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.

And how does that support your argument that the British Taxpayer has a say in where our taxes are spent?

It doesn't.

We elect MPs and they make decisions on our behalf. That's thr reality of the politics here and nothing you've said alters that or supports your own assertions.

But carry on with your Ad Hominem nonsense. No-one ever looks good doing that.

FFS…

The family, I'm sure, bow and curtsey to the King out of love and respect, as they did to QE.

No-one else has to. If people choose to, then that's up to them. Surely you wouldn't be in favour of forcing people not to do so if it's their choice?

What a ridiculous comment.

Oh what a relief. (Nice to occasionally find a fellow traveller posting on Mumsnet)
Yeah! If they were mega stars/huge talents in their own right I would probably understand it (great talent engenders awe etc). But what have these rich entitled, “titled people” done to deserve all this worship?!
I kept waiting for that small boy to point and shout and then for everyone start laughing, like in the Emperor’s New Clothes.

It's personal choice as to whether a person bows or curtsies to the Monarch or a HRH. It is not an expectation.

"There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms."

Indeed, some prefer to shake their hands instead as we saw at Hillsborough last year with no bow or curtsey.

So, it's not "all the time" either.

👍

Yup, the whole thing was an embarrassment. So many saddos adoring some twats who are given loads of our t ages because of who they happened to be born to.

I feel some people are missing the point with my bowing and curtesy-ing comment. It’s not about whether people want to do it or not - I appreciate it’s optional. It’s about why would anyone think they are so much better than someone else that they accept they might be bowed/curtseyed to?!? Are they superior people? Why?

Only sycophantic members of the public actually want to do so, as far as I;m concerned. Just. My. Opinion.
It is a very weird thing to do. C&C are just another human being. Not a dear leader, not a god or a deity, not a ruler... just a human being on this earth, same as us.

I show respect to people I admire. But not by making myself servile and beneath them.

As for members of the actual family who know C&C, who chat to them, who have a cup of tea with them... to curtsey is ridiculous, and doing it out of love, even worse! Up to them of course, but I can find it very very odd.

😉

From reading this thread I don't actually think you're in a minority either 🤷‍♀️

Exactly! I would be mortified if someone thought I was so much better than them they had to bow and curtsey and act like they are beneath me.

Surely if the RF thought they were better they would insist on others bowing etc. But they don't.

'doing it out of love, even worse!'

Why?

I know several German and Austrian families where grandparents are met with a quick bow of the head (and they're not aristocrats by any means !) Done from a place of love and respect.

Would you think them 'very, very odd' too?

@Coxspurplepippin Surely if the RF thought they were better they would insist on others bowing etc. But they don't.

But the RF let/accept people do it to them! Ergo, they obviously feel worthy of it. Otherwise, they would surely have put a stop to it years ago?

I am German and it isn't common at all to bow your head to your grandparents.

I've lived in Germany for over two decades and have never seen it happening.

This seems to be a thing of former times (maybe 1920s?), but it's not part of modern-day Germany.

They did put a stop to it - it's there in black and white that it's unnecessary. Blaming the RF because someone chooses to bow to them seems a bit odd

Yes.

If I met someone I had huge respect for (there's lots out there), it would be a firm handshake and a warm smile from me.
Not a bending of the knee, bowing my head, showing my servility.

I didn’t attack you personally, just highlighted the considerable problems with your posts.

The taxpayers vote in the representatives that align with the level of taxation they want snd the policies they want that tax spent on. And if they’re not happy with that representation they vote them out.

Taxpayers have thus recently voted in successive Tory governments, including red wall voters who have never voted Tory before, because they wanted £££ billions directed Brexit. Brexit is the single biggest waste of funds of last 50 years and it was all taxpayer directed.

The Labour landslide victory of 1997 followed 15 years or so of Tory governments that starved public services including transport, NHS and education to name but a few. Voters were over low taxes + low level of public services as well as the corruption and cronyism of the Tories. Voters philosophised that if they paid a bit more in tax, they would get more for their money. Thus Labour won over sufficient floating voters and Tories to win an election promising greater investment in all those areas. That investment duly followed, and transport, NHS waiting times and funding for education improved noticeably.

It has absolutely nothing to do with servility.

@Roussette Exactly! I take my hat off to you (in a non-servile way!)😉

If only tax payers (56% of the population ) pay for the coronation it works out at just over £3 per tax payer.

I don’t think it does either. If it did it wouldn’t happen within the family. I found the Princess Royal curtsying at her mother’s coffin very moving. It was a gesture of great respect.

I do think it is very different at a funeral so I get what you're saying.

People bow their heads (and used to take their hats off) when a funeral cortege passed. A solemn moment.

Not really.
Only 20% of the population actually pay more in to the tax system than they get out ( ie in other benefits for housing or UC and so on ).