If the scene at the Westminster Abbey altar Friday is meant to portray the fairy-tale image of monarchical romance, the faces in the aisles – and those left standing on the sidewalk outside – are poised to tell a more contentious story.
Sunday’s announcement of the guest list for Friday’s wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton caused an eruption of outrage in Britain as it emerged that the House of Windsor had managed to invite a string of dictators and tyrants, well-connected billionaires and pop stars while snubbing all former prime ministers belonging to the opposition Labour Party.
In a display of regal indifference to current events and human rights, the Queen and her offspring announced a list that was heavy with autocrats who have recently been implicated in acts of repressive violence while crushing the democratic uprisings that have swept across Africa.
Senior figures from the governments of Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have been invited, despite having been in the headlines for acts of brutality in recent weeks (though Libya was kept off the list).
The Crown Prince of Bahrain, Hamad Al-Khalifa, announced Sunday night that he would decline the invitation because his country’s crackdown on democracy protests, killing at least seven people, has become a matter of international condemnation since it began in February.
He said in a statement that he feared he would “overshadow” the wedding, arguing that opponents have “clearly sought to involve my potential attendance as a political proxy for wider matters involving Bahrain.”
But other despots with recent acts of violence on their hands are still invited, to the consternation of many.
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“The invitations are a massive misjudgment by the monarch,” British human-rights activist Peter Tatchell said on Sunday. “They show the Queen is out of touch with the humanitarian values of modern, liberal Britain. She’s putting royalty before human rights. The guest list displays a shocking insensitivity to the suffering of people who have been persecuted.”
To make matters worse, it emerged that every living Conservative prime minister, including Margaret Thatcher and John Major, will be invited to attend while snubbing both Labour prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. (Baroness Thatcher will reportedly not be attending for health reasons.)
Prince Charles’s office, Clarence House, attempted to excuse this as a matter of protocol, arguing that both Tories were Knights of the Garter, a royal-appointed honour: “It is not a state occasion, so there is no reason why they would be invited,” a spokesman said.
“It is a private wedding and the couple are entitled to invite whoever they want to it. Prince William is not the prince of Wales or the king, and he hasn’t got that link to prime ministers in the way that the Queen does.”
However, a wide range of other figures from politics, business and the arts were invited because they were admired by members of the Royal Family, making the snub look more abject. Several observers noted that a representative of St. Helena, population 4,000, and the postman and pub landlord of Bucklebury, Berkshire, the village of Ms. Middleton, have been invited despite not being required by protocol.
Indeed, even traditionally conservative observers raised their eyebrows at the stark ideological divide among wedding invitations. “While it is inevitable that these sensitive relationships have their ups and downs, Labour MPs will not be alone in thinking it odd the two former occupants of No. 10 have not been invited to the marriage of the Queen’s eldest grandson,” political editor of the right-wing Sunday Telegraph editorialized.
He speculated that Mr. Blair and Mr. Brown may have been snubbed because of past frictions over the funerals of Lady Diana in 1997 or the Queen Mother in 2002, both events that caused tensions between Downing Street and the palace.
