PROTESTS AIM TO END MONARCHY
HUNDREDS have gathered at a Not My King protest organised by Republic Cymru in Cardiff city centre following the coronation. The group met at the Aneurin Bevan statue on Queen Street. There were are least 300 people there to protest the coronation of King Charles III.
Many held placards and signs calling for an end to the monarchy. One sign read: “Thousands go hungry and we have to pay for a rich man in another country to put a crown of jewels on his head. Nid Ein Brenin Ni [not our King]”
Retired teachers John and Tracy, from Abergavenny, said they have joined the rally because they felt “sickened” by the amount of money spent on one family while many are living in poverty.
Tracy, who did not want to give her last name, said she spent hours decorating a yellow umbrella with the words ‘Pay your taxes, stop taking ours’ and ‘End the reign’.
She told PA news agency: “We are ordinary people who spent 35 years in teaching, bringing up our three children on barely enough money to get by, and we are sickened by the amount of money that’s been thrown away on one person and his family.
“When there are, and we’ve watched, children who’ve had to go to food banks and go hungry in schools. We’ve watched children who enter social services and have the worst kind of lives you can imagine. It’s obscene what’s happening at the moment. Just obscene.”
Meanwhile, Welsh independence activists staged a protest at Caernarfon Castle to coincide with the coronation. Around 30 members of a group called Embassy Glyndwr held signs and waved the flags of Owain Glyndwr.
North Wales Police attended the gathering which passed off without incident.
Protest organiser Sian Ifan described the demonstration as a success and she hoped the pro-royal sentiment sweeping other parts of the UK would act as a catalyst for the Welsh independence movement.
She said: “Overall there were around 25 of us and some (local) people even joined. The funny thing is we thought we’d have some sort of hostility from royalists but there wasn’t at all.
Ms Ifan added: “Today was very successful because we didn’t actually tell anyone we were organising a protest until yesterday morning. So considering that and the fact that there is another big protest on Monday we were very pleased.”