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The royal family

The lack of enthusiasm for the Coronation

756 replies

MamoruHisaishi · 02/05/2023 12:53

I know this is shallow but I think part of the reason why people aren't enthusiastic about Charles’ coronation is that neither he nor Camilla have movie star good looks plus they're both in their 70s. I bet if both were in their 30s or even 40s, and Charles looked like Pierce Brosnan and Camilla looked like Angelina Jolie, they would have the world fawning over them and their Coronation.

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Blossomtoes · 05/05/2023 22:36

Not here, they’re not. The M&S foodhall looked like a swarm of locusts had passed over it and you can’t move for flags and bunting. It all looks very pretty.

AskMeMore · 05/05/2023 22:38

@Blossomtoes The M and S foodhall always looks like that before a bank holiday. You said before though that there is loads of bunting where you are and I asked where that was.

mixedrecycling · 05/05/2023 22:39

Roussette · 05/05/2023 21:54

We have no choice. It's everywhere

And yet so many have posted here saying no-one they know is interested going to watch it...

AskMeMore · 05/05/2023 22:40

@mixedrecycling I haven't. I have said most people I have spoken to said they might watch it for a bit if it is a rainy day as predicted. But if the weather is good, they are heading out for the day.

Blossomtoes · 05/05/2023 22:43

AskMeMore · 05/05/2023 22:38

@Blossomtoes The M and S foodhall always looks like that before a bank holiday. You said before though that there is loads of bunting where you are and I asked where that was.

Cambridgeshire.

mixedrecycling · 05/05/2023 23:06

I don't have paid for streaming services, but even with the standard UK options of BBC iplayer and the ITV and Channel 4 equivalents, there are hundreds of things to watch or listen to that don't involve the coronation.

It depends on your media habits, I suppose, but apart from MN - especially the RF board, strangely! - it has been quite easy to avoid the coronation. The current headlines I'm seeing in my usual media outlets are the results of the local elections.

Although I did notice bunting going up in front of various houses in our street this afternoon. And someone set off some fireworks this evening which scared the dog - but we're in quite a diverse area so in one way or another fireworks aren't that unusual. We've recently had a burst of firework activity for Eid, for example. I assume last night's were for the coronation, but maybe it was for something else.

So I've found it quite easy to ignore when I'm not interested. It probably helps to avoid tabloids.

JaneyGee · 05/05/2023 23:23

I just find the whole thing embarrassing, frankly. It makes me cringe. My national pride revolves around our culture, not the royals. I'm proud of our literary heritage (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Virginia Woolf, etc), our ancient universities, and our science (Newton, Darwin, Hawking, etc).

I work in a university and, over the years, have met several anglophile American professors. None of them were interested in the royals. They loved Britain because they could walk round Cambridge and see where DNA was discovered, or visit Shakespeare's birth place, or go to the Oxford pub where Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, or walk the hills that inspired Wordsworth's poetry. It's the cultural richness that draws people to this island. That's what we should celebrate. We make too much of the royals and not enough of the things that are worth celebrating.

When I walk around Cambridge, for example, it gives me such a thrill to think that this is the place where Darwin, Newton, Nabokov, Wittgenstein, Byron, Milton and Bertrand Russell all studied. And that's just one small town. Given that, why would I take any pride in a vulgar, ignorant little oaf like Prince Harry? He's nothing but a yob with a posh accent. I'd rather spend the coronation money restoring our cathedrals.

adarkbarking · 05/05/2023 23:32

I don't have a TV, and last watched it about 20 years ago. I don't do social media other than MN. I do subscribe to three online newspapers, though, and listen to R4, so I am very well aware of the Coronation as a matter of historical interest, but will not be watching it or paying any particular attention to it, as my life does not involve staring at any kind of screen. I'll just go about my business as normal tomorrow. I have no particular feelings about the Royal Family so I won't be avoiding it, but I won't be seeking it out either.

