show some spine

Spine Film productions are sometimes critical of British culture because that content usually presents the country's social inequalities and divisions as permanent facts of life. Instead, the guiding ideal is that all children are created equal. At birth a child's life is ahead of them. It could be characterised by accomplishment, courage, scholarship, or invention. It may bring other positive benefits to a community, or the world. That life will be carelessly wasted if the child’s potential is ignored. If artificial barriers are removed children can mature to make the best contribution possible. Then the whole society wins.

When a child is born its future is an empty file. This is why royal or aristocratic titles are deceptive. The children of those families are supposed to be favoured from day one. It is implied that they are automatically better than other children. There is one smooth track for their guaranteed advantage, but a different journey for those who are excluded. Family and connection are valued more than effort and achievement.

Titles are useful when they indicate something more than just who someone's parents are, or were. It's better if a title is earned through learning, or talent, or is associated with a trade, skill, election, or profession. Anything that implies elevated standing should be achieved. It cannot be a birthright. Without proof there is only pretence. Titles that anyone inherits tell us about family background. Ultimately these are just about presumed status. The titles that these people then bestow on others are an endorsement intended to justify that status rather than recognise the intrinsic worth of the recipient. That is why people in other more progressive nations have wisely chosen to dispense with them. They understand that the deception of royalty will incline people to deny their own potential nobility, and to act like peasants instead. Noble behaviour is a product of character and conscience, not hereditary titles.

If being born is the only qualification we are all at liberty to call ourselves princes or princesses, lords or ladies ‐ even supreme barons of the high universe for all it matters. These titles are equally meaningless unless people are systematically conditioned to take them seriously. Is it better to be discerning about who deserves respect and rewards? Some people inherit advantage. Does that require talent, honour, or any other particular virtue?

There are better reasons to value people than their family line. If you believe in equality of opportunity for all children please join Spine Film in working towards a Britain free of the segregation and injustice perpetuated by hereditary titles.

It is a bad example. The British people are better than that because everyone is.