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ANYONE LOOKING FOR some portentous weather ahead of the coronation of King Charles III would have been thrilled with the thunderous downpour in London today.
For the thousands camped out on either side of Westminster’s Mall to watch tomorrow’s procession, the storm meant putting on their Union Jack rain macs and umbrella hats, or hiding in their tents emblazoned with the rain-sagged face of their new monarch.
Before arriving I had seen some online footage of hardcore monarchists doing synchronised dances and singing songs. I don’t know if the weather is to blame, but there were no such performers on show today.
Nevertheless, the scene was not short on spectacle.
Demographically speaking, the campers tend towards those who are into their second half-century on this earth. There are young people, and children, but they are largely in the company of older relatives. With the exception of a few faces, the overwhelming majority are white.
There was one man dressed in full regalia, ringing a town cryer bell at seemingly random intervals and chanting “God Save The King” – a call that was repeated by those sitting nearest to him.
Some people – despite enduring the elements – don’t seem to care about the monarchy all that much. One woman tells me that it’s her birthday tomorrow and that this seemed like the best way to party.
Indeed, the scattering of cans, beer bottles and magnums of Cava do suggest an atmosphere that is more about celebrating for its own sake. The tents and puddles and alcohol give the campsite a festival vibe, like Oxegen if the line-up was curated by Nigel Farage.
One London-based Spanish woman I spoke to, wearing a matador-style outfit, explained her presence to me thusly: “I love hats. There are beautiful hats, and for me it is a reason to wear this hat.” It was a pretty nice hat, and yes, dear reader, I forgot to get a photograph of her hat, so you’ll simply have to imagine it.
There were blown-up images of royal family Top Trump cards that ranked in categories such as ‘Reign’, ‘Children’, and ‘Military Might’ (Camilla Parker Bowles scores a 2 on ‘Military Might’, in case you’re curious).
The walk between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace is a short but newly inconvenient one, particularly if you're someone who relies heavily on jaywalking. Steel barriers run the length of the streets allowing for crossing only at certain points, rendering the area extremely congested. Some footways are closed entirely.
A makeshift stadium has been built in the Buckingham Palace courtyard, and the neighbouring St James' Park has been kitted out with massive screens and food trucks, akin to a fanzone for a Champions League final.
It is a massive security operation that has been costed somewhere in the region of £100million. When I asked attendees if they felt this was an enormous outlay in the context of a cost-of-living crisis, I was met with disinterest.
"Has to be done," said one fellow, while another group of older women looked at me sort of sympathetically for even troubling myself with such a concern. "We're not thinking about that," one of them said.
Others were more boisterous in their defence of the crown. When I asked about the ostracisation of Meghan Markle, one young man asked me snippily if I knew that Prince Harry had once turned up to a party dressed as a Nazi.
Another defender of the new king said: "He's going to take it in a different direction. There are one or two relatives he needs to sort out." Before I could ask him exactly who he was referring to, he laughingly added: "Another accident in a tunnel, maybe."
There was but one protest to be seen along the Mall. A display of a 'non-colonial crown,' made from British materials, accompanied by a small wall of text that explained the ugly and bloody history of some of the artefacts that will be used in tomorrow's ceremony. Its two guardians told me that the crown was a "subtle protest," and I'd be inclined to agree with that characterisation.
Stormy as today's weather was, it's likely that this afternoon represents a calm before what is sure to be a more fervid atmosphere on Saturday.
Monarchic pride and protests can be expected to reach a higher pitch between 11am and midday tomorrow, when King Charles rides along the Mall to greet tent after tent bearing the image of his own soaked face.
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Apartheid plain and simple
@polly: just like getting your regular passport then?
@polly: well Polly just lock yourself up …. I intend to enjoy myife
@polly: how can you possibly compare this to apartheid?
Just because your wibbledom has come back to bite your behind doesn’t make you a martyr.
It makes you a victim of your own misguided beliefs.
@polly: I agree with you Polly, some people will get the vax & anything else asked of them just so they can go on holidays. They either do not realise or care what future they are creating for their kids & grandkids. They believe everything that Joe Duffy & RTE tell them.
@Ian Forbes: I think you might have missed the point …. I think Polly wants to travel freely around her own country without someone asking ‘Haff you gott ze up to date documentation…?’ …. I can understand international travel, but not internally in Ireland ….
