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 thought I was ok with it I like the history of it. But agree with op watching it I found it sickening.

Those over entitled little boys on the balcony smirking down at the flag waving serfs. It made me cringe. We saw South American friends last night who couldn’t believe it. “Where is your democracy” one said and I totally agreed.

Who are you going to sell it to? Elon Musk? Bill Gates? King of Saudi Arabia

@Dibblydoodahdah as I have said, they represent structural inequality

I found it to much.
If they had waited another year, he would of still been king.
The money spent by the government on a ceremony that helps no one but a wealthy family , in this climate of struggle and poverty, was just wrong!

And it is absolutely ennervatibg being exposed to it every day. Such relentless sourness. Why not, for oh, a minute or two a day, choose joy? I guess because some people only thrive on hate and resentment. And so love to parade it.

I get where you're coming from, but it's not either or though is it? We are still, relatively speaking, a rich country and the appalling conditions you're describing are the result of this government's choices and policies. Getting rid of the monarchy won't change that, but getting rid of the current government certainly will.

We didn't watch it because we were travelling but would have if we were at home.

I'm a bit torn on the monarchy too. One the one hand I don't think anyone should be unsackable, but on the other hand there is something to be said for a non political head of state, and for the continuity.

There is such a turnaround of Prime Ministers (and would be of Presidents) that it's not bad to have someone consistent.

And God help us if we had a Trump as head of state.

In terms of cost, yes, it will have been expensive but it ia one and done. And we already have the regalia in storage. Inaugurations are costly too and are every few years.

The Trussell Trust had a £16m deficit for the year end 2022. Their free reserve funds were £13m.

King Charles is worth £1.8 billion. He should/could have paid for the coronation himself.

The thing is, imagine we didn't have a royal family and the government said right, now, we are going to put this family at the top of the chain in this country, you're all going to be brainwashed by the media into loving them. We are going to give them absolutely loads of money and land, and quite a lot of castles and every now and again we will have some sort of multi million pounds ceremony for them which you'll pay for. They'll also be able to meddle in lawmaking and influence policies. A couple of them might or might not be very morally dubious. But some tourists might come to these celebrations, so you know, these very ordinary people will be good for the country.

We would all go... Er.... No thanks! How about we use that money to fund schools and healthcare for the good of everyone, and open all those castles up so people can actually see the history of the country in person instead of them being locked up to house a small handful of people a couple of times a year?

Getting rid of the royal family didn't do France's tourism much harm.

@midsomermurderess jesus fucking Christ. It’s quite hard to ‘choose joy’ when you can’t feed your kids.

Utterly entitled tone deaf post

Gosh, isn't it funny how differently we can view the same thing?

All I kept saying was how magnificent it was. How proud it made me. How well we do pomp and ceremony.

I loved every minute of it!

Out of interest how did your teens respond? Because both of my own and every single one of my friends teens were utterly disinterested and actually extremely negative. If their attitudes is mirrored across their generation the royal are utterly doomed.

The king or queen do fuck all beyond ceremonial duties and making sure that they’re exempt from any laws they don’t like.

So they are pointless IMO.

As for the Trump argument - that sounds like an argument against democracy not for the royal family.

@TheColourofspring you haven’t responded to how getting rid of them will harm the economy. And now you are mentioning France as the bastions of equality. Hilarious.

@VintageThoughts but it’s because I am a republican I guess. I don’t view the royals in the same way. I don’t want to flag wave (I am also Welsh so don’t relate to the Union Jack either) - I have a very different perspective.

People often talk about the French and how they riot when they don’t like something. And it’s because they are a socialist republic who removed their royal family- they won’t stand for inequality in the way the British do

Macron spent 25k on a personal make up artist for a 3 month period.
Ex presidents cost France millions to maintain with pensions and security.
The Presidency cost 105 million Euros in 2021 and it's escalating every year.

Nobody goes to France because of the incumbent president.
Millions come here because of the Windsor's soap opera.

Tourists? Charity? These are all things that would still happen without the royals.

I think even Charles gets the anti royal sentiment hence plans to slim down the monarchy.

Of course you are right. I think most people feel the same.

@Dibblydoodahdah i don’t think getting rid of them would harm the economy- has it harmed the French economy? Plenty of countries don’t have royal families or have slimmed down royals- what it would mean is a total shift in the structures of U.K. society and that is a good thing as at the moment the wealth is with the top few percent.

I watched with interest to begin with, but I'm from a former British colony (who still has Charles as our HoS) an I'm fully aware that the land I live on was invaded in the name of the British Government and Monarchy, and that there is yet to be an apology from the Monarch to the First Nations People, despite First Nations People asking for one a number of times from the late Queen, and now requesting one from the King.

Also, living in a land that is home to the oldest living civilisation on in the world -65,000 to 75,000 years old, (more than 6 times as old as the pyramids) - every time the bbc announcer and priests referred to 'ancient traditions' 'ancient spoons' ' ancient books', I winced. 1066 is a very long time ago, but hardly "ancient.' And not 10s of thousands of years of 'ancient.'

As I wrote elsewhere, the choir boy who spoke to Charles, and Penny Mordaunt who held that heavy sword so long, and so well, were good to watch. As was the Gospel Choir and much of the music -- when the announcers weren't talking over the top of it.

I'm not sure how you're concluding you're in a minority on here when there have been many many threads about this.

It's bread and circuses. Except the plebs don't even get the bread anymore. The ever growing social inequality in this country is a bloody disgrace.

You're not in a minority, really. Nor are you coming out with the edgy groundbreaking soundbites that you think you are.

I'd say MN demographics are definitely more republican than monarchist. Probably for slightly more intelligent and well thought out reasons than you not liking how much money they have.

Do you do much campaigning against poverty?

Sorry about my post, app quoted the wrong one. My response was supposed to be on the comment of selling the crown to wipe the national debt. Who would you sell it to, as the number of men who have that kind of money are thin in the ground? And why would any man want it? The only option would be the king of Saudi Arabia because he is a king so maybe could use a crown.

My 17 year old sat with me watching it and loved it.

But not many teens will be interested while they are teens. I know I wasn't, I couldn't care less. It was something I became more interested in as I got older.