The coronation of Charles III is said to cost £100 million. cost – money that should be used for other purposes, say critics. The already wide social gap has recently even grown.
Rehearsals are currently in progress at night. On the Mall – the boulevard in front of Buckingham Palace – people ride, march and play music. Because the countdown is on.
To crown it all, the British royal family will display all their splendor: golden carriages, jewels, thrones, the finest robes. Not everything belongs to the royals personally, but a lot does.
The newspaper “The Guardian” has in a major investigative research tracked down the king’s property and estimates his private wealth at £1.8 billion. Estates, real estate, jewels, art, horses, cars, capital investments: a lot comes together.
Nevertheless, even in this price range, the king still has plenty of company. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, there are currently 177 billionaires in the UK. Their wealth is said to have grown by almost £150 billion between 2020 and 2022 alone. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also one of the richest men in the country.
Charles is already crowned in this garland adorning a fence along the Coronation Route on the Mall.
cost of living extremely increased
At the same time, many Britons are taking to the streets out of desperation. In numerous sectors, employees have had to accept real income losses for years, and now they can no longer cope in view of the extremely high cost of living.
Monarchy critic Graham Smith, who heads campaign organization Republic, finds it unacceptable that an estimated £100m will be spent on the coronation.
The money could be used to help the homeless and the poor, he says. Instead it will now for one parade one spent man.
“It could get any of us”
“There are a lot of government workers struggling to get a raise,” says Smith. Hospitals are struggling to make ends meet, schools are struggling to provide resources for the children, he says. “100 million won’t get you very far, but it could still do a lot of good for a lot of people.”
At the same time, the Trussel Trust, which supports more than 1,200 panels across the country, is sounding the alarm. He has never given out as many food packages as in the past twelve months: it was almost three million – 37 percent more than the year before. Sharyn, a widow and mother in Cardiff, also depends on the board: “It’s shameful, sometimes degrading,” she says. “But where else should I go?”
The operator of the board talks about her observation on the BBC. “There has been a pretty big change,” she says. “What I’m noticing, apart from more people coming, is how many people are coming who have jobs. It could get any of us!” The Trussel Trust criticizes low incomes and a social system that does not do its job justice.