The coronation will highlight the worst parts of our outdated monarchy

Or at least that’s what you’d believe from the mainstream British media.

Of course, the reality is that the majority of Brits – and indeed an even bigger majority of Scots – couldn’t care less about this nonsense pantomime. A recent YouGov poll found that 64% of Brits don’t care about the coronation, and that increases to 72% among Scottish respondents. So while this weekend may well be a delightful celebration of British patriotism for a small group of the population in deepest, darkest Englandshire, the overwhelming feeling towards this week’s festivities appears to be apathy.

I must confess that I don’t fall into that apathetic category. Rather my feeling is one of anger and frustration – not just towards the undemocratic injustice that is the monarchy itself, but also towards the remarkably blatant propaganda machine of the British state.

The monarchy is by any objective measure a controversial issue. The aforementioned YouGov poll found that 40% of Scots believe we should be able to choose our head of state, but you certainly wouldn’t believe it from the mainstream media’s coverage.

One of the most successful scams in the UK is this idea that the monarchy is an apolitical institution. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. When Elizabeth Windsor was queen, she repeatedly used her privilege to successfully lobby both UK and Scottish governments, such as the time she bagged herself an exemption to laws designed to reduce carbon emissions, or when she attempted to take £60 million of grants from a state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace.

Or indeed take Philip Mountbatten, the late “Duke of Edinburgh” whose repulsive views on race, women and pretty much any minority were closer to those of a Britain First rally than a supposedly apolitical institution.

So I find it utterly baffling to walk into supermarkets and see huge displays of Union flags, crowns and trumpets hanging from the ceiling, telling me “Let’s Celebrate The King’s Coronation”. I can’t think of any other political issue – and certainly not one as controversial as the monarchy – that would see supermarkets lining their aisles with propaganda for.

People would have rightly been outraged if supermarkets had rolled out the decorations to celebrate the appointments of Humza Yousaf or Rishi Sunak as our heads of government, so why is it any different just because the ruler has been imposed on us without our consent?

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This relentless propaganda results in a political and media landscape where republican voices are consistently drowned out – and it’s no wonder when our democratically elected parliamentarians are forced to swear allegiance to the monarch in order to even be able to take up their seats and represent the constituents who elected them.

Although it’s obviously and rightly not enforced, it could well be interpreted (I’m sure to the joy of any staunch monarchists currently hate-reading this) that this requirement means it’s not actually permissible to be elected to our parliaments as a true republican. It’s the perfect example of the absurd lengths our political systems go to quash and discredit any semblance of republicanism.

THERE are a number of vocally republican politicians who are members of monarchist parties, including both Humza Yousaf and the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford.

But other than the Irish republican parties in the north of Ireland, the only major political parties in the UK with an official stance of republicanism are the Greens, with both the Scottish Greens and the Green Party of England and Wales supporting a move to an elected head of state. It’s in moments like these that I’m very proud to be a Green. Where other parties compromise on their principles to try to appear more palatable, the Scottish Greens are unafraid to stand by our beliefs.

It has been the only major party to actively speak out and campaign against the coronation and has gone all out in doing so. Social media banners were updated with the simple demand of “Abolish the Monarchy”, accompanied by a digital campaign which has so far attracted more than 3000 supporters.

The Scottish Greens have rejected their invites to the grandiose coronation ceremony, with co-leader Lorna Slater instead speaking at the Our Republic rally in Edinburgh.

Last month, the party held a sold-out panel discussion entitled “For a Scottish Republic”, and this Thursday, Green councillors are calling on City of Edinburgh Council to stop recognising the made-up title “Duke of Edinburgh”, which was gifted to Edward Windsor as a birthday present from his brother without any consultation of the people of Edinburgh.

Even if you ignore all the many, many flaws of the monarchy itself, it’s undeniable that the decision to spend more than £100m on a glamorous ceremony with gold-encrusted carriages and pompous parades in the midst of a cost of living crisis that’s seeing sky-high levels of fuel poverty and homelessness is incredibly grotesque.

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Charles Windsor is already king – this ceremony serves no actual purpose other than to inflate his ego to the size of his fingers.

I’ll be out of the country over the coronation weekend and although I’ll be glad to avoid the incessant propaganda of the mainstream British media, I’ll also be sad to not be able to be present for what feels like a significant moment for Scottish and British republicanism.

Saturday’s rally at Calton Hill looks set to have a strong turnout and an excellent crop of speakers, and I don’t doubt that the abysmal optics of this extravagant coronation in the midst of the cost of living crisis will encourage even more folk across the UK to start to realise that the Greens have been right all along – it’s time to abolish the monarchy.