OFFICIAL figures I obtained under freedom of information rules show a maximum 130,000 people went to watch King Charles’s coronation procession on May 6 this year. By comparison 215,000 attended his mother’s funeral procession, showing declining enthusiasm for royalty.

Press reports only described “tens of thousands” cheering on Charles and Camilla — the way no official estimates of turnout were given made me suspect the figure was low. 

So I asked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which was responsible for coronation crowd management, if it had more accurate figures. 

DCMS said it had no “estimates for total crowd numbers,” but told me the total capacity for the coronation viewing areas “along the ceremonial route and at designated public viewing sites in Hyde Park, Green Park and St James’s Park” was 130,000. So even if the viewing sites were totally full — which they weren’t — the maximum turnout was 130,000.

By comparison, the Mayor of London’s Office estimated 215,000 people gathered in central London for the queen’s funeral procession last September, along a very similar route. 

DCMS was clearly expecting less interest in King Charles than the departure of queen Elizabeth, as it only prepared viewing areas with a maximum 130,000 capacity. 

As there were no reports of overcrowding, it looks like it was right. Weather for the coronation was poor, which may have suppressed attendance, but other conditions were similar — the coronation was on a Saturday (with an added bank holiday the following Monday), the funeral on a special bank holiday Monday. 

The lower public attendance figures for the coronation also follow known estimates of television viewing figures: the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board reckons 20 million UK TV viewers watched the coronation compared to 29m for the funeral.

The 130,000 maximum also means the coronation attracted smaller crowds than some recent political demonstrations: police estimates, which are not generous, suggest 400,000 to 450,000 for anti-Brexit “second referendum” protests in 2018 and 2019, and 250,000 for the TUC anti-austerity march in 2011.  

There is no police figure for the second anti-austerity march of 2015, but reported estimates put attendance of between 70,000 and 150,000. 

When Donald Trump visited Britain in 2018, crowd estimates put anti-Trump demonstrations in London at between 100,000 and 200,000 — which was particularly remarkable as this Friday demonstration happened during the working week. 

Charles and Camilla also got much less support than some “alternative” communal events — the Durham Miners’ Gala can draw between 100,000 and 200,000 people, while the Notting Hill Carnival attracts around two million people, which is pretty impressive for an event founded by black communist woman, Claudia Jones.

Above all, the figures show that much enthusiasm for the royals died with the queen. Charles like to see himself as a “reforming royal.” But one year on has Charles has done anything to revive enthusiasm for the crown?

Milburn and the ministerial merry-go-round

FORMER Labour health secretary Alan Milburn and his family shared £1.27m this year from his work advising private health and other companies, according to the 2023 accounts of his advice company, AM Strategy, filed at the end of August. 

Milburn was Tony Blair’s health secretary from 1999-2003, pioneering New Labour’s embrace of NHS privatisation. He has earned a good living as an adviser to private investors and companies ever since. 

Consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says he is its top health adviser. Milburn sits on the advisory board of Lancaster University, and according to them, he is also an adviser to Centene, the giant US health firm which has many, much-criticised NHS contracts supplying GPs.

He is also an adviser to Bridgepoint Capital, the private equity firm with health investments including British care provider Care UK, and an adviser to confectionery giant Mars UK. 

The accounts of AM Strategy give little detail, but do show a £1.27m dividend payment to the shareholder-directors. 

Milburn himself will get 75 per cent of the income, his wife gets 15 per cent while his two children share 10 per cent between them. 

Their income is actually down on 2022, when his advisory firm brought in £2.14m. However, it’s still a very comfortable sum for a former pro-privatisation Labour minister to earn from corporate advice. 

Labour’s current shadow ministers all seem equally enthusiastic about continued NHS privatisation, despite its poor record and unpopularity with their members: perhaps they also look forward to Milburn-style post-ministerial careers.

Dealing with hard times

I’D RECOMMEND Fazia Guene’s latest novel Discretion, published in paperback in Britain this year, to all Morning Star readers. Guene is a French author of Algerian heritage. 

She broke through with Kiffe Kiffe Demain (Just Like Tomorrow) in 2004, a novel of growing up in the Banlieues. 

This book is about how two generations of French-Algerians deal with the hard times and insults of life.

It’s warm, funny and sad, with lots of insights to different ways to try deal with knockbacks, from the mum who simply refuses to notice any of the prejudice around her and just “smiles through” to the kids who are angry a lot of the time, and so get frustrated with their mum’s apparent calmness. 

The novel has a lot to say about the migrant experience, but will also ring true to anyone who knows about growing up in modest circumstances: like the mum who responds to hard times by not just shielding her family, but also enraging her daughters by spoiling her son rotten. 

Or the “survival generation” parents who thought their job was to make sure their kids were fed and warm rather than entertained, for whom holidays just meant long journeys to stay with endless relatives, not some kind of kid-focused fun.  

Guene writes with an easily readable, sightly amused style (well translated by Sarah Ardizzone) that has a lot of depth under an apparently plain surface.