Severe warnings sent to opponents of Charles III’s coronation

A few days before the coronation of the British king Charles III, scheduled for May 6, a man was detained near Buckingham Palace after allegedly throwing ammunition into the palace grounds. Why not all residents of the United Kingdom are happy about the upcoming celebrations – let’s try to figure it out.

Police detained a suspicious person on Tuesday evening after he approached the gates of the Royal Palace in central London. The man was searched and a knife was found on him, but no firearms were found, the Metropolitan Police said. However, as a precautionary measure, the specialists who came to the rescue carried out a controlled explosion of the object thrown by this person. Law enforcement does not believe there was an attempted terrorist act and are currently looking into the suspect’s mental health history.

However, the incident has re-emerged the importance of security as the preparations for Saturday’s coronation in Operation Golden Ball are in full swing. Thousands of police officers come to London from all over the UK. Hundreds of officers will line up along the route to Westminster Abbey, while plainclothes policemen will be scattered among the crowd of onlookers and snipers will be stationed on rooftops.

While the coronation of Charles III is meant to be a symbol of unity and pride for the British people, not all British people share this patriotic spirit. Among the British there are many who openly protest against the monarchy and demand its abolition. There are those who doubt the personality and political role of the new monarch. And there are those who believe that the coronation is a wasteful and archaic spectacle in the current conditions of crisis and inequality.

One of the most active groups that opposes the coronation is called the “Republic”. This organization seeks to abolish the monarchy and replace the king with an elected head of state. It brings together about 100,000 members and supporters on social networks and plans to stage a mass demonstration on the day of the coronation under the slogan “Not my king.” The group claims the coronation festivities will cost £200m, better spent on education or health care.

It is the costly cost of a coronation that is perhaps most irritating to many Britons who do not share republican views. Persistently high inflation, years of wage stagnation and a sudden surge in energy prices have pushed millions of people in the United Kingdom to the brink of poverty.

There are many people who, after paying their bills, simply do not have money left to buy food. One has to go to food banks that offer free food, clothing, household items and other essentials to residents in financial difficulty. Some of these food banks, which first opened before the pandemic catered primarily to the homeless, are now increasingly targeting full-time workers who can’t make ends meet.

In recent months, a large wave of strikes has swept across the UK. Nurses, midwives, medical workers, university staff, train drivers and civil servants went on strike over wage disputes. Most public sector workers have been offered a 4% or 5% raise for the current fiscal year, well below the annual inflation rate, which has been above 10% for seven consecutive months. Food prices are rising at a particularly painful pace, with the cost of bread up 19.4% year-on-year in March.

And at the same time, the UK government is preparing to spend tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money on a lavish event in honor of King Charles III.

According to a YouGov poll a couple of weeks ago, more than half (51 percent) of Britons believe that a king’s coronation should not be funded by taxpayers. At the same time, almost a third of respondents (32%) believe that this is how it should be, while about 18% have not decided on their attitudes towards spending on the ceremony.

To the credit of Charles III, we note that the new king decided not to show off too much. However, it is still obvious that the event will cost a pretty penny. The coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 cost £20.5 million in today’s money, while the king’s grandfather George VI was crowned in 1937 for £24.8 million (in today’s dollars) – and that’s was the most expensive coronation in the last 300 years. But it is possible that even “modest” plans for the current coronation can outdo those figures.

Although there is speculation in the press that the cost of Charles III’s coronation will be significantly lower than the cost of his mother’s coronation. In any case, the ceremony will be smaller and more modest compared to the previous one. For example, the number of invited guests is limited. And besides, Charles III decided to abandon some of the traditional elements of the ceremony.

Be that as it may, the British government has declined to give figures on the cost of the coronation, but – according to British media – its cost could range from 50 to more than 100 million pounds. Probably, this is done so as not to cause additional irritation in society and not to strengthen the position of the Republicans.

And the authorities, apparently, are preparing for such a variant. Otherwise, why would the British government accelerate the adoption of a law on the suppression of protests on the eve of the coronation. Security Minister Tom Tugendhat defended the new laws, which provide for a 12-month jail term for protesters who block roads and a six-month jail term or an unlimited fine for anyone who blocks other people, objects or buildings. The police will also be able to stop and search protesters whom they suspect of intent on causing “riots”. The Minister assures that these laws, which give the police increased powers, are not directly related to the coronation.

However, official letters have already been sent to anti-monarchist activists planning to hold peaceful protests during the coronation warning against uncoordinated protests. According to some lawyers, sending such letters could be seen as an act of intimidation days before planned peaceful demonstrations in central London on the occasion of the coronation.