Campaigners take part in Cardiff ‘Not My King protest’
Demonstrators have taken part in a ‘Not My King protest’ organised by Republic Cymru in Cardiff City Centre following the coronation.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Cardiff Castle to sing Welsh national anthem, Hen wlad fy nhadau at the end of the march.
Anti-monarchy protestors sing the Welsh national anthem, Hen wlad fy nhadau, on Saturday outside Cardiff Castle 🎶
Earlier, officials told @SkyNews that 2,500 people had gathered inside Cardiff Castle to witness the coronation on a big screen pic.twitter.com/Oa3tREwNLM
— Tomos Evans (@TomosGruffydd) May 6, 2023
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.”
Democracy
Kev O’Connor, 40, from Mountain Ash, said he was attending the anti-monarchy protest with his son Gruffudd, 12, and daughter Gwenllian, 14, to campaign for democracy.
Holding signs reading Not My King, Mr O’Connor said: “I’m here today because we are supposedly a modern country living in the 21st century and it makes no sense for us to be giving money to people who have billions of pounds already. That’s nothing to celebrate.
“We’re out here because we think we should live in a proper democracy without a monarchy.
“I think that’s quite a strong feeling here in Wales, stronger than ever before.
“Ultimately, you’ve got people being told by the Government that they have to accept we’re worse off, and yet we’re also supposed to go and have a party for billionaires. It makes no sense.”
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‘Dozens’? There were hundreds present. It wasn’t a huge demonstration but there were certainly more than dozens!
Glad the article has now been amended.
It was an excellent demo, with about 400 in my estimation. All was peaceful with only one male and female police couple present and they thoughtfully removed a drunk man who began to shout
obscenities. My thanks to them. The speeches were interesting with some by the very young. Made me proud to be in attendance.
I proudly flew the flag of Glyndwr. We have to be sensible here, we can’t judge medieval rulers for being part of the medieval society, what I am objecting to, is the medieval coronation of a man in the 21st century.
Good appreciation of how times change. In Glyndwr’s time princes and lords actually led people, defend their turf and were thus much closer to their people. That’s not to say everything was rosy but the relationship today is distant if existing at all
Yeah! I thought it was more than a tad ironic that at a republican march there were those carrying royal flags. I spoke to a couple of them. They certainly weren’t pro royal and the irony seemed a bit lost on them. As to the quality of Welsh, gwell Cymraeg slac na saesneg slic, yn fy marn i.
Technically he was an appointed royal not a blood royal but at the time that was political structure. The glyndwr flag represents independence and freedom from oppression not the desire for a Welsh royal family instead.
Because he is a symbol of standing up to to foreign monarchy? You can be a republican and still see Glyndwr as a symbol of resistance against those of England. I’m a republican but I have huge respect for him.
Republicans join women in not being safe on the streets of London from the attentions of the Met…
Braverman, enemy of all lab animals and freedom loving Brits…
I’d rather be free equal and independent than be a subject servile and a slave.
#YesCymru 🏴✊ #NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy #Ymlaen
Why are we so pathetic? 2500 people celebrating a foreign monarch who is insult to the people of Wales in the castle that was built to commemorate a peace deal between Briton and Roman. Before they were even an afterthought! And stole what it means to British from us. Almost Makes you want put your head in the Microwave! It’s sycophantic of the highest order, this is why Americans love the Irish and have no respect for the people of Wales.
Is there any photographic evidence of this 2,500 within the castle.
Comments and photos else where show about thirty people in the castle.
I think the protesters speak for a lot of people in Wales who are angry with this waste of money that took place in England today.
Okay, so one of the people who Nation.Cymru spoke to was Kevin O’connor former Councillor and Lib Dem Group leader of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. I think this is the first time I’ve recognised someone interviewed/quoted in an article here.
Well done to those that attended. It was an absurd display of all that remains backward about the British Isles. Men of some god in £5,000 gold frocks chanting inanities for two peole in fur coats and gold dressing gowns wearing bejewelled hats- and we tax payers forced to pay for it. When will Britain modernise. Well not as long as you have a monarchy, a house of lords and two main political parties that are members of ‘The Club’. Look to the Nordics.
My hats off and total respect to everyone who was there. I wish I could have joined you, but getting from north Wales to Cardiff has become unaffordable.
Heroes, you are!