After Coronation, U.K. Awaits a Wider Changing of the Guard

NYT WORLD: After Coronation, U.K. Awaits a Wider Changing of the Guard
By Mark Landler
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: May 7, 2023 at 03:00AM

Beneath the gilded continuity of the coronation celebrations, there were signs that both Britain and its royal family are preparing for a new era.

As milestones in British life go, the two could hardly have had less in common: Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III, the grandest of all royal spectacles, and two days earlier, grass-roots elections for the mayors and other officials who are responsible for fixing potholes and picking up the trash. Yet each, in its own way, confirmed a Britain on the cusp of change. The stinging defeat of the Conservatives in elections on Thursday suggested that Britain’s governing party could very well be swept from power in the general election that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must call by January 2025. The crowning of Charles definitively turned the page from the 70-year reign of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and thrust the monarchy into an uncertain future. Three years after Britain left the European Union, and nine months after Britons grieved the death of the queen amid political and economic upheaval, the country is still groping for a post-Brexit identity. But even if its ultimate shape is not clear, Britain seems poised for a new era, both in politics and the monarchy. “The country is in a waiting room,” said Simon Schama, the British historian and author of “A History of Britain.” “People are saying, ‘Let’s give our peculiar new king a chance,’ while the prospect of an election pacifies a lot of the frustration and rage that people would otherwise feel.”

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/world/europe/king-charles-coronation-uk.html