The Queen is part of the posh country set. She is one of ‘them’; the elite. The hunting and fishing type who see animals as something to use and in respect of wild animals to abuse. She is old-fashioned in this way, unenlightened. The connection of the Royal family with shooting wild animals for pleasure is a big barrier to animal advocates (of which there are many in the UK) warming to the monarch. There’s just no way I can like her under the circumstances and her attitude is highlighted in a small way by the terms and conditions under which a person or persons can rent a six-bedroom manor house on her Sandringham estate.
Under a fixed-term and relatively short-term (3 years) rental agreement, she is renting out Flitcham Hall for £3,750 per calendar month starting next spring. The tenants will not be allowed to keep a cat because, it is reported, back in 2016 it was decided that domestic cats kill game birds reared on the estate for Royal shooting parties. There you go. The Royals like to shoot game birds which is cruel to anybody with an iota of enlightenment.
But then the Queen isn’t enlightened and you have to question her morality and decency in endorsing sport hunting. It’s out of place in the modern world but then the Queen isn’t modern is she? She belongs to a bygone age. When she’s gone the British monarchy will shrink dramatically and it will lose its status and kudos in the country. Perhaps it will be the beginning of the end when Queen Elizabeth II passes. Personally, although she is much loved or said to be, I won’t miss her.
This is not to say that I’m a republican or don’t agree that the Royals do have some value. They do create some stability in the country and are good for tourism when it exists, which at the moment it doesn’t thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. But it is time to move on in my view. Unless of course the Royals change their attitude about sport hunting. Then I might be kinder to them.
Note: the rental agreement will be an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, which is a standard agreement for landlord-tenant lettings of this type. I believe that the agreement will allow a dog or dogs under conditions. That’s speciesism.
