Many supporters donate, too, though, so there is little practical difference.) (Members pay dues, while registered supporters just get emails. The number of registered supporters also started growing in 2018. Even over the birth of Prince George, we did a Born Equal campaign.” During the 10s, membership grew by about half, to 2,000 people. We decided to keep on campaigning all the way through the big events. There was a deliberate change of tack to make more noise during royal celebrations: “That plays into the idea that the whole country is celebrating. “These big events are really helpful to us,” he says. There was a membership surge in 2011, when the Prince and Princess of Wales got married, and another two years later, during the queen’s diamond jubilee.

When we meet, he walks me through the numbers. Graham Smith, who has run Republic for 20 years, is a softly spoken, unexcitable man. You could say that Republic, the organisation that brought these protesters together, had shot the opening scenes of the monarchy’s disaster movie, the bit where the smouldering cigarette is dropped in the parched forest and no one notices. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

Graham Smith (centre), the chief executive of Republic.

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