a parenthesis in a country in crisis

In the United Kingdom, the coronation is on the front page of all the newspapers, Sunday May 7. But the splendor of the ceremonies, spread over the pages, leaves the inhabitants of a popular district of London a little bitter. “Yes, I looked, yesterday, I’m not a royalist. That’s a lot of money spent on that”, says a man. Another completes: “We all paid for the coronation. These people, they have enough money. There was no need to take ours.” More than in the rest of Europe, the British are suffering from an economic crisis and galloping inflation, +11% in one year.

many strikes

“We see that customers think first of buying food. I sell makeup and slippers. I can see that customers are already struggling to eat. They are asking for discounts”, says a shopkeeper. In this context, the coronation with great pomp appears out of step with the daily life of Londoners. Many of them have denounced their daily lives for several weeks. Nurses or teachers are stepping up strikes to demand better salaries. These demands were put aside for a weekend. Neighborhood parties are an opportunity to escape the gloomy climate.