Well, I hated the coronation…

[TheColourofspring]

I can see I am in the minority on here but I found yesterday to be distasteful on a gigantic scale. To watch the most privileged people travel in gold coaches & be decorated with diamonds and gold that is priceless in the face of millions of people struggling to eat/heat their homes just feels so wrong.

Our primary school has just opened a food bank. There are kids & families in crisis- children coming into school hungry & smelly as families can’t afford to wash clothes (I am not joking) - living in Dickensian conditions. Some of the teaching staff use the foodbank.

Yesterday was a display of obscene wealth. The royals didn’t even pay for it- we did. How can we find money for that absolute nonsense yet we can’t find money for large swathes of the population to feed themselves.

While Charles was sitting there in his gold costume holding these priceless items, plenty of families weren’t eating. It made me really angry.

I am tired of all the arguments for a royal family- how somehow these displays are quaint. Yesterday was an obscene display of wealth, inherited privilege and everything that’s wrong with this country. Seems a conversation about the royals is long overdue.

The royals’ wealth is irrelevant - if they’d paid for it themselves it would have been obscene but at least it wouldn’t have cost the taxpayers.

But we paid for it. Their wealth doesn’t even come into it.

urgh. I get so angry when I see them too. Did you see the article about the £12k party Liz and friends charged to expenses? The one where her party stole a bunch of stuff from the hotel (£150 bathrobes, etc) and the housekeeping staff reported “white powder”? Not saying Liz Truss had a cocaine fuelled party involving guests naked in hotel bathrobes that she charged to expenses (so we taxpayers paid for it), but these are the images that come to mind (paraphrasing the journalist here).

It didn’t cost us taxpayers a penny. In fact the Government made a minimum of £800m on it.

Fucking hell

@TheColourofspring you haven’t explained how getting rid of the Royal family is going to get rid of poverty and inequality. And, as others have pointed out, there are countries with Royal families that are far more equal than the Republics you are obsessed with.

The second you told me to “f* off”, you showed exactly what kind of a person you are.

Absolutely agree - but having a Royal family that is hereditary certainly does not help and just because other countries have high inequalities and heads of state does not necessary mean that would happen here. We are a different country with a different history - so comparisons to other countries like that aren't really that useful.

We actually don't know what would happen if we removed our Royals? But it is definitely something that I believe needs discussion.

What?

If we didn't have Charles, why would we have Andrew? Are you assuming that Charles just "wasn't born"?

Becoming a Republic means holding an extra election every 4 or so years.

The US Presidential inauguration costs about 75M. Every 4 years.

We haven't had a Coronation for 70 years. The same places saying it will cost approx 250M, also say it will bring in 1B in revenue.

The cost of living crisis is due to electoral choices by the British electorate over the past 15 years. Stop blaming others - we need to take a long hard look at ourselves.

as many pp have said, the coronation was a fascinating piece of British history and culture. The priceless items are centuries old and nothing to do with modern day poverty.

the money spent on the event was mainly on staff plus opportunity cost to economy of a day off. That’s a nice thing for us as a nation to have ab extra day off. Again any link to poverty is tenuous.

It's not jealousy, it's outrage

I thought it was ill-judged. An over the top display of obscene wealth and unearned privilege.

For someone who is supposed to be modernising the monarchy, Charles has set it right back with that preposterous and meaningless display of indulgence. The congregation actually recited ‘May the king live forever!’ like he is some sort of deity. It’s ludicrous. He has just widened the chasm between his largely disrespected family and the nation.

I sincerely hope when it’s William’s turn that he reads the room. There is absolutely no need to have a coronation, and certainly not on that scale. We are the only country in Europe that still holds coronations. We need to be looking at how the Swedes or Danish do it.

@Dibblydoodahdah hmmm, so accusing me of no critical thinking is fine is it? You know nothing about me.

I sortof see where you're coming from OP but.... Kid's aren't starving and smelly because of the RF. They haven't had the slightest say about this for centuries. The government decide how wealth is dispersed and the public vote for the government. The RF could give away every penny of their wealth and there's still be people living in poverty. The elephant in the room is that the main reason for this is because a large proportion of our society have decided that this is ok. Overthrowing the RF won't change this it will simply eliminate a huge part of the country's history and heritage. It will also eliminate the revenue that the RF bring into the country's wealth. If you genuinely give a shit about poverty then challenging the RF is a pointless way of tackling it

The very rich will always be among us, OP - though unlike Charles many do much to deserve it - and taking it off them doesn't automatically mean the rest of us would be any better off

It's not the money but the principle of monarchy I object to; nevertheless it was still a historic occasion which I mildly enjoyed watching if only to see the pride of all the ordinary folk who'd put so much effort into it. I don't share their loyalties, but it was still good to see them make such a great job

54% 46% YANBU

Head of state or a political head of state?

Having an apolitical figure head for the country is eminently preferable to some politician feathering their own nest.

The USA is a perfect example. Trump and Biden again at the next election.
The whole thing driven by extreme wealth.
Macron is loathed but kept in place because the fascists are gaining ground in France. President Putin.... President Modi.....

I'd rather have the powerless Windsors. (Albeit a slimmed down tax paying version.)

Charles has just been crowned in his 70s, I'm sure you would be looking to retire by then. The queen worked pretty much until her death bed.

Which was the Queen's choice. A comparison with the Dutch Royals again - their Monarchs have had no problem abdicating when they know they are getting too old to fulfil their duties as well as they would like, and they know the heir is old enough to take over. But because we had a King abdicate in disgrace getting on for a Century ago, we must never do this. Yet we've even had a Pope abdicate, when he was supposed to have been appointed by God for life.

@TheColourofspring well it’s a fact that you haven’t explained the cost benefit of removing the Royal family. You also held up France to be a bastion of equality. I’m comfortable that these points show your lack of critical thinking.

There will NEVER be a "true meritocracy" anywhere. People with money will make sure of that.

Do you think our politicians are all there on merit? A few are, but most are there because they went to the "right" school, were shoehorned into the "right" universities, had parents with clout who got them started and funded their campaigns . . . and these are our "elected" politicians. (I put "elected" in inverted commas because were are steered towards a small pool which only has these few (often rotten) fish splashing about in it to make our choices from.)

What evidence do you have for any of this?

That's not necessarily the case the whole system would need a revamp - would take a lot of time I guess and some imagination. However, given how broken our election system is it might just re-engage people who feel politics does not work anymore.

And as I have said, the country is designed structurally to continually uphold inherited wealth and privileges- through the aristocracy too - it’s very far from a meritocracy and all those spouting the ‘we all have the same 24 hours’ tory crap know nothing of how generationally ingrained poverty is too. And I speak from experience of the Welsh valleys too.

Before I retired I worked in a political sciences dept and statistics are totally my jam today and not tomorrow.

I have seen this debate and similar debates played out many times over the years. What I’m actually interested in as the original poster has such strong republican beliefs is the original posters background. I’m interested how peoples journeys through life mean they reach the extreme ends of any political debate.

Taxpayers funded it. The amount the coronation adds to the economy is highly debatable given the it follows the jubilee and funeral in quick succession. (If that’s what you’re referring to - no idea where you got the 800 million figure).

No but as I said in another post a total revamp of the system might help to fix the system.. doing nothings seems worse in my opinion.