‘Out of touch & out of time’: Angry Brits react to pomp & ceremony of Queen’s Speech

Queen Elizabeth has delivered a post-election speech opening Parliament, but not all were enthralled by the pageantry of the occasion, many complaining on Twitter about poverty, homelessness and the ‘out of touch’ monarch.

New figures from the Shelter charity earlier this week showed that more than 280,000 people will be homeless on Christmas Day in England alone — up 23,000 since 2017. The numbers are a conservative estimate, too, since they don’t reflect those who are couch-surfing or living in sheds and tents, the charity said.

Needless to say, plenty of anger was directed toward the 93-year-old monarch on social media as she arrived to the Houses of Parliament in a Bentley, and laid out Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s program for government from atop a golden throne.

“That Crown could probably house London's homeless over Christmas…” one user wrote on Twitter. Her throne is worth “more money than the average person makes in a life,”said another.

Another described the event as a “parade of diamonds, furs, pomp, circumstance and privilege in Parliament whilst the nation has record levels of homelessness and poverty.”

The speech was also panned by another angry Brit as “outdated imperialist claptrap,” and the Queen was slammed as the UK’s“biggest scrounger.”

In fact, the Queen opted for a more toned-down look during Thursday’s event, forgoing a crown and ceremonial robes and wearing a hat and day dress instead, her last speech to Parliament having been delivered only two months ago. 

On that occasion, she wore a crown adorned with 1,333 diamonds and 169 pearls, and arrived to Parliament in a horse-drawn carriage. An even fancier crown estimated to be worth £3.6 million was by her side during both speeches.

Meanwhile, Shelter charity chief executive Polly Neate said Tuesday that thousands of families will spend Christmas day “trapped in grotty emergency B&Bs, with no space for children to sit and eat, let alone play.”

Across Britain, it’s estimated that about 135,000 children will spend the holiday without a home, the highest number in 12 years. Shelter blamed the crisis on a lack of affordable housing and the fact that housing benefit has been frozen since 2016.

Over 10 years of Conservative Party rule, homeless figures in Britain shot up 39 percent. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament Tuesday that tackling the crisis would be a part of his “huge agenda of delivering social justice.”

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