between here and forever by elizabeth scott

Some argue that it’s grotesque to spend millions on pomp and pageantry amid a cost-of-living crisis that has brought 10% inflation, driven thousands to food banks and triggered months of strikes by nurses, teachers and other workers seeking higher pay.Įven Charles' slimmed-down ceremony - with about 2,000 guests instead of the 8,000 who attended the queen’s coronation in 1953 - carries a big price tag for British taxpayers. While the BBC, Britain’s publicly owned national broadcaster, will offer wall-to-wall coronation coverage on Saturday, rival Channel 4 offers an alternative schedule including a musical about disgraced royal Prince Andrew, irreverent sitcom “The Windsors” and documentary “Farewell to the Monarchy.”

General manager Nick Toner said that the event is for people who “don’t want to sit through hours of footage of ceremonies, carriages and endless Union Jacks, perhaps because they think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money or even just plain old boring.” London’s Newington Green Meeting House, a gathering place for religious dissenters and radicals for 300 years, is holding an “alternative community party,” complete with food, drink and “radical and republican” music. Some will attend alternative events, including a gig in Glasgow by tribute band the Scottish Sex Pistols, recapturing the spirit of punks who sang “God save the queen, the fascist regime” during the late queen’s 1977 silver jubilee. Tens of thousands will line the streets, and neighborhoods across the country will hold parties.īut millions more will ignore the ceremonies. Millions in Britain will watch broadcasts when Charles is crowned in Westminster Abbey. “People are quite happy to criticize Charles in a way they weren’t willing to necessarily in public about the queen.” “I think it’s definitely shifting,” said Smith, whose group wants to replace the monarch with an elected head of state. In a recent study by the National Center for Social Research, just 29% of respondents thought the monarchy was “very important” – the lowest level in the center’s 40 years of research on the subject. Opinion polls suggest opposition and apathy to the monarchy are both growing. Charles is another matter, a 74-year-old whose family feuds and firm opinions on everything from architecture to the environment have been headline fodder for decades. Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne, was widely respected because of her longevity and sense of duty.

Between here and forever by elizabeth scott