King Charles is back, and Scotland doesn't want him. Here's why

The National

18 hours ago

As happens regularly now he'll face protesters in Edinburgh and perhaps elsewhere too, just as he has in Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Durham and at major royal events in London over the past few months.
Support for the monarchy has dropped sharply over recent years. Across the UK, polls conducted by YouGov and Savanta have put the monarchy on or below 55% – on one occasion below 50% – while support for a republic has jumped to a third. In Scotland a republic is level pegging with the monarchy.
There are lots of reasons for the collapse in support, one of them being irrelevance to ordinary people during a time when so many are struggling to make ends meet. For many people the Queen was the monarchy and they have little interest in Charles or the rest of them.
Increasingly people are becoming aware of just how grubby and self-serving the institution is. The cost alone raises serious questions about the standards by which the royals live.
When Charles visits Edinburgh the local council, Scottish Government, police and any other public body they come into contact with will likely incur significant costs. Local costs are just one part of the huge expense of the royals – estimated by Republic to be more than half a billion pounds a year.
Yet that's not the figure the royals will be putting out this week, when they release their latest annual accounts. They'll ignore the revenues of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, continuing to lead the public to believe they are private estates.
The Duchies are in fact Crown lands and the property of the state, their revenues should be going to the Treasury to be spent on public services and local communities. Instead they pay Charles and William personal incomes well in excess of £20m each.
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The royals will also ignore the local costs, the bloated security costs and estimates of unpaid taxes and potential revenue lost from allowing them exclusive use of more than two dozen palatial homes.
As always the royals will try to pull the wool over your eyes, tell you they're value for money or suggest the funding comes from the Crown Estate (it doesn't). They do this because dishonesty, obfuscation and secrecy are how they have operated for centuries, desperate to protect their own interests against the receding tide of deference.
It is no wonder support for the royals is particularly low in Scotland. Because aside from a few visits during the so-called royal week, plus a handful more a short drive from Balmoral, this is an English institution.
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More to the point it is a London institution and a monarchy for the home counties. They represent the rich and powerful, they spend their days pursuing the hobbies and habits of their class while the bulk of their meagre list of engagements are in London and the south east.
The monarchy's days are numbered, and their demise is likely to have a particularly strong Scottish flavour to it.