And I watched a video yesterday that perfectly encapsulated everything that is wrong with Britain. The whole thing. A lifetime of systemic failure, of grotesque inequality, of ruling-class contempt disguised as concern, all of it distilled into a single glittering, nauseating image.
There he was. King Charles III. Dressed in his finest robes, the Imperial State Crown on his head (this is a solid gold construction studded with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and four rubies). The Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross contains the largest clear-cut diamond in the world, weighing in at 530 carats…was present but not in the shot. The crown jewels are estimated to be worth up to $8 billion in total. And this man, wearing a hat that could solve homelessness in London, who holds a stick that could fund the NHS for a year, draped in robes worth more than most people will earn in a thousand lifetimes, was telling the British people to ‘weather the storm’ of the cost of living crisis.
Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11612563
I think those robes, the crown, the Sceptre, they were all the Crown’s stuff - aka the Firm, the organization that is the English monarchy - and not his. They existed before him, they will exist after him, and his wearing them lays little claim of ownership past “work clothes” than a pilot can claim to own the plane he’s flying.
Yes, it’s a bad look. The guy at the bank denying loans wears a fancy suit. The lawyers in America fighting to deny healthcare wear amazing suits.
Would you have him sell the crown he doesn’t effectively own to throw money at a problem? Never go to the Louvre, or they’ll toss you out for yelling about how they should sell the art to pay for the French homeless.
In all this you forget: if the pilot sells his plane, if the Louvre sells some pricy paintings, if the Crown’s representative sells the work clothes he’s issued, who’s buying it? That guy, those people buying them, they’ve truly amassed a personal fortune to be able to buy something like that. It’s not work for them; it’s obscene decadence and greed.
THOSE are your villains. Taxation is how we get them to pay their share from here on in, like we did in the '40s through the '70s. And I think the max tax rate above 1mil gross takings every year should be a 101% tax rate: you’re paying everything you took and just a little bit more. Maybe take less. Maybe launch fewer rockets and buy a few less elections and pay to fix hunger and healthcare and all that instead.
Once he became king he does indeed own those things. Wild to suggest otherwise
Also I’m not going to explain how a publicly owned art museum is different than the crown of a monarch. Art was created and acquired by the state. To make that crown wealth was extracted on the back of slaves and colonies for generations
Fuck off cuck
The Sovereign runs the Firm and so could sell the trappings of royalty.
Those are also our villains. It’s not an either-or. The capitalist class and the vestigial feudal class run the United Kingdom, at the expense of the working class.
The capitalist class & nobility gave the working class temporary concessions out of fear of revolution, and they have since clawed those concessions back. They’re not going to pay more taxes without a threat, never mind relinquish power.
Speaking of his work clothes - any comments on the texture of his boots?
Bro he could have said that instead. He went out there in his expensive “work clothes” to tell people that he sees they are suffering and that they should deal with it. Instead of telling the governement to tax the people causing this problem, to rebalance the wealth of this nation a bit, he tells the people to suck it up.
Of course people are angry with him and the image he presents.
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