Royal Family

Brits Told to ‘Swear Allegiance to the King’

What in the fresh monarchical hell is this?!?!

Copyright House of Lords 2022 / Photography by Annabel Moeller licensed under CC BY 2.0 (free use)

When Brits discover that children in the USA have to “pledge allegiance to the flag” every day, we go through something akin to the five stages of grief:

• Denial — come on now, stop yanking my chain, that’s ludicrous
• Anger — how? How is this a thing? It’s outrageous
• Bargaining — maybe we can talk about this. Biden seems nice
• Depression — I need some time alone with my thoughts, please
• Acceptance — cool, that’s fine, you do you.

This isn’t a criticism of US Americans as people, but you have to admit that from an outside perspective, the system looks kind of…. cult-like.

If you think this is a claim of moral superiority though, it’s categorically not: this week nation looked across the Atlantic ocean and said “Hold my beer”.

And so, it is with a heavy heart that I must deliver to you the news that Britons are being ‘encouraged’ to pledge allegiance to the King at next week’s coronation. Pledging allegiance to a flag doesn’t seem quite so weird now, does it? At least the US’s leaders are elected.