King Charles III: A news era
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00:00 Well let's stay with today's coronation. Dr. Luke Blacksill is a lecturer in
00:06 British political and constitutional history at the University of Oxford. Luke
00:11 thanks very much for speaking to France 24 today. You will have heard our
00:14 correspondent perhaps there talking about this ceremony being a very
00:17 inclusive one whether you know you want to look at the multi-faith aspects or
00:21 the fact that women bishops took part in this for the first time. Is this a sign
00:27 that King Charles can propel the monarchy forward in your view? Yes I
00:32 think it is. I mean he has a very great challenge. He's following in the
00:36 footsteps of well one of the greatest monarchs and certainly arguably the
00:40 greatest constitutional monarch that Britain has had. He comes to the throne
00:44 at the age of 74 years. He's had a life with quite a lot of scandal. He has quite
00:50 a few detractors. He also has some fairly outspoken political views on the
00:54 environment but I think above anything else we're being asked to buy into a
00:59 rehabilitation story. Charles has gone through difficulties so has Camilla but
01:04 they're looking forward to the future. They are not a starry-eyed young couple
01:09 being crowned together. They're serious people but that befits serious times. I
01:14 mean can their experience win the British public over convince them that
01:19 ultimately the monarchy is still relevant today in 2023? Yes I think so.
01:25 I mean ultimately the monarchy got a very very large sort of bump in
01:29 popularity after the death of Queen Elizabeth II and generally speaking
01:33 Republican sentiment in Britain hasn't been particularly strong really since
01:37 the death of Princess Diana and so I think that while it's true that there is
01:43 a substantial Republican sentiment within the British people I think that
01:47 that has always been there. It's been there throughout the 20th century,
01:50 throughout the 19th century and certainly throughout the 18th century as
01:53 well, sometimes with us drawing inspiration from France and so I think
01:57 the King has to remain very aware of public opinion which is something
02:01 obviously that his late mother was expert at but I think that there is
02:05 every reason to believe that the British monarchy can continue and can indeed
02:09 flourish. I mean Luke the elephant in the room if you will is this kind of cost of
02:14 living crisis, everybody's been talking about it. We understand that the Treasury
02:18 has coughed up something like a hundred million pounds for this weekend's event
02:22 and with some arguing ultimately the royal family should have funded that
02:25 this themselves. What do you make of this kind of ongoing debate about whether we
02:31 should be spending so much money on an event like this? I think that there are
02:37 always discussions about royal finances. I mean obviously the monarchy's income is
02:42 rather enmeshed in ancient estates and there's a question of whether it belongs
02:46 to the family or whether it belongs to the people but I think that similar
02:50 criticisms were raised over the late Queen's funeral. Yes these public events
02:54 are very expensive, there is a cost of living crisis but I also think that it's
03:00 very important during those times that Britain does put on a good show, that it
03:04 does make its constitutional events magical, that they don't become too
03:09 mundane because those things breed faith in a constitution that has no written
03:14 constitution, it is not a technocratic one, it is one that is based on this
03:18 animating magic and while I agree there is some kind of contradiction between
03:22 you know a nation facing a cost of living crisis and the magnificence of
03:27 this ceremony, I do think that the palace struck a quite good balance here with a
03:30 shortened and slightly trimmed down kind of ceremony which retained much of the
03:34 magic but was a lot less over-the-top and a lot less grandiose than the
03:38 coronation of 1953. I mean in keeping with some of the debates that this
03:43 has flagged up there's of course been the issue of the Commonwealth, the fact
03:46 that you know the King will preside not just over the UK but also over these 50
03:51 or 40 and I should say Commonwealth realms. You have Barbados who you know
03:55 did away if you will or ditched the Queen to become a republic, you've got
03:59 countries like Jamaica, Belize saying well look you know we're also pondering
04:03 that. Is that harmful to the monarchy in your view or is this something that's
04:09 essentially not that significant? I think that it's always expected that there will
04:13 be debate within those 14 Commonwealth countries where the King is the head of
04:18 state and obviously Australia had a very high-profile referendum on the British
04:23 monarchy around 20 years ago which was only won by the pro-monarchists by a
04:27 very small margin. Barbados of course did away with the Crown without a
04:32 referendum which could well easily perhaps indeed have been won by the
04:36 pro-monarchy side. Jamaica is talking about having a referendum but at least
04:40 then the people will decide. I think it's in the nature of a monarchy and a very
04:46 ancient monarchy in the modern world in a largely democratic world that there
04:51 will be continuous debate about its role and that that debate will be very much
04:56 tied to public opinion and it is also probably the case that there will be
05:00 referenda from time to time. Certainly if there were referenda held and some of
05:04 them went against the British Crown you might perhaps see a stampede towards the
05:09 exit door and there might be other referenda in other places but for the
05:13 time being I don't think monarchists should be too concerned by politicians
05:16 in various Commonwealth countries like Jamaica talking about referenda.
05:22 Dr Luke Blackfield of the University of Oxford, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us
05:25 today on France 24.