Shock As Millions Shun The Jubilee

Tuesday June 05, 2012 12:13

by Phil

this is a bristol indymedia story

Less than 10% of the UK's estimated 63 million population are believed to have actively celebrated the Diamond Jubilee on Saturday 2 June, the main day of activities that included the boat procession on the Thames in London. Some 57 million UK citizens stayed well away.

Around 1 million are believed to have attended the Thames event, significantly less than the attendance at the great anti-war march in 2003. Elsewhere around the UK another 5 million are believed to have participated in formal clebrations and informal street parties. In Bristol alone over the weekend, a paltry 91 street parties/road closures occurred, a figure not dissimilar proportionally to the road closures required for the annual St Pauls Carnival (cancelled this year due to lack of funds) which takes place in just one small neighbourhood of Bristol.

The low turnout across the UK comes despite a year long campaign by the political & royal establishment, backed up by the massed ranks of the media, and by big business seeking yet another opportunity to turn a profit. Millions of pounds of public money has been spent on facilitating events, security and media coverage.

Many citizens chose to flee the UK for the weekend, jamming up roads, rail, boat and air transport. The unlucky millions stuck at home, unable to go out due to the poor weather, faced countless hours of sycophantic TV from the main media organisations, with the BBC acting as an embarassing mouthpiece for the royal institution across most of its outlets. It was so so boring!