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.

I don’t care about the RF being wealthy. I care about U.K. taxpayer funding their coronations.

The reality is though that we U.K. taxpayers profited from the Coronation. We made money off the backs of the RF. Now will the Tories spend those profits on the most needy? Hell no.

Sometimes republicans on these threads put forward the idea of, to keep the costs down, not having a separate HOS and head of government. No-one knows what an elected HOS in the UK would look like so it's perfectly conceivable it could be similar to the US version.

I'm with you OP.
What's the legitimacy of the RF? Divine will?
Even the Pope gets elected...
How is the RF compatible with a modern democracy?
If Charles had died before William was born, Andrew would be king. Isn't that scary enough?

It's interesting to read all these comments bashing poor people.
The Tories really have done a great job making people hate on poor people.

It's worth reading the cover story in The Continent. The rest of the paper too!
Here's the cover itself.

Not necessarily, can't imagine why?

Surely we'd look to other European countries that manage quite nicely. Not the US.

That article @Stravaig

I am glad the 734ct diamond in Charles's crown was mentioned. The Star of Africa and Africa want it back. It was passed to the Monarchy whilst under our colonial rule.

<facefuckingpalm> it wouldn’t be similar to the US version because the US version is head of the government and the cost is part and parcel of the vastly expensive US political system!

The closest comparison would be the president of RoI. The 2018 evening state reception and inauguration buffet cost €100,000.

@Stravaig that’s really interesting incl the bit about plundered gold & diamonds. People like to sweep colonialism & slavery under the carpet- it’s happened in this this thread too- its easier to accuse people of jealousy of their wealth than to acknowledge that a lot of their wealth comes at the expense of other countries that the Brits plundered. The Uni I work at has started decolonising the curriculum - sometimes I think the U.K. could do with doing the same!

Again there will be people come along and scream at me that it’s all ok and there’s no problem!

@TheColourofspring
Yes there's a lot of attempting to shut down debate

• Trump will be the president
• you are just jealous
• give your money away

It doesn't help the royalist cause that they can't muster an argument

This, along with how exhausting it is to see negative observations on social media. Give me a break.

If will be impossible to brush the RF’s involvement in the slave trade under the carpet forever. The Duke of York’s Royal African Company was set up in 1660 and traded slaves internationally until 1730.

I can't imagine bowing or curtsying to anyone. It seems a bit mad to me.
Nobody is better than me to the point that I'd bow to them.
I've grown up in a Republic though.

I'd vote to abolish the monarchy and I haven't read a single post on any threads over the last 2 days which would change my mind.

Despite the daft whataboutery (HS2 on this one ??) from the usual cap doffers that always post repeatedly while laughing hysterically for some reason.

I see the vote here is now 54% OP not unreasonable. I'd say this reflects the views of the folks i know irl.

@Mirabai yes it’s convenient teaching of history I think!

Uni’s can recolonise their curriculum as they have control over what and how they teach- school curriculum is so heavily influenced by government agendas etc that I can’t see the curriculum being decolonised!

*that should read Decolonise not recolonise 😅

Given our rivers and seas have record levels of pollution and sewage, I do not recommend this as a solution 🙄

I don’t think so. I just think they see the royals as irrelevant. Their day to day lives preoccupy them much more: peers, study, future plans etc. Maybe the selfish teen world view?

Even without a current royal family we would still have all the history. Abolishing the monarchy wouldn’t be “throwing away history” as history would still be there….

France doesn’t have a royal family but we can all enjoy the history by walking around Versailles and imagining Marie Antoinette.

There is no need for the living (and slightly disappointing) example of history to be trotting about today asking us to swear fealty to it. Especially when you face the reality of ppeople like Prince Andrew.

The UK would still attract all the tourists to the castles and palaces without there being a current royal family. If anything, if it was consigned to history it might actually be better and more fun as people could wistfully imagine the olden times without seeing the reality.

Besides, if we were truly keeping to history, there is basically no chance that this particular line of succession would have been continued this long - at some point a distance cousin or like, Spain, would have beheaded one of the line of Hanover and we would have had a totally different royal family by now!

Once all the oldies die off, I doubt anyone will care very much. I can’t see this being particularly relevant past Kate & Wills -
I predict that we have an elected head of state by the time Prince George is to be king.

Really? Should it have been six hours long with more gold and jewels?!

My DCs in their 30s and their partners are literally totally disinterested on the verge of being Republican. The RF means nothing to them and they don't get that from me, they are very forceful in their opinions whether they align with mine or not!

Well we bring our kids up to think for themselves. And then they definitely do!

Oh yes! We have heated discussions at times!

I enjoy them on the whole. Although one of the DCs is very forthright on her opinion... too much so, bless !

Imagine how much long term financial gain could be had if they turned Buckingham Palace into a luxury hotel!

People would pay thousands per night to sleep in the same room as royals once did.

@Novella4 and yea, I was told that I wasn’t critical thinking enough in my argument but I haven’t seen many arguments making a strong case for the monarch either to be honest!