Morestrangerthings · 06/05/2023 00:44

derxa · 05/05/2023 21:07

What H&M have got to do with it I don't know. The Middletons will be fine but people they employ may lose their jobs

Yes, awful that people may lose their jobs.

But derxa, Rousette has a point. If it was Meghan's mother there would be multiple threads on here about it, with all sorts of fabricated stories, often originating from Twitter or Reddit.

CallieQ · 06/05/2023 00:45

MamoruHisaishi · 02/05/2023 12:53

I know this is shallow but I think part of the reason why people aren't enthusiastic about Charles’ coronation is that neither he nor Camilla have movie star good looks plus they're both in their 70s. I bet if both were in their 30s or even 40s, and Charles looked like Pierce Brosnan and Camilla looked like Angelina Jolie, they would have the world fawning over them and their Coronation.

Rubbish

Flappingtarps · 06/05/2023 06:52

JaneyGee · 05/05/2023 23:23

I just find the whole thing embarrassing, frankly. It makes me cringe. My national pride revolves around our culture, not the royals. I'm proud of our literary heritage (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Virginia Woolf, etc), our ancient universities, and our science (Newton, Darwin, Hawking, etc).

I work in a university and, over the years, have met several anglophile American professors. None of them were interested in the royals. They loved Britain because they could walk round Cambridge and see where DNA was discovered, or visit Shakespeare's birth place, or go to the Oxford pub where Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, or walk the hills that inspired Wordsworth's poetry. It's the cultural richness that draws people to this island. That's what we should celebrate. We make too much of the royals and not enough of the things that are worth celebrating.

When I walk around Cambridge, for example, it gives me such a thrill to think that this is the place where Darwin, Newton, Nabokov, Wittgenstein, Byron, Milton and Bertrand Russell all studied. And that's just one small town. Given that, why would I take any pride in a vulgar, ignorant little oaf like Prince Harry? He's nothing but a yob with a posh accent. I'd rather spend the coronation money restoring our cathedrals.

Well said JaneyGee and there has been such an assault on the arts in this country too, now everyone is being encouraged to study STEM subjects.

I wish just a paltry million or two from the many being spent on the coronation would go to fund violin and art lessons in deprived areas of Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland for example. Wouldn't that be a better legacy than TV rights?

Flappingtarps · 06/05/2023 06:54

I disagree with your assessment of Harry though. He may not be academically bright but he's good at his charity work and he's obviously troubled. I suspect he may have covered up far worse things than he has revealed to date.

vera99 · 06/05/2023 07:02

Just one public screen in the whole of Wales in Cardiff. Says it all really, and we have the Prince and Princess of Wales.

We got up early ummed and aaahed after watching Sky News but 2 drops 90% on Met Office forecast 1 all the way to 5. So we are staying at home. Shame if the weather was good we would have been up for party in the town - coronation or no and we're just a 5-minute walk to the station then 40 minutes to Waterloo.

vera99 · 06/05/2023 07:10

Flappingtarps · 06/05/2023 06:52

Well said JaneyGee and there has been such an assault on the arts in this country too, now everyone is being encouraged to study STEM subjects.

I wish just a paltry million or two from the many being spent on the coronation would go to fund violin and art lessons in deprived areas of Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland for example. Wouldn't that be a better legacy than TV rights?

The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has released the official poem

