London, May 3 (BNA): Her organization and Buckingham Palace said that the coronation ceremony for King Charles on Saturday will be the most magnificent show in Britain in a generation and will provide an economic boost to the nation.
Charles and his wife Camilla will be crowned in London’s Westminster Abbey in a historic event with origins dating back some 1,000 years, involving thousands of military personnel in a mile-long procession through central London.
Reuters quoted Earl Marshal Edward FitzAlan-Howard, Duke of Norfolk and senior peer of England: “This is a proud moment in our national history.”
“This is also a time to remind ourselves of the pride we have in our great country and in our unwritten constitution that has served us so well for more than 1,000 years during our long history,” Fitzalan-Howard, whose family has organized state events since 1483, told reporters.
About 7,000 members of the armed forces will take part in ceremonial duties, with more than 4,000, including military bands, taking part in the procession from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace where the newly crowned King and Queen will be honored in the Gardens. .
Fitsalan-Howard said it would be a “glorious show for the Queen”. The royals will, as is customary, wave to the crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace afterwards, and there will be military aircraft.
As the palace has previously acknowledged, the service itself will be different than that of Queen Elizabeth seven decades ago, reflecting the different eras.
There will only be 2,300 guests at Westminster Abbey as opposed to the 8,000 people who watched in 1953, although 100 heads of state will still be in attendance, and it will be much shorter than that.
Critics have questioned the cost of the extravagant coronation when the public faces a cost-of-living crisis, but a palace spokesman said there were reports that more than £1 billion ($1.25 billion) was expected to pour into the ailing economy as a result.
“It is not for me to say how accurate these numbers are, but it is certainly a theory that the festivities are a huge economic boost to the nation,” said the spokesperson, adding that the presence of the large number of heads of state was also a tremendous networking opportunity.
However, consulting firm Pantheon Macroeconomics said it expects British gross domestic product to decline by about 0.2% on a monthly basis in May, with the decline due to the extra bank holiday that the government earmarked for the coronation.
WWA