Why I didn’t watch the Royal Wedding

Do we really need to scrape and bow, to tug the forelock

Before Liz Windsor, and all the rest

Of her unillustrious line?

Should we not assert the old claims of the Diggers?

Against Kingly Power, for England to be

A free common-wealth, not of imperialism and slavery

But wealth in the hands of the many

Not given by divine providence

To a handful of upper-class scroungers attended on hand-and-foot.

I don’t desire to dine on delicacies of Quails Eggs or Langoustines

Washed down with gallons of Pol Roger Reserve Brut Champagne.

I have nothing in common with toffs who sit on thrones,

Who glide about the country in a Royal Train or get helicopter rides for free.

I did not celebrate sixty years of the Windsors scrounging on state handouts.

We are the ones who paid for the Queen to float down a barge on the Thames like a duck

To be honest, I couldn’t give a toss, what Kate was wearing, her designer frock.

The rest of us have to work to survive.

Or abase ourselves at the job centre every fortnight to receive our pittance.

We no longer have to pay tithes to the lord of the manor,

But we still pay through the nose to keep Her Maj

In the style to which she is accustomed

And uphold the tradition of the divine right of kings

Which should have been buried long ago

By the Diggers and Levellers who stood up for their rights

To plough and sow and govern themselves.