An Unexpected Guest
by Simon Armitage - featuring Samuel Pepys

She’s treated herself to new shoes, a window seat
on the fast train, a hotel for a night.
She’s been to the capital twice before,
once to see Tutankhamun when she was nine
and once when it rained. Crossing The Mall
she’s just a person like everyone else
but her hand keeps checking the invitation,
her thumb strumming the gilded edge of the card,
her finger tracing the thread of embossed leaves.
In sight of the great porch she can’t believe
the police just step aside, that doors shaped
for God and giants should open to let her in.
*
She’s taken her place with ambulance drivers
and nurses and carers and charity workers,
a man who alchemised hand sanitiser
from gin, a woman who walked for sponsored miles,
the boy in the tent. The heads of heads of state
float down the aisle, she knows the names
of seven or eight. But the music’s the thing:
a choir transmuting psalms into sonorous light,
the cavernous sleepwalking dreams
of the organ making the air vibrate,
chords coming up through the soles of her feet.
Somewhere further along and deeper in
there are golden and sacred things going on:
glimpses of crimson, flashes of jewels
like flames, high priests in their best bling,
the solemn wording of incantations and spells,
till the part where promise and prayer become fused:
the moment is struck, a pact is sworn.
*
And got to the abby . . . raised in the middle . . .
Bishops in cloth-of-gold Copes . . .
nobility all in their parliament-robes . . .
The Crowne being put on his head
a great shout begun. And he came forth . . .
taking the oath . . . And Bishops . . . kneeled
. . . and proclaimed . . . if any could show
any reason why Ch. . . . should not be the King . . .
that now he should come and speak . . .
The ground covered with blue cloth . . .
And the King came in with his Crowne . . .
and mond . . . and his sceptre in hand . . .
*
She’ll watch it again on the ten o’clock news
from the armchair throne in her living room:
did the cameras notice her coral pink hat
or her best coat pinned with the hero’s medal she got
for being herself? The invitation is propped
on the mantelpiece by the carriage clock.
She adorned the day with ordinariness;
she is blessed to have brought the extraordinary home.
And now she’ll remember the house sparrow
she thought she’d seen in the abbey roof
arcing from eave to eave, beyond and above.

Redlarge · 06/05/2023 07:19

I dont know anyone in my social circle or workplace that cares/will be celebrating.

Serenster · 06/05/2023 07:19

Just one public screen in the whole of Wales in Cardiff. Says it all really, and we have the Prince and Princess of Wales

I do love your attempts to spin everything as negativity as possible, Vera, you really should be in party politics. 🤣 There was only one public screen in Cardiff for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee too. And we had a Prince of Wales then, as well.

vera99 · 06/05/2023 07:23

Serenster · 06/05/2023 07:19

Just one public screen in the whole of Wales in Cardiff. Says it all really, and we have the Prince and Princess of Wales

I do love your attempts to spin everything as negativity as possible, Vera, you really should be in party politics. 🤣 There was only one public screen in Cardiff for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee too. And we had a Prince of Wales then, as well.

That made me laugh - I am the Princess of Wails....

CoronationKicking · 06/05/2023 07:41

"I dont know anyone in my social circle or workplace that cares/will be celebrating."

The arrogance of statements like this. How do you know they just haven't told you? I'm having a party at home with family today, I haven't told anyone at work or any of my "social circle". Why the fuck would I?

Boudicasbeard · 06/05/2023 07:46

It depends on where you live.

My rural village is full of bunting and is having a street party. There is lots of enthusiasm.

But people do seem to be embarrassed to like the royals these days. Mainly because rid you say you do then some wanker starts ranting about why that makes you a bad person.

All that does is make the support for the royal family less easy to see in day to day conversation. I think Republic would have a shock if they tried to push forward with a referendum.

Morestrangerthings · 06/05/2023 07:47

I just heard on my country's public tv channel, that King Charles is backing away (sort of) from the oath of allegiance. Apparently it was pushed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Charles is embarrassed.

KingSpaniel · 06/05/2023 07:50

@Morestrangerthings this is classic damage limitation. There’s no way it wasn’t approved by Charles but I would imagine the deluded arsehole thought everyone would think it was a splendid idea - he’d have been horrified by the public backlash and Welby has been chosen as a convenient scapegoat to take the blame.

Morestrangerthings · 06/05/2023 08:12

yes, I figured as much.

I find it quite amusing that the talking heads on my tv said this with a straight face.

vera99 · 06/05/2023 08:36

A small peaceful protest Republic has been arrested, and their placards confiscated after spending weeks liaising with the police. So much for fucking free speech and the right to protest. Very angry #notmyking

https://twitter.com/search?q=republic%20arrested&src=typed_query

The lack of enthusiasm for the Coronation
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