Post-Coronation Thoughts
The coronation of King Charles came around as an event where people’s reactions to it alone can tell us a lot about people’s childhoods and backgrounds. Some people have been unhappy. No other word for it. Just unhappy about the expense that has gone into the Coronation at this rather inopportune moment.
Where people are struggling to pay their bills, there also exists a family that in this day and age claims to be ‘anointed’ as the UK’s monarch and guiding force. Although, of course, they don’t actually guide. They have a veto that hasn’t been used for hundreds of years so it does beg the question- what does the Royal Family do, really? The question even came up when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne but she was largely viewed as a harmless, old lady. Her birthday and Platinum Jubilee were celebrated in grandeur and no protests- that I know of. But, of course, in her absence, the role and relevance of King Charles have come into question and understandably so.
I came across someone who pointed out that should the Royal Veto ever be used, the result could be chaos. In a democratic country and under circumstances where people are more and more resentful of being told by those in power that their lives will not be made easier, a leader exercising generational power and wealth would probably not be very well received. But I still fail to understand how the Royal Family can continue to justify their existence. Will the House of Windsor cease to exist now, after the reign of Charles, or perhaps even during it? Will Young George even see the crown jewels on his head?
People’s reactions have been eye-opening. I was at a Coronation Day Tea Party organised by Oxbridge alums. Naturally, it was going to be posh and festive. A majority of British Prime Ministers are Oxbridge graduates. Rishi Sunak even studied PPE at Oxford.
Where did I stand on the Coronation? Well, I was at the tea so I was clearly not disgusted by it, unlike some others, who could not stand the fact that against the backdrop of their cost-of-living crisis, £100 million was being spent on a leader with no real power (except perhaps blowing up the EU should he fancy it). It is all justified.
At the end of the day, however, ceremonies like the Coronation or the President’s Inauguration in the US are exercises in diplomacy and peace-keeping, relationship-building. Could the Coronation have been less extravagant? Perhaps. Nobody knows the cost breakdown, except for Jeremy Hunt and his peers, maybe. I personally feel a concert might have been unnecessary. Katy Perry did look ill-placed in Westminster Abbey.
I also think that many times, how things currently are is the most stable status quo. Is abolishing the monarchy the answer? Maybe. Maybe not. The immediate impact of the abolition of the monarchy could be disastrous. Chaos everywhere. Stock markets collapsing. And where does it stop? The King gets overthrown. What’s next? Rishi Sunak ousted? There’s just no telling.
No form of government is ever ideal and no form of government follows an ideology 100%. People often defer to communism and how the ideology is iron-clad and the answer to the failures of capitalism. The answer to the failure of capitalism is accountability. Politicians should, on paper, be accountable to the people of a country. But in the real world that does not work. Politicians will still act based on their own personal interest.
The sad answer is that some people will be unhappy and some people will be happy and all we can do is work hard and do what we can in this dog-eat-dog world.
