When the golden couple married, in 1947,
the following was lavished on the ceremony:
jewellery from other royals, a washing machine, a fridge,
76 handkerchiefs, 148 pairs of stockings,
38 handbags, 16 night gowns,
500 cases of tinned pineapple, 10,000 telegrams,
2000 guests, 5 Kings, 7 Queens,
8 Princes and 10 Princesses,
and for the 10,000 pearls sewn onto her wedding dress,
Her Majesty allegedly saved all her clothing coupons.
Even more money was wasted on her Coronation,
as yet another fossil monarchy justified its existence by tradition
and deluded itself with the notion of 'duty'.
Privileged to the last, whilst in England's green and pleasant land,
the rest of the nation survived on rationing
in some of the worst slums in Europe.
[...]
"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time." (Willem de Kooning)
The trouble with being rich, is that it takes up everybody else's.
After farce. Realism.
- Terence Davies, Of Time and the City
A 2011 study from the OECD showed the gap between the highest and lowest paid has grown more quickly in Britain than in any other advanced economy over the past three decades.
A monarch in a barge like a burnished throne, sailing up London's river from Chelsea, home of oligarchs and plutocrats, to the City, home of the unpunished financial sector for whose misdeeds the rest of us are paying, cannot be a value-free act. Contemporary London offends as well as dazzles. So can the monarchy.
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| Back to Mesopotamia? https://www.bcg.com/documents/file87307.pdf |
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| by Banksy |