British taxpayers have footed a £825,000 invoice for a examine on the monarchy’s future within the Caribbean as anti-royal activists proceed to ‘agitate’ for its abolition.
The UK’s Arts and Humanities Analysis Council (AHRC) gave £825,417 to Seen Crown, a undertaking in search of to discover the ‘political and cultural significance of Elizabeth II within the Caribbean, from 1952 to the current day’.
The undertaking, which organisers say is of ‘immense worth’, comes amid rising strain on the royal household because it grapples with the UK’s troubled colonial legacy in Commonwealth nations and past.
At dwelling, a collection of high-profile latest occasions together with the coronation of King Charles III final Might, have seen a heavy anti-monarchy presence by protesters and activists.
Towards this troubled backdrop, the examine will ‘search to raised clarify the sturdiness of monarchy within the Caribbean for the reason that finish of empire’.
British taxpayers have footed a £825,000 invoice for a examine on the monarchy’s future within the Caribbean (Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II visits Antigua and Barbuda, twenty fourth October 1985)
Charles and Camilla go to Saint Kitts and Nevis in 2019 and pose with native dancers
It follows a number of excessive profile journeys by members of the royal household to nations together with Jamaica which have seen native protesters demand reparations for the slave commerce and model the royals ‘genocidal’.
One of many examine’s researchers, Professor Anna Whitlock, is a historian of the monarchy and media commentator.
She beforehand wrote that until the monarchy modernises, it won’t survive till the top of the twenty first century – and has argued it owes a lot of its wealth and energy to ‘colonial violence’, which she mentioned sustains ‘white inherited privilege’, the Telegraph studies.
And shortly earlier than the late Queen Elizabeth II died, she instructed the Categorical the monarchy is ‘ageing’, and that ‘changes should be made’.
Among the many establishments listed as companions to the undertaking are the International and Commonwealth Workplace and Historic Royal Palaces UK.
The researchers say it’ll tackle all eight Caribbean ‘realms’: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines – in addition to ex-Commonwealth nations which are actually republics: Dominica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago and, most lately, Barbados.
Analysis is predicted to concentrate on the Queen’s function within the Caribbean and her legacy, in addition to the accession of King Charles III.
A kind of listed as ‘advisors’ to the researches is Main J.W David Clarke, Further Equerry to the Royal Family.
Protesters in Jamaica in the course of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ tour of the Caribbean nation in 2022
Native college kids wave to Queen Elizabeth II as she launched into an eight-country tour of the Caribbean in 1994
The late Queen visited the Caribbean quite a few occasions throughout her reign, together with together with her husband (centre) in 1983
The Conservatives’ shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith instructed the Telegraph the AHRC has a historical past of forking out on initiatives which can be ‘at odds with British values’
However the undertaking’s social media web page on X has simply 127 followers and has not posted something since retweeting an article by certainly one of its group, Dr Grace Carrington, in November final 12 months.
The AHRC, which is bankrolling the analysis, is certainly one of a number of councils funded by the UK Analysis and Innovation (UKRI), which has been handed a funds of £207 million of taxpayer money for 2022 to 2025. The UKRI additionally sponsors very important scientific analysis.
The Conservatives’ shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith instructed the Telegraph the AHRC has a historical past of forking out on initiatives which can be ‘at odds with British values’.
A spokesman for UKRI instructed the paper: ‘UKRI invests in a various analysis and innovation portfolio.
‘Selections to fund the analysis initiatives we help are made by way of a rigorous peer evaluation course of by related impartial specialists from throughout academia and enterprise.’
The AHRC has been contacted for remark.
