Morrissey has launched a fresh attack on the Queen, branding her the “ultimate dictator.”
The former Smiths singer was speaking in response to the royal wedding, and the suggestion that it might have been a positive example of British patriotism.
But he underlined how he holds the opposite view, and suggested that the Queen “would not hesitate to turn her tanks on the British people” should any major republican movement rise in the UK.
He told the Telegraph: “The royal family to me are not England, and they are not the flag. So therefore people can become misguided into believing that the Queen is the heart of England, and that she represents England. But she doesn’t in the least.”
“And there are people like me who were not interested, and were many in number, and were not easily fooled. And we see the Queen as the ultimate dictator. And it is dictatorship. It’s forced upon the British people. And of course if the British people decided tomorrow that the Queen must go, then the Queen wouldn’t hesitate to turn her tanks on the British people. It would happen. Because the police are commissioned to protect the Queen against the people of England. That’s their first and foremost task. And I find that absolutely absurd.”
He also reiterated his call to give back the six English-controlled counties of Ulster to the Irish, blaming the Queen for what he perceives as inaction during her visit to Ireland last month.
He said: “First and foremost, she had her chance [in May] to give the six counties back, and that would have been revolutionary, and that would have been astonishing, and that would have been a great leap forward, and a great investment of faith that would mean that everything has changed, that we are all civilised now.”
“But of course she said nothing of the kind, and I thought that was so typical. And all the reports were saying how she was breaking ground and she was charming everybody and so forth. But these press releases come from Buckingham Palace and nowhere else.”
Find out all about The Smiths’ classic album ‘The Queen Is Dead’ on its 25th anniversary in the new issue of NME, which is on UK newsstands now or available digitally.