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’m sorry there isn’t anything here worth bothering to argue with.

At no point have I misrepresented the type of democracy in the UK.
At no point did I say manifestos were binding.
At no point did I say that individual taxpayers can ‘dictate’ the destination of their tax etc.

Then there’s a lot of inappropriate capitalisations, a poor grasp of French politics, and a ramble about violence.

In short, could do better.

Yes, exactly.

Yes exactly, and who would they sell this stuff too? It’s all individually “worth” tens of millions but who would buy it? Either a few random private individuals (probably from abroad and likely dubious characters… since who had the money or the inclination to buy “the orb” or the funny glove etc) who would be happy to display the pieces in their own homes or perhaps other states, who would probably not be the best countries to affiliate ourselves with.

The outcry would be huge. Effectively these are just historical / museum artefacts anyway and are, for the most part, displayed to the public for 99% of the year ANYWAY and they just come out for a parade around every now and then.

I think they should melt the coach down and give the money to charity for the poor .

For me, it's the fact that since the last coronation, our country has flourished into the multicultural nation it now is, and having a royal family who are head of the Anglican church with ceremonies so deep rooted in Christianity when only 15% of the population now identifying as Anglican (nearly half the population have no religion at all), the institution is no longer representative of what our nation is.

It costs £35 to look at the Crown Jewels now and there are around 15k visitors a day in the summer. That’s a lot of income to lose.

It’s a bit difficult to melt wood 😂

Totally support OP. It was distasteful and obsene - no one should curtsy to another human being in this day & age. They dont have to do a day's work in their lives, pampered and priviliged. And those who scream tradition - there were many traditions that dissapeared over the years, this one should be on its way out too. What really troubled me though were the arrests of peaceful protesters which happened to have a different opinion on monarchy. Not acceptable.

I agree. I don’t approve and Ive not watched.

It's gold leaf, you won't get much.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Am very happy that my council spent exactly £0 on anything coronation related. The volunteering actions today are the only part of this weekend I can agree with

Selling the Crown Jewells will not put food on your table, and is not the answer to the poor living conditions in certain areas of this Country, but not sure from your post on what you are expecting to happen

100% agree. Also the fact that they rushed through legislation to ban peaceful protest is worrying. Peaceful protests is a cornerstone of democracy and should not have been shut down.

If you're that jealous about driving around in a golden coach then work hard and buy one... or spend your time complaining. The choice is yours. Personally I have no interest in living their lifestyle at all, I am happy with mine that I have worked for.

I totally agree with you OP. Charles wanted a coronation rich with pomp and pageantry.....then HE should have paid for it. He's got enough money. I'd have more respect for the RF if they actually did something for people who have nothing. Someone here said people should wash their clothes in a river if they can't afford to at home....I mean what a thicko, ignorant and unfeeling comment.

And it didn't even seem to cross their mind that people could be down to their last school uniform, unable to buy replacements and during the winter months it's bloody difficult to get things dry, especially if you are hand washing things and you can't afford to heat your house

In other news I see at least two of the Commonwealth nations are getting increasingly discontented with their Head of State (links below)

I suppose that's what happens when the locals are so ambivalent that you need mummy to ask them to give you the job - or perhaps they're hoping to escape before anti-protest legislation lands on them too?

https://inews.co.uk/news/st-kitts-and-nevis-not-totally-free-king-charles-head-state-prime-minister-2325454

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65527160

So Republican countries don't have poverty then? Republican countries are sweet utopia.

It's history, don't like it don't watch it. Lots of whingers who moan about a ceremony that occurred last over 70 years ago and moan about a monarchy that spend time opening things, setting up charities, serving various causes. Do you whinge about footballers, pop stars, actors and actresses, presidents, formula 1 drivers, tennis players - they all have huge amounts of wealth.

No, NICRA was NOT due to any "hundreds of years of colonial oppression by the British" at all. It was simply not a factor in any of NICRAs material whatsoever.

The then Unionist Government, yes, where there was some discrimination up to a point. But not to the extent as claimed by Republicans.

And I say that as a Catholic from Northern Ireland myself.

The history of what happened with NICRA is more complicated than you make out here and it's accurate to say IRA did infiltrate NICRA. Their aim was to provoke constant confrontation with the RUC which wasn't what members of NICRA were after.

So much so that John Hume refused to attend the controversial march in 1968 and he also testified to the Saville Enquiry he tried to stop the march in 1972 that is known as Bloody Sunday.

Hume was the leader of the biggest Nationalist Party throughout the Troubles.

Hume absolutely knew that militant Republicans in the Official IRA and also People's Democracy were out to instigate violence.

I'd recommend you read "The IRA And Armed Struggle" by Rogelio Alonso if you can get a copy. Excellent, excellent book which talks about this little known aspect of PIRAs strategy amongst other things.

The Irish Peace Process website I linked? He's a lifelong repentant former member of PIRA who's been trying to make amends by helping correct the historical record. Very good source of information considering he was there for it personally.

Paisley was a firebrand who whipped up idiots up who went on to commit various crimes. And then distanced himself from them.

I'd recommend Professor Liam Kennedy's "Who Was Responsible For The Troubles?" book. Excellent academic work.

Back to my point which you've ignored....Danny The Red was involved in sparking the Troubles as explained in the Irish Peace Process website. It's extensive work.

So, my point is that people should not be so quick to urge British people to do as the French have done this year. The last time this was urged it did help spark the Troubles. Its one of the lesser known aspects of the Troubles.

According to that 66% of the population are happy with the status quo. Mr Gonsalves appears to have forgotten that Blair officially apologised for slavery and Britain’s part in it in 2007.

Charles wanted a coronation rich with pomp and pageantry.

No, he wanted a scaled-down one and that's what he got. It's a state occasion with certain rules and precedents, not a birthday party.

Where did I display sympathy for the royals?

I dislike the royals and I dislike people using the benefit system as a lifestyle choice, it isn’t either/or.

That may well be so, MissLucyEyelesbarrow, but all the same it seems an unfortunate time for Commonwealth leaders to be speaking out like this - at least from a monarchist POV. The discontent is nothing new, but it hardly adds lustre to the monarchy for it to be voiced quite so soon after the coronation

I think your hatred for the royals which are metaphorically the country's pets be in a gilded cage. If you took them away no more would be spent on the people who need it most it would be pocketed by the large portion of greedy political narcissistic doughnuts who seem to get into power no matter how blatant their greed, incompetent their actions or self serving they are.

Royals don't make Rules
(Tempted due to the tripe in politics now to ask could any system be worse old style monarchy or even communism are tempting)