'Not my king': Republicans to protest coronation
STORY: British republicans are seizing on the lavish coronation of King Charles III next week to protest against the monarchy.
Supporters of anti-monarchy group Republic are planning their biggest ever protest along the royal procession route.
They'll hold up placards, boo loudly and chant "not my king" as Charles passes in his gold coach.
Seeing the pomp and ceremony as the perfect chance to expose what they regard as an anachronistic institution.
Polls show Charles to be less popular than his mother Queen Elizabeth, who died last year.
Graham Smith heads Republic.
"I think the monarchy is in a lot of trouble because they have lost their star player. Support is clearly going down. Interest is going down and that's a big problem for them. So enthusiasm for the coronation is about nine per cent."
Anti-monarchy protests tend to be small and polls show the majority of Britons still want a royal family.
Support is slipping though.
About a decade ago three-quarters of Britons backed the royals. A YouGov poll this week put it at 58%.
And surveys suggest the young are less keen than older generations.
Only 9% of Britons say they care a great deal about the coronation.
Most British newspapers still support the thousand-year-old monarchy, though the Guardian has examined their opaque finances and put the king's personal wealth at almost $2.5 billion.
Charles says he wants a slimmed-down monarchy which would be less expensive to run.
Some, like author and Black Studies professor Kehinde Andrews, question whether there's a way forward.
"You have to accept that there are some institutions that can't be reformed. So the only thing that the royal family can do, if it is serious, is to abolish itself."
Demonstrations against the monarchy are also planned in the capitals of Scotland and Wales.
Those two nations - out of the four that make up the United Kingdom - are now led by republicans.
Historian of the royals Alice Hunt says she enjoys reflecting on Britain's past, but that doesn't mean nothing should change.
"But I think all of this would be still part of our history and story and image, identity, if they had a much reduced role, or if they weren't there at all. I think we would still go to Buckingham Palace and remember and think. But I don't think they have a place in modern Britain."
