Why nearly all the King's realms want to say goodbye and good riddance

[pnwmom]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/world/europe/coronation-british-realms.html

The era of warm, wave-and-smile relations between the British monarchy and its distant realms has come to an end. Many of the former colonies that still formally swear allegiance to King Charles III are accelerating efforts to cut ties with the crown and demanding restitution and a deeper reckoning with the empire that the royal family has come to represent.

Jamaica is moving rapidly toward a referendum that would remove King Charles as the nation’s head of state, with a reform committee meeting regularly on the verdant grounds where colonial rulers and slave owners once lived. Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Bahamas and nearly every other country with similar systems of constitutional monarchy have also signaled support for becoming republics completely independent of Britain in the years to come.

The chorus of calls for British apologies, reparations and repatriation — of everything from India’s Kohinoor diamond to sculptures from Benin and Easter Island — has also grown louder, placing the new king in a vexing position. Charles represents nearly 1,000 years of unbroken royal lineage; he also now stands on a volatile fault line between Britain, where much of that history tends to be romanticized, and a group of forthright former colonies demanding that he confront the harsh realities of his country’s imperial past.

“There is a growing gap between Britain’s perception of its own empire and how it’s perceived everywhere else,” said William Dalrymple, a prominent historian of British India. “And that gap keeps growing.”

SNIP

[mopinko]

1. lotta talk about an irish referendum.

from what i see on twitter, there’s a lot of old grievances bein aired. a lot of it smells like bs to me.

[maxsolomon]

2. It wasn't a big deal when it was QE2, but now?

IT'S AN OUTRAGE!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

3. Just because Americans

Are mostly unaware of the independence, repatriation, and etc movements doesn't mean they were never a big deal, when they always have been, especially for the people striving for them. These movements aren't arising only now to pick on poor idiot Charles but have long and complex histories behind them.

The attention from press and public that these movements garner will run in cycles, but the movements themselves don't. They are consistent, from Scottish independence to a united and independent Ireland, to returning the Kohinoor diamond--name it, it's been simmering away in the background for decades, or even centuries, in the cases of Ireland and Scotland.

So your point is moot.

[maxsolomon]

4. and it wasn't particularly serious, either

but thanks for the lecture.

[roamer65]

5. A lot of these countries simply kept the system the way it was out of respect for the Queen.

Now that she’s gone, they will go forward.