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A 15ft dinosaur dubbed ‘Chuck Rex’ was at the center of a rally calling for the abolition of the monarchy ahead of the first anniversary of King Charles’ coronation.
It will be a year from royal coronation on Monday, when gun salutes across the capital will mark his reign.
Around 100 people attended Sunday’s rally in Trafalgar Square in central London, which was organized by campaign group Republic, along with parallel events in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Protesters chanted “Abdicate, abdicate” in front of two large yellow banners reading “Abolish the monarchy” and “Change the country forever”.
Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, said the group had brought in the huge puppet dinosaur to represent the anachronism of the monarchy. “Petrified remains should be in a museum where we can look at them and then enjoy actual life in a modern democracy,” he said.
Smith and other members of the Republic were arrested last year to participate in a prearranged protest on the day of the coronation. Smith was detained for 14 hours and began a lawsuits against the Metropolitan Police last year.
He told the crowd that the action was continuing. “We need to challenge the monarchy and the royals because it’s a corrupt institution – they’re lazy people, they haven’t earned their position and they need to be kicked out,” he said.
He continued: “We want a constitution, a system and a democracy that truly celebrates our best principles and values. This will not just be a matter of principle, it will change the way we govern ourselves and therefore change society and the way we see ourselves not as subjects but as citizens.
Smith said the public was “forced to compromise our values and principles” and compared the control of politicians to that of the monarchy.
“We criticize MPs for spending thousands of pounds on a second home… but we don’t [Prince] William for spending £4.5m of our money to build not his second home or his third home but his fourth,” he said.
Smith told the Guardian that the first year of Charles’ reign saw a surge in interest in the idea of abolishing the monarchy.
“We’ve grown tremendously in the last 12 months, we’ve got more money, more members, more activists. There’s no way we could have organized this two years ago. Charles is not the Queen [Elizabeth]. I mean the Queen was the monarchy for a lot of people.
While the poll, published on Sunday, suggested an increase in support for King Charles, it also showed a rise in people who believe the UK should become a republic.
An Ipsos poll for the Mail on Sunday showed 56% believed Charles was doing a good job as king, up from 49% last year. It also found that 28% of people support Britain becoming a republic, compared to 22% four months before Queen Elizabeth’s death in 2023.
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The human rights activist Peter Tatchell, who has supported the Republic for decades, was one of the speakers. He told the Guardian: “The monarchy symbolizes elitism, privilege and respectability. This is completely incompatible with a modern democracy of the 21st century.
“The royals have between them 23 palaces and residences, 700 servants and a combined personal wealth of £2 billion.
Tatchell said support for the monarchy was “slipping away”, pointing to enthusiasm for republicanism among young people. The latest Ipsos poll found that a third of young people said it “would be better” if the monarchy were abolished, compared with just one in six of older people.
Shortly after the rally, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised King Charles’ “sense of duty” as he returned to public events after his cancer diagnosis.
In a statement released to coincide with the anniversary of the coronation, Justine Welby said it had been the “privilege of a lifetime” to anoint the King and Queen at the ceremony.
The King attended three events last week as he resumed royal engagements with the public. His first meeting was with cancer specialists and patients receiving chemotherapy at the University College Hospital Cancer Center in London.
Reflecting on how Charles has dealt with his ill health, Welby said: “The past year has presented the King with some great personal challenges. But I was struck by his continued sense of duty after recently returning to royal engagements following treatment.
“His openness in sharing his condition is indicative of his willingness to help and support others.”
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