Coronation Chicken

[kernelbogey]

Coronation Chicken

No, not the dish - just the most appropriate phrase to describe the issue of whether or not to watch, listen or abstain.

Well rarity is not the issue since I remember the Coronation of Elizabeth, in 1953. The Times succeeded in making it almost equally about the ascent (or 'conquest') of Everest (inappropriately named after a British surveyor).

No - I think I've drifted from a lifetime of relative indifference to the Royal Family to somethng close to apathetic opposition. Let'a have a revolution, but after Sunday Lunch, maybe.

I was contemplating going to Paris for the Coronation weekend, but it coincides with a grandson's birthday, and his Dad, my son, said I could save several hundred pounds and achieve the same effect by closing the curtains and retiring to the garden, so that is probably what I shalll do.

[RichardB]

I shall be moving house on that day so if it impinges on me at all I shall be quite surprised.

[french frank]

I haven't been invited and don't have a television (or listen to the radio) so it will come and go as national events/Bank Holidays tend to do. There will be community events up on the Common but I don't think even the food will tempt me to go. So - just another day. It's a day for people who enjoy this sort of thing so for their sakes I hope it goes well.

[vinteuil]

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... very nicely put, kernelbogey, if I may say so.

"Something close to apathetic opposition" - yes, I think that sums it up for me - tho' perhaps with just a soupçon more irritation with the whole shebang than you show.

If the weather's pleasant, a walk : if not, some music and a nice lunch...

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[Petrushka]

I heard many times from my parents of them watching the 1953 Coronation on a small black and white television screen and I'll be watching this one on my 42'' television, stereo sound coming through my hi-fi speakers, with them both in mind and thinking also of the progress made in those 70 years which spans my entire lifetime (less 1 year).

I'll also be watching and listening to the music in the Abbey which should surely be worth the while of anyone on this Forum.

[kernelbogey]

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... very nicely put, kernelbogey, if I may say so.

"Something close to apathetic opposition" - yes, I think that sums it up for me - tho' perhaps with just a soupçon more irritation with the whole shebang than you show.

We try to please....

.If the weather's pleasant, a walk : if not, some music and a nice lunch...

There's a walk not too far away that I haven't done in a while. A small stone, just inside the boundary of a wood, and next to a path, commemorates (IIRC) In memory of three unknown German airmen, whose plane crashed nearby. It had crashed in flames close to the centre of the village. Some folk wished to commemorate the unknown victims with a memorial stone in the village; others opposed this. A landowner offered a spot in his wood, three of four miles from the crash site, and there it rests, about 80 years on.

[Serial_Apologist]

If the weather's good it might be ideal for a long cycle ride - it would be interesting to see how many of the usual outdoor gathering places, picnic sites and the like, will be attracting the public away from their TVs.

[Old Grumpy]

We try to please....



There's a walk not too far away that I haven't done in a while. A small stone, just inside the boundary of a wood, and next to a path, commemorates (IIRC) In memory of three unknown German airmen, whose plane crashed nearby. It had crashed in flames close to the centre of the village. Some folk wished to commemorate the unknown victims with a memorial stone in the village; others opposed this. A landowner offered a spot in his wood, three of four miles from the crash site, and there it rests, about 80 years on.

This one (https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/21495) perchance? Never seen it, but have been to Farley Mount which, IIRC, also has in interesting memorial - to a horse that fell down a quarry.

[kernelbogey]

This one (https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/21495) perchance? Never seen it, but have been to Farley Mount which, IIRC, also has in interesting memorial - to a horse that fell down a quarry.

Yes, OG, spot on. My remembered inscription contains true detail that is not on the stone! A woman I met through the Friends had researched the story and gave me a copy of her research. I knew nothing of IWM - thank you.

I think the plaque with the four names of the airman has been added since I was last there - making me realise that it is decades since I walked out that way.

You are correct about the memorial to the horse. It is a striking monument - like an elongated pyramid shape. Its position affords glorious views, when it's clear right across the Solent to the Isle of Wight '(The Island' as it's known in Hampshire).

[smittims]

I've always had a sneaking admiration for those who choose quietly to do something different on these days when 'the Nation', we are told, is supposed to be bowing in obedience: going for a long walk is a good idea as it will probably be quiet out of town; or it could be a good day to paint tha bathroom.

I had long decided to make a DVD-R of the Coronation, as I have the full seven-hour 1953 BBC Broadcast from when it was shown a few years ago. The question is: what to include? I'm sure I shall delete the deluge of repeated, meaningless platitudes about 'really defining what it is to be British, blah blah blah' and asking celebrities 'how they feel'. BBC1 have helped by dividing the coverage into three:

'The Preparation': well, that'll be 'the build-up' as TV people call it. I can forget that.

'The Coronation service': here I shall try to cut out the chat and any music I shan't want to hear again.

'The Celebration' : again, I think this can be avoided for the reasons stated, though I will miss the fly-past (it was a bit of damp squib in 1953 owing to almost ground-level cloud).

So, no, I shan't be watching live, as I did his first wedding in 1981. At my age I've become tired of what Alan Bennett's father called 'splother': an apt word for unnecessary ostentation and display.

[vinteuil]

perhaps with just a soupçon more irritation with the whole shebang than you show.

harrumph! - now with more than a soupçon of irritation :

"People watching the Coronation will be invited to join a "chorus of millions" to swear allegiance to the King and his heirs, organisers say. The public will be given an active role in the ceremony for the first time, with people around the world set to be asked to cry out and swear allegiance to the King.
This "homage of the people" replaces the traditional "homage of peers" where hereditary peers swear allegiance to the new monarch. Instead everyone in the Abbey and watching at home will be invited to pay homage in what Lambeth Palace described as a "chorus of millions".
The order of service will read: "All who so desire, in the Abbey, and elsewhere, say together: I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God."

Pay Homage?? Not In My Name...

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[smittims]

It's the 'doorstep clap' all over again. Clearly this sort of thing is destined to be as overdone as the 'minute's silence'; I admire the King but I shan't be taking part.

[french frank]

Pay Homage?? Not In My Name...

Invitations can always be refused "All who so desire ..." . No one is doing it In Your Name.

[RichardB]

Invitations can always be refused "All who so desire ..." . No one is doing it In Your Name.

The "invitation" in itself seems to me a somewhat desperate attempt to engage the peasantry in the "meaning" of an event that in real terms has none (and that fewer people than ever have any interest in), a contrived way to "bring the country together" by an establishment that has put so much effort into dividing it. If I were in the UK I'd be thinking the appropriate response would not just be to decline to take part but to find some way to protest against it. In any case surely we are witnessing another phase in the British monarchy's terminal decline. Allegiance my a**e.

[french frank]

The "invitation" in itself seems to me a somewhat desperate attempt to engage the peasantry in the "meaning" of an event that in real terms has none (and that fewer people than ever have any interest in), a contrived way to "bring the country together" by an establishment that has put so much effort into dividing it. If I were in the UK I'd be thinking the appropriate response would not just be to decline to take part but to find some way to protest against it. In any case surely we are witnessing another phase in the British monarchy's terminal decline. Allegiance my a**e.

I thought it a rather clumsy innovation, and not having been invited by a kindly neighbour or member of my family to witness the event, I shan't know at what point I have been invited, if I so desire, to proclaim my allegiance anyway. I regard it as an example of one of the UK's quaint/silly traditions, take it or leave it. But also an opportunity for those who want to proclaim their non-allegiance, disapproval or anger if they so wish. I shall leave it rather than take it, but then I don't believe the existence of the monarchy has the far-reaching effects on society that others do.