What if it rains? A Londoner knows it, even if the sun is shining, you never leave the house without an umbrella. And now that May 6 is upon us, even the weather forecasts leave little hope: the coronation of King Charles III could be wet. At Buckingham Palace they therefore dusted off plan B. The one that provides for the parade of the Royal Carriage in the rain and particularly skilled agents to juggle a forest of umbrellas. Someone in the tabloids headlined “It’s Meghan’s curse”. Even if one would say the duchess likes to win easy given that in London it rains every other day. Among the other curiosities unsheathed by the English newspapers is that Harry’s wife has declared that she will not even follow the ceremony on TV: officially due to the time difference. And then because she will dedicate the whole day to little Archie’s birthday, who will turn 4 that very day.
The Commonwealth Natives Letter
Meanwhile, the closer the solemn ceremony approaches, the more requests for King Charles III flock, including political ones. Ahead of the coronation, indigenous leaders across the Commonwealth wrote a letter asking King Charles III to issue a formal apology for the effects of English colonisation. The immediate launch of a process of restorative justice with reparations that redistribute the wealth of the British crown and that artifacts and human remains are returned. The Guardian writes it. The letter, entitled “Apology, reparation and repatriation of artifacts and remains”, was signed by representatives of Antigua and Barbuda, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. “We, the undersigned, call on the British Monarch, King Charles III, on the date of his coronation to recognize the horrific impact and legacy of the genocide and colonization of indigenous enslaved peoples,” the letter to the King reads. The signatories call on the monarch to immediately commit to discussing reparations for “the oppression of our peoples, the plundering of our resources, the denigration of our culture and to redistribute the wealth on which the crown rests to the peoples from whom it was stolen ».
The security operation
Tom Tugendhat, deputy interior minister and head of national security in Rishi Sunak’s Tory government, says he is confident that the intelligence and surveillance apparatus set up for Saturday will be able to “deal with the challenges we are aware of”: to protect both the royalty and the procession that will accompany the historic golden carriage on Saturday with Carlo and Camilla on board along the palace-abbey journey between wings of subjects and onlookers; and the other people present, starting with the 2000 guests of honor invited among British dignitaries and leaders, crowned heads or foreign representatives, among whom will be President Sergio Mattarella for Italy and First Lady Jill Biden for the USA . According to the media, up to 29,000 police officers will be mobilized throughout London on the key day of the celebrations alone. Imposing array that adds to the barriers erected for a week around the Windsor house citadel, where last night the coronation carriage paraded along the route with military units on parade in a final dress rehearsal. The efforts of the court and of the new sovereign to give a tone as inclusive, modern, democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional as possible to a ceremonial whose last precedent dates back to 7 decades ago, on the other hand, cannot erase all the shadows that hover in the Today’s reign on King Charles’ Great Day. Tarnished not only by scandals or family diatribes, but above all by the proliferation of polls that currently attribute popularity to the recent historic lows for the monarchical institution: directly contested by minority pockets of republican activists, but viewed with indifference or growing disaffection – also due to the controversy over its costs, in times of heavy economic crisis for so many ordinary people – from large sectors of society. And by a clear majority of subjects of the younger generation. Reality testified by the partially boomerang effect of the attempt evoked by the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to involve in the oath of loyalty to the monarch – once exclusive to aristocrats – all ordinary British and Commonwealth citizens “who want to do so” by assisting at the coronation on live TV. Or again from the new protests organized on Saturday, with 1,700 attendances announced so far, by the militant anti-monarchist fringe of Graham Smith’s Republic movement, under the banner of the slogan “Not my King”. Protests confined to some distance, Deputy Minister Tugendhat reiterated, assuring respect for the right to dissent, not the right “to hinder” the ceremonies: under penalty of the application of the new draconian legal sanctions (including arrest) established by the Public Order Bill. According to a warning branded by the irreducible Smith as one more “intimidation” to challenge.