Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have been aware that the coronation of the new king of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, King Charles III happened about two weeks ago on May 6th 2023. A truly global event, the one in which we have not seen happen for over 75 years since the late Queen’s coronation in 1952 at the dawn of the age of television. Even here in Cardiff, we saw a variety of celebrations from the ceremony in the castle, the huge drone lights show and even new postboxes in the city centre.
However, what has been a recurring theme alongside the coronation celebrations has been a wave of discontent seeping across the nation. Not only has this been from those opposed to the monarchy in general, but also largely apolitical citizens who are simply against the amount of money that has been spent on an event to crown a 73 year old king. Obviously there is no fault for being the longest heir apparent in British history, however it must be said that estimates by the Independent have put the UK government at spending between £50 to £150 million pounds on celebrating the coronation.
This is where the real problem begins as is it right that a country already deeply entrenched in over a decade’s worth of austerity measures, the long standing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, Brexit and not to even mention the cost of living crisis in turn caused by all three; spends so much on seemingly needless expenses?
On one hand you do have the argument that it is the Royal Family and the coronation is a historically significant event in UK history that requires money to be spent on it. Even looking at the last coronation in post-war Britain, incidentally another time where Britain was slowly getting back on its feet, the UK government still spent approximately £20 million pounds on celebrations (adjusted for inflation). Therefore, is it really that bad to spend money on a historic event that will increase people’s morale during this trying time?
Well, the problem arises when the King and Queen in their golden carriage, albeit another historical jewel, have to drive over streets with loosely covered potholes on the way to their grandiose ceremony. In addition to homeless people just streets away having to use the newspapers covering this event as bedding to make the cold concrete streets of Britain somewhat more bearable to sleep on. All this whilst councils are choosing to spend thousands each on the coronation and essential services are rotting away with underfunding.
Overall, the cost of coronation crisis is not really about the coronation itself, instead, it is about the current state of Britain we find ourselves in today. Although I believe that there would be protests regardless of our current economic situation, the coronation has come to epitomise the current widening class divide we are increasingly seeing in Britain. Put simply, if the UK government doesn’t want damning images of homeless people sleeping on the King’s newspaper coverage or the King driving over potholes, they should first go about actually fixing those underlying problems for the people of Britain. As putting a plaster over the wounds of Britain whilst the King is in town is just not fooling anybody.