@polly: you have travelled abroad with your passport, be it paper or electronic, record of entering/exiting country stamped, your age, d.o.b, name, nationality on record, and you’ve never complained. oh and also, when travelling to countries where diseases are common, a document is required to show that you got vaccinated against hepatitis, ebola,cholera, dengue etc.
@On the right side: Although this reads like the ramblings of a madman the article link they shared is actually pretty good from a reputable source.
Something ain’t right folks .
@conex: Something stinks to high heaven, and it ain’t my socks …
@conex: Read this article, they have been planning this for years it will not just stop with vaccines.
Fingerprints and facial images stored on a chip have been obligatory for EU ID cards since June 2019, yet biometrics for matters such as payments, entry to public venues and workplaces, and travel – which link to form a far more intrusive and centralised identity system – are now being promoted as the only way to return to normal amid COVID-19.
Governments and companies, while claiming that digital health IDs will be optional, are threatening those who opt out with exclusion from the most fundamental of freedoms, which equates to outright coercion into a system that gravely threatens privacy and personal autonomy.
EU invests big in biometrics
The EU’s Horizon 2020 programme has been boosting the biometric industry since long before the coronavirus, particularly for security products for police and border control agencies, providing €1.7 billion in funding between 2014 and 2020 which involves wide ranging surveillance technologies such as facial and iris recognition, and a further €1.3 billion will be provided for the next seven years.
Figures compiled by the Guardian show that Horizon 2020 has given out €1.15 billion to private companies since 2007, which equates to 42 percent of the total €2.7 billion in funding from the security research programme, while it has also been the lead partner in almost half of the 714 funded projects.
Among its beneficiaries is Idemia, a French tech company, which received a total of €2.91 million from Horizon 2020 between 2017 and 2019. Idemia recently won a contract for the delivery of a new shared Biometric Matching System which will integrate a database of over 400 million third-country nationals by 2022 with fingerprint verification and facial recognition for entering and exiting the Schengen area.
Public-private collaboration
The World Economic Forum’s January 2020 White Paper on ‘Reimagining Digital Identity’ talked up the need for cooperation between the public and private sectors, and collaboration across industries on such IDs, including healthcare, travel and financial services.
Mastercard and Microsoft joined forces in 2018 to work on a global digital identity system, which includes access to health, financial and social services with various governments. Emblematic of the public-private merge on digital ID, France became the first European country to form a “Partnership for the digital economy” with Mastercard in January 2020 for four years.
The EU and health passports
The European Commission outlined a ‘Roadmap on Vaccination’ linked to a digital health passport before the virus outbreak, last updated in Q3 of 2019.
It details a plan spanning from 2018 to 2022 to “examine the feasibility of developing a common vaccination card/passport for EU citizens” and “develop EU guidance for establishing comprehensive electronic immunisation information systems”.
Also among the aims listed is to “overcome the legal and technical barriers impeding the interoperability of national immunisation information systems” and mentions its need to strengthen partnerships with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) and Gavi among others, and continue to support research and innovation projects through Horizon 2020.
The idea of needing a vaccination verified by an application to access cinemas and restaurants, or to travel by air, was regarded a conspiracy theory at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, yet such digital health passports are now in the process of being rolled out and hailed as the only way to return to normality.
The UN has already launched a digital wallet for employees containing travel, financial and pension data, in addition to allergy and vaccination history, while the EU parliament is testing a biometric time and attendance system at its Brussels facilities.
@On the right side: any chance you can stop spamming with the same nonsense?
Will we get green stars to wear ?
Great stuff. Even if I don’t get my vaccine soon, I’ll still be able to visit my partner in the Netherlands quarantine free once I have proof of tests. It’s been such a tough year but finally seeing the way out
As long as its for travel only and nothing else. We start pushing this locally where those that have the vaccine and haven’t are segregated based on it in relation to work, going to cinema, pub, restaurants etc…..then we have a major problem both from a legal and moral stand point. This pandemic cannot and should not take away people’s basic rights to make a choice, otherwise we go down a dangerous rabbit hole where other issues medically which in the past, were based on a person’s wishes could now suddenly be trumped on health grounds cos we have allowed covid vaccine do it on health grounds. I want to go on holidays and have a normality resumed, but not if it means I’ve to show a vaccine cert to access these places while someone who decided not to get the vaccine is denied
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: It says in the article they are considering it for pubs, restaurants etc. Which means it most likely will happen, I feel sorry for businesses who will have to police this and turn people away, people who may become aggressive. It’s discriminatory to the highest degree aswell, who knows when most people will even have had the opportunity to be vaccinated.
