© Agence France-Presse/GettyThe Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the State Opening of Parliament
On a scorchingly hot Saturday lunchtime in Leeds, the varied strands of the British left have gathered outside the city's art gallery for their annual May Day parade. They are all here: the Labour party, the Communist party, the Socialist party, a smattering of trade unions, the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and a handful of vegans chalking slogans on the paving stones. Meanwhile, under a green gazebo adorned with the tagline "End the Reign", activists from a radical organisation that resists any left/right stereotyping are setting up their stall and hoping for a decent couple of hours' business.
On a trestle table, they have arranged a handful of laminated blowups of newspaper articles, mostly from the
Guardian, about Prince Harry being
interviewed by police about the killing of rare birds, the Queen's
£82m income and the "
black spider letters" - named after Prince Charles's eccentric handwriting - that revealed the future king's efforts to influence some of the policies of the last Labour government. The basic point all this bumf is intended to illustrate is presented in a four-page A5 leaflet. "Monarchy must go," it says, explaining why having a hereditary head of state "goes against every democratic principle", as well as claiming that looking after the royals costs the public purse £334m a year.
Comment: What Ms. Bank's experienced may not necessarily be racism - Israelis are just horrible people all around. But they do reserve a special vehemence for blacks.