PATRICK Harvie has said the Scottish Greens will be turning down their invitations to the coronation as the party prepares to hold an event to discuss alternatives to the “unearned wealth and privilege” of the monarchy.
The Scottish Greens co-leader said his party had received invites for the ceremony to crown King Charles III in line with an allocation by numbers for all parties at Holyrood.
But he said no-one from his party was “remotely interested” in attending, adding “I think all of us will be able to think of better things to do with our day”.
Harvie’s comments come ahead of a Greens event on Scottish Republicanism, which is being held in Edinburgh on Sunday and is now sold out.
He will be making a speech along with co-leader Lorna Slater and a panel discussion will take place on the day with John Hall from Our Republic and Assa Samake-Roman, journalist and columnist for The National.
Harvie said it had been appropriate to mark the death of the Queen, but the coronation of a new monarch brought the opportunity to talk about “unearned wealth and privilege”.
He said: “It is an appropriate time to be talking about the history of the monarchy and its association with slavery and exploitation - but also the present modern day reality of the monarchy and its extraordinary wealth-generating operation, a lot of which uses resources that belong to all of us.
“Compared to the affordability of modern elected head of states in some other European countries, it’s really eye-watering - especially in the context of the cost of living crisis.
“We felt this period in the run up to the coronation was an appropriate and really important time to be setting out and reminding people that there are alternatives to the current UK arrangements for what should be a functional office within government.
“The head of state should be a functional office within government which operates within a reasonable financial limit.”
Harvie said it would be particularly interesting to see how those who don’t have strong views on the monarchy react to the coronation during a cost of living crisis.
“They might even be broadly speaking okay with the idea of the monarchy and not feel particularly angry about it, but they are struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay energy bills, struggling to get about with the cost of public transport, for example,” he said.
“How are they really going to feel seeing these golden coaches and huge amounts of extra pomp and ceremony lain on at the public purse for people who are some of the wealthiest in the world?
“It genuinely puzzles me how people are going to react to that and I suspect the UK Government might find there is more reaction against it than they anticipate.”
Harvie said he hoped the Scottish Greens event on Sunday, which is open to everyone, would trigger a discussion on opportunities and a path to achieving an elected head of state or “even some accountability for those in the Royal Family and the institutions around them”.
He said: “The fact it is sold out does demonstrate there is some appetite, so I hope it won’t be the only or the last event of this kind that we do.”
When asked what he planned to do on the day of the coronation, Harvie said: “We obviously got a party allocation of invitations, but I think all of us will be able to think of better things to do with our day.
“All the parties in parliament got an allocation by numbers, but I don’t think we have anyone who is remotely interested in attending it.”