This type of vaccination passport has been around for decades. I’m fine with it as long as it’s restricted to international travel ONLY on/ off this island ….
@Martin Galvin: I wouldn’t hold my breath. See what the final text say once its published. Then wait for the court cases….
@Martin Galvin: they should be used if large scale events are happening too, events staff don’t want the ‘rona
@Paul Cunningham: Nope …. That cannot be allowed to happen … There are some that will never be able to take a vaccine for whatever reason, and will be discriminated against when they want to attend any venue or event. If any staff at ‘gigs’ are afraid of Covid, they need to change jobs, avoid contact with other people and hope that the wind blows the virus away ….
@Martin Galvin: that’s why a negative test also works for it. For example if a concert is on in the 3arena, everyone would either have to be vaccinated or have a negative test in order to validate their green pass. In no way is that discriminating and means everyone can go back to doing what we love.
@AL: Sorry …. I miss gigs & I love gigs and I’ve been to a lot of gigs, and I even love saying the word ‘gig’ to as many people as humanly possible, but if we need a piece of paper or app to appease the fragile-minded, we’re severely restricting freedom in this country…. You’re condoning a police-state ….
@Martin Galvin: so you want to jeopardise the entire AV industry because John down the road doesn’t want to get the vaccine because needles are scary and they are afraid of clots? Theres exceptions if needed with doctors notices and people already with covid. The rest can get stuffed while the rest of us enjoy life at live events.
@Martin Galvin: we’re in a pandemic that will not be ending anytime soon. Having a cert that says you do not have the virus means it is safe for everyone at the events. Without taking this route, nothing of the sort will be able to be on for at least a year. Stop being such a moan and get over yourself.
@Paul Cunningham: Such an unselfish attitude…. As long as you can get back to your gigs and film the back of somebody’s head, everyone else can get stuffed ….? No. Wise up … Once the elderly and vulnerable are jabbed, that’s it …. They’ll then have the least risk scenario (unless they want to sit in the house)…. We learn to live with this as best we can, but restricting freedoms over a fancy flu, is counter-productive….
@AL: Exactly …. Like the flu, it will always be here …. You can’t control everything, Sunshine …. Accept the cards you’ve been dealt, as it’s part of life …. Life isn’t fair, and it never was, so why would you introduce control measures for something that you can’t possibly hope to control …. As soon as all the big-brains wake up to this, we can open everything up and move on ….
@Martin Galvin: Nothing says unselfish quite like wandering around and spreading a virus that could potentially kill someone, great counterargument there… Why wouldn’t you want society to reopen with as many vaccinated people as possible and have those that are unwilling to be vaccinated thrown aside so the rest of us can get on with life.
@Paul’s TEFL adventures: Jaysus …. Not another snowflake….. Don’t go out tomorrow, as it’s too risky & too dangerous…. You never know what might happen …. I personally believe that everyone has a choice, so wouldn’t knowingly cast anyone aside …. Half-assed vaccine, or no half-assed vaccine ….
@Martin Galvin: Everyone has a choice until their choice actively harms others, and thats that. What you are suggesting is actively hurting others and society at large.
I wouldn’t be surprise if soon people that don’t want to get a vaccine still in trial being require to wear a armband. Since 2020, End does justify the means!
@Jæ Zucula: trials happened last year, try and keep up, with actual facts, not rantings from uninformed half wits on Facebook.
Don’t you know NPHET and their puppet government will find a way around this to keep us locked in whatever happens
@John O: drivel
About this:
“But several EU members, such as France, have expressed concern it could discriminate against the majority of people who have not been offered a vaccine.”
I’m actually ok with this kind of ‘discrimination’ as my vaccination day will come and when that happens I will get a Covid Passport. Until then I can’t see why I should be the type of EU citizen that would prohibit other EU citizen from travelling if they have been vaccinated. The business of the EU and in the EU has to begin again and getting people travelling is part of that. I can’t be alone in this logical approach to other EU citizens, right???
I have a question
If the vaccine works, what is the problem with unvaccinated people?
Our Government won’t like this. It’s determined to force us to staycation this year. My guess is that it will effectively obstruct their use by Irish citizens by cynically undermanning the issuing office and thereby allow huge delays and backlogs to build up. Probably it will need someone to take a court action to get it implemented.
have your say