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.

Someone told me a crown would clear the national debt.

Is this thread going in classics???!! 😂

@DownNative

I’m not expecting you to acknowledge the problems in your posts, you’re apparently unaware of them. I don’t know if you are genuinely unable to understand the points made or whether you simply misrepresent them.

Of course a change of government is different to determining where taxes go - what a ridiculous comment.

We don’t have the right to withhold funding - but we do have the right to determine and scrutinise where our taxes directed:

The budget is presented, examined and debated by parliament, and the finance bill is debated and scrutinised.

The government is answerable to the Commons Treasury Select Committee which examines the Treasury’s work. After each budget statement the Committee analyses the proposals and writes a report. Then there’s the Economic Affairs Committee in the HoL which scrutinises the finance bill.

Our elected representatives scrutinise the government’s tax and spending plans on our behalf to ensure our money is spent fairly and efficiently. The government cannot spend public money without our representatives’ agreement.

Further, the amount of public money spent by each government department has to be annually approved by the Commons. Special committees monitor how each department spends its money throughout the year - each department has a select committee of MPs whose role is to analyse that department’s work. They examine annual expenditure plans and flag concerns.

The PAC monitors public spending through the year. They have the power to investigate the efficiency of any department. They pursue any overspending annually and question those involved.

If a chancellor spectacularly fucks up a budget - he may have resign and take his PM down with him. I even have proof.

I've just read that the most expensive crown is valued around 4 billion pounds. Most of the Crown jewels are worth less than that.

3 months of EU 'subscription' was almost four billion pounds. Put it's into perspective, doesn't it? People were happy to chuck billions of pounds a year into that corrupt boys club, but still want to get rid of the Royal Family, that MAKES us money!

If we sold the most expensive one of our crowns, it would even touch the sides of the national debt. It's £2.3 trillion! £4 billion is 0.1739% of our national debt. A negligible amount. Selling the crown jewels is a stupid idea. As has been said, the revenue from ticket sales to view them brings in 100s of 1000s a year!

TYPO! if we sold our most expensive one of our crowns it WOULD NOT even touch the sides.

What I saw on Saturday was not personal wealth, but the State’s wealth. And I would rather that the UK was wealthy than not.

If we became a republic, the palaces would still exist, we’d still have military parades and the crown would be in a museum.

Yes, I’d be happy to be a Republic like France. Also, your figures are rubbish!

some articles on income generated by Royal Family
nb Investor Monitor article refers to figures from 2017

The coach js 260 years old… they didn’t buy it specially.
Most of the jewels and things were gifts from other world leaders.
They generate lots of money through tourism and also having a royal family means we are less likely to have to endure a dictatorship like some other countries.

I’m more annoyed about the government keep claiming expenses and pay rises to be honest… very distasteful when the rest of the country are struggling. Increasing the pension age etc when all prime ministers will be on that wage forever and will never need to worry about retirement !

Here’s another article from the Independent with more recent data
( apologies about the adverts, it’s just a quick screenshot )
This one backs up the PP quote of £2billion

having a royal family means we are less likely to have to endure a dictatorship like some other countries.

Why is that?

I agree with OP. The whole thing is obscene and makes my skin crawl.

And you don't think most of that income is from tourism to visit buildings etc? Which we could upkeep nicely without the royal family themselves. Do you think Charles and Camilla are doing tons of diy in the palace or something?

The Palace of Versailles has huge numbers of visitors despite the French having got rid of their monarchy.

I didn't watch it.

Someone explain the oven glove reference??!!

All I can say is, aside from your bad faith, THANK YOU for proving MY point entirely that it is the Government and our elected representatives who decide where our taxes go!

And not the taxpayer since we have no right to dictate that. None of us are involved in this process whatsoever.

Bravo! 👏 👏 👏

Enjoy the sunshine today, eh?

At one point in the ceremony he has a large glove place on his right hand which is aptly called the Coronation Glove. It looks like an oven glove beautifully embroidered. My most sinister takeaway from the ceremony which I watched in full was the kneeling of the Archbishop before the King which is a direct throwback to the power invested by Henry 8th in himself when he broke with the Catholic Church and with the power of the 'King of Kings' the Pope. In essence the Coronation imbues the King with the divine right to rule with the blessing of God who stands above the Church at its very head.

It represents the historic laundering and a theatrical legitimising of the spoils of power and if I was a true Christian following the message of Jesus, I would find an abomination. I do idly wonder if Charles believes all the symbolism and does indeed believe he has a power imbued by God.

I imagine the current evangelical Archbishop will have an elegant excuse for the whole thing probably revolving around community, dedication, service and that it is all symbolic rather than actual. Whatever it is I'm not buying it !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_glove

Well I read the link you posted vera99 about the Coronation Glove.

Very interesting, thanks.

But it doesn't say anything about Henry VIII and his setting himself up as head of the Church of England over the Pope. You seem to be inferring that is why the clergy kneel to the King, but in the article that you posted the kneeling in homage had been happening for centuries before Henry, so nothing to do with reformation.

Have you got confused?

doff their cap 😆🤣

Well, the notional 100 million would not go far in feeding the hungry. And it is notional since clerics, military etc. would have been paid for that day whatever they did. Additional costs presumably train fares for troops and fuel for planes. I thought the coronation was all a bit plain (though beautifully religious, we 'priested' our king and queen and used the Book of Common Prayer) and we could have done with a bit more pageantry during the service, so something of a disappointment (adult DD said she and her friends were bored as the service lacked any high points). You do know that the King hands over the Crown Estate (if you watched the Accession Council you would have seen him do so) to the state and then a little bit (currently 25% because Buckingham Palace - which belongs to the state and not the king - needs repairing) gets returned to pay for the working royals? The taxpayer usually only pays for security, which is needed for any head of state and their family. Coronations are rare and a wonderful advert for our country. Millions will have been made from it and more to come since it will encourage visitors. It is the state installing its head and it is quite reasonable for the state to pay for that - presidents do not pay for their inauguration. One gripe I do have, is that the BBC commentator did not seem to have realised the Queen had been anointed - bit of a gaffe not to mention this.

Furthermore, as all AofC knelt in homage to the monarch at their Coronations before Henry 8th, in the full knowledge of the Pope's and presumably with his full consent to it, were those Pope's not proper Christians?

Or indeed those kneeling AofC and assorted Clergymen?

If only they had had the benefit of your superior religious knowledge eh.

Oh dear gosh can you just imagine how vile the lead up to a referendum on the monarchy would actually be?

Funnily enough it's no more obligatory to behave in a vile manner than it is to curtsey. Admittedly some would carry on in their usual way flinging insults, but it's not as if there's no alternative

Not the glove bit - the kneeling takes place elsewhere and when I saw it I though hey up why is he doing that, so it's my spin. In the Thai monarchy (not a good example I know of an authoritarian state where lèse-majesté can get you 15 years in prison ) the King must bow down before the monk who represents the Buddha and his teachings.

It's long overdue to separate Church and State and remove the King as the head of the Church of England, but I imagine it’s regarded as a bit of a slippery slope that opens up a Pandora's box of examining legitimacy.

I'm with you OP.
Amazed at how many people fawn over the RF and think they are good value for money.

Brexit has had huge ongoing final implications and real acute effects on many millions of lives. The changing of the guard if we were to transition to a Republic (I would favour the last King to be the first President if they were willing) has far less implications other than how people feel about it all. Unless militant monarchists took to arms then it needn't be vile. We would even free the Windsors from an ongoing obligation to live in this goldfish bowl of constant scrutiny.

THIS! ^