very much for posting this, wannabie. I thought when I first saw those articles that the Express were highlighting some, cherry picking some, not mentioning some.

It's 1AM in the morning her but I will be taking a look in the morning, Aus time. At a brief first glance Charles's figures don't look exactly sparkling, for a start. Not that those sort of results are new for him.

[sandy]

The Duchess of Cambridge is not going to be Queen Regnant.  William is the future monarch and is next in line after Charles. Kate can only be consort and can't "uphold" the monarchy like the Queen can.

[TLLK]

Here's the full poll spreadsheet http://www.publicfirst.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/PF_Royal.pdf
Here's the methodology and poll carried out for Metro, The Express basically copy/pasted the report.  New Metro Poll on the Royal Family - Public First  The poll was conducted yesterday.

\

Thank you for finding this poll and linking it to the site @wannable. Like @Curryong I don't care for tabloid articles that do tend to "cherry pick" to create an eye-catching headline.

Metro Poll on Royal FamilyFieldwork: 28thOctober?31stOctober2019Interview method: Online surveyPopulation represented: UK adultsSample size: 1005Methodology:All results are weighted using Iterative Proportional Fitting, or ?Raking?. The results are weighted by age, gender, region, Social Grade, 2017 General Election vote and 2016 EU Referendum vote. Target proportions are derived fromcensusdata and election results.Public First is a member of the BPC and abides by its rules.For more information please contact Public First

Like all polls not every person in a nation/region etc..are polled but this one did gather the opinions from a variety of ages, genders, socio-economic status and across the entire UK so IMO this is a fair representation of how the UK is viewing the monarchy and some of the more prominent members. (It didn't ask about Sophie, Timothy, the Gloucesters or Kents)

I did appreciate that it inquired how citizens felt how the BRF should prioritize its activities.  Majority wanted a focus on the UK instead of overseas and promoting its businesses and that the members should avoid politically sensitive topics.

Double post auto-merged: November 05, 2019, 04:06:46 PM

BTW just noticed that they didn't get opinions on Camilla which I thought was odd considering that she's the future Queen/Princess consort.
Also, I thought it was unnecessary to ask if they felt sorry for Meghan.

The Duchess of Cambridge is not going to be Queen Regnant.  William is the future monarch and is next in line after Charles. Kate can only be consort and can't "uphold" the monarchy like the Queen can.

I disagree with this view as opinion polls have consistently demonstrated that the late  QEQM, the DoE and other foreign monarchy consorts are often considered to be either well respected or very popular in their respective nations and are often considered to be principle supporter to uphold their nation's monarchies. Sometimes even more respected or popular than their spouse who is the monarch.

[sandy]

The Queen Mum made sure her husband shone and she was supporting him. He was IMO the one who counted. I would see that as Kate's role with william. William will be the monarch like his grandmother is. It should not be  a case of Kate being "more" respected or popular, JMHO. More as a complement. that's how I see it.

[TLLK]

I believe that we already see this happening with the Cambridges as the couple do appear to support each other privately and publicly. IMHO Catherine will be seen as one of her spouse's greatest supporters much like we saw with QEQM and that we've seen with the DoE.

[PrincessOfPeace]

HM The Queen - 73% positive / 10% negative

William - 71% positive / 9% negative

Catherine - 66% positive / 9% negative

Harry - 57% positive / 18% negative

Anne - 44% positive / 12% negative

Charles - 44% positive / 22% negative

Meghan - 41% positive / 29% negative

Philip - 40% positive / 24% negative

Edward - 22% positive / 21% negative

Andrew - 16% positive / 47% negative


It?s actually pretty shocking at least to me that only Prince Andrew has a lower negative number than Meghan. 


Also: Who is better at representing modern Britain (only W&K and H&M given as options):

William & Kate 57%

Harry and Meghan 24%

[Curryong]

It's all very well for respondents to that survey to want a focus on Britain and British charities. Hard for Harry (and Meghan) to achieve in practical terms however, as Harry knows that the Commonwealth is important to his grandmother, and also the his father and indeed, the BRF.

The result was that he was specifically appointed Commonwealth Youth Ambasador by the Queen, and will be expected to undertake long tours there in the future, with his wife, and both will be expected to concentrate largely on Commonwelth matters. Because, believe me, this organisation is important to the BRF's future image and role in the future, even when the realms go, as I believe they will sooner rather than later.