Police won’t touch protest banners denouncing the King

POLICE will not intervene to prevent protesters displaying anti-monarchist placards at the Coronation, a senior Scotland Yard officer has said.

Republican supporters will be permitted to line the route of the royal procession holding banners that denounce the King, with officers advised to “engage with” them rather than remove them.

Almost 30,000 police officers have been drafted in for one of the biggest policing operations in the Met’s history, named Operation Golden Orb.

Ade Adelekan, the deputy assistant commissioner, said police would use new powers to come down hard on anyone who sought to disrupt the event.

But asked if the Met would intervene to stop republican protesters holding up placards, Commander Karen Findlay said as long as the actions remained lawful, officers would not take action. The comments came as it emerged that Home Office officials have written to Republic, the anti-monarchist campaign group, reminding them about the introduction of new laws on protests.

Meanwhile, broadcasters including the BBC, ITN and Sky News will air antimonarchist views as part of their coverage of the Coronation after bosses pledged to be “representative” of modern Britain.

Details of the Met’s security operation were revealed yesterday as preparations for Saturday’s historic event continued to gather pace.

Yesterday morning, the King and Queen were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children for a Coronation rehearsal at Westminster Abbey.

Later in the day, the royal couple hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace where they were joined by around 8,000 guests. Lionel Richie, who will perform at Sunday’s concert, was among them and described his role as like “walking in history”.

As preparations for the Coronation continued, police urged people gathering for events in London and around the country to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious.

Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, told The Daily Telegraph: “We are very conscious that we’re dealing not just with national issues, but because heads of state and government from around the world are coming, with the possibility of international issues.

“And we are absolutely aware of that and our intelligence services and our police forces are very conscious of the responsibilities they hold but I must also say I’ve been very encouraged by their professionalism and dedication.”

His comments came after a security alert at Buckingham Palace in which a 59-year-old man from Cumbria was arrested for allegedly throwing shotgun cartridges over the gate.

The Met’s operation will deploy 11,500 officers around London on the day of the Coronation itself, more than were on duty at the late Queen’s funeral.

The force is also considering using live facial recognition technology to scan crowds in order to identify criminals and keep them away from the celebrations.

As well as the main ceremony in Westminster, around 1,800 other smaller events will take place across the capital, including street parties and community celebrations, which will also be protected by a policing plan.

‘Our intelligence services and police are very conscious of the responsibilities they hold’

As we approach Coronation day, there have been the usual siren voices asking why it is even necessary, and questioning its Christian character and the role of the Church in the event. Thus Jonathan Chaplin, a theologian from Cambridge, seems to argue that it is inappropriate for the Church to be involved in such a display of state power, that such involvement is no longer relevant in a secularised society, and that the Church should now seek its own disestablishment.

I cannot comment on all of this agenda, which varies from one interest group to another, save to say that the Coronation service is probably the oldest public ritual in the country, dating back to at least the 10th century. Although there have been changes – such as its translation into English, conforming the Eucharist to the Book of Common Prayer and the insertion of the Coronation Oath by Parliament in 1689 to maintain “the Protestant Reformed Religion established by Law” – its overall integrity as a Christian act of eucharistic worship is maintained.

It represents, as perhaps nothing else, the character, beliefs and values of the nation, and reveals the cumulative nature of our constitutional arrangements, as well as the place of the monarch in them. It is based on the British sense of valuing wisdom, since it is mediated over the centuries. In this sense, as Edmund Burke saw quite clearly, Britain is quite different from, say, France, which overthrew its cumulative public culture at the Revolution, allegedly based on pure reason alone. A ceremony like the Coronation is difficult to imagine taking place across the Channel.

At it, the monarch promises to uphold the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel. He is given a Bible, with the words: “We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the Royal Law. These are the Lively Oracles of God.” These are not mere words. They signal the fact, as a very liberal senior judge once told me, that, since at least the time of Alfred the Great, our laws have been derived from and made consistent with the teaching of the Bible, especially the Ten Commandments and our Lord’s summary of them.

They also indicate that this is no absolute monarchy but one understood in terms of the Bible’s vision of service, sacrifice and selflessness. It is not an accident that the reading from the Gospel has to do with rendering to Caesar what is properly Caesar’s and to God what is rightfully His. There should be no confusion between Church and state: each has its own sphere of service to the nation and the world.

The Church, if asked, should be glad to offer its counsel and presence to the state, but this should be without compromise. As John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester in Henry VIII’S time, is reported to have advised the Church, we accept the Royal Supremacy, insofar as the Law of Christ allows or as Thomas More said: “I am the King’s good servant but God’s first.”

The service has a clear sacramental character, not only because it is eucharistic but also because of the symbolism that runs through it. The anointing of the monarch on the hands, head and breast (with oil from the Mount of Olives) evokes the anointing of kings, priests and prophets in the Bible. It symbolises the divine calling and the setting apart of someone to specific service. This is not just a functional office taken up for a period and then laid aside. It is a vocation for life.

The service is replete with Christian symbolism. It affirms the Judeochristian tradition as the basis of our national life and from which proceed the beliefs and values of dignity, equality and liberty that should characterise our life together. It is appropriate, therefore, for all churches to play the fullest part in it. These beliefs and values also imply valuing the freedom of those who think and believe differently. It is thus absolutely right that leaders of other faith traditions should be given an honoured place at the service and be able to bring a greeting and expression of loyalty to the sovereign.

What would people rather have? A service replete with wisdom and symbolism from a shared history or a secular ceremony of mere form and empty of everything but the most functional? We shall see on Saturday, as we did at Elizabeth II’S funeral, that the Christian story is alive and well and necessary for our life together.