Good morning !
He may well possess those qualities, and I’ve no doubt that Highgrove is a beautiful garden I’d go in a heartbeat if it were convenient. But the real issue here is his appalling treatment of staff, both in terms of behaviour and remuneration.
Life is hard for working people in 2025. Raising a family, paying the bills, and affording the essentials of modern life is a daily struggle. Meanwhile, we have a King born into immense privilege, shielded by tax advantages, legal protections, and centuries of taxpayer-funded wealth treating his staff with contempt, trying to get away with the lowest possible remuneration that can legally (or morally) be justified. He even appears willing to exploit the goodwill of elderly or refugee volunteers, as though even paying the minimum wage is too much to ask.
For three years, many years ago, I worked alongside a friend who had a franchised gardening business the mow, blow and go brigade so I have a worm’s-eye view of just how difficult and physically punishing that work is. Bad backs and injuries are common, often career-ending, and can cast a shadow over a person’s entire working life. A fair wage isn’t a luxury it’s the bare minimum acknowledgment of the toll that labour takes and it's great that many here of whatever stripe fully understand it and renumerate accordingly.
When I visited Chatsworth recently, I was stunned by the size and quality of the gardens especially the rock garden, which is on an almost unimaginable scale. But the moment I saw it, I couldn’t help but think of the countless poor souls who, back in the day, must have died or broken their backs building it. They’re now forgotten in the mists of time, while the lords and masters who commanded the work are commemorated in oil portraits and statues, immortalised at the top of the pile.
And here we are again, with a new aristocracy behaving in much the same way draped in privilege, indifferent to the human cost beneath the beauty they claim to cultivate.
Thank God my ancestors had the courage to rise up some by swinging swords and axes, others by rioting in the streets or conspiring together in whispers and pamphlets. Democracy and justice were never handed down by these people they had to be seized from their cold, dark hands, hands dripping with the blood of resistance.
And why would I ever utter a word of support, or sing the national anthem, or stand to attention for these usurpers and rogues? Never have, and never will—to my dying breath. Long Live the Republic ! God Save Graham Smith !
“What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
And how can we get rid of you?”
— Tony Benn