Last weekend the public were invited to applaud the King’s Birthday Parade, or ‘Trooping The Colour’ at this royal annual ceremonial pageant, which sees the Household Cavalry and King’s Troop process down the Mall with marching bands and Royal guests, before members of the Royal family emerge on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch an RAF flypast which includes the Red Arrows.
In the weeks leading up to the event, the peaceful anti-monarchist campaign group Republic negotiated with police to hold their small protest on the Mall and exercise their democratic rights to demonstrate that not all of the public are supporters of the paedophile-adjacent and very costly Royals.
In 2025, the group had agreed all of the police restrictions on their protest, and were led to believe that once the parade had passed, they would be allowed to join the rest of the public moving up towards the Palace as the barriers each side of The Mall were opened, but in fact, the police reneged on the deal and held them in situ, so they were out of sight of the Royals.
This year, during the afternoon before the event, the police once again moved the goalposts, telling the group that they would have to remain some distance away from the barriers while the processions past, claiming that without these conditions there were “reasonable grounds to believe there would be serious risk or property damage or disruption”. Given such short notice, and with no resources for a costly legal challenge (which would almost certainly have been won), the group once again found their protest significantly curtailed.
To avoid a repeat of the previous year however, a separate group joined the crowd in front of the palace, and managed to raise 12 yellow umbrellas, each with black lettering spelling out the phrase “STOP THE REIGN”, and this year a prepped main group moved quickly up the Mall when the barriers were opened, and found a position where their flags and banners would have been very visible from the Royal balcony during the fly-past.
Republic are still awaiting final negotiations for a substantial compensation payment from the Metropolitan Police for unlawful arrests at the King’s Coronation. Having liaised with the police for several weeks and organised a protest area along the route, they were surprised to be ambushed on the morning of the event as they unloaded placards from a van. Several were held in custody throughout the day, and the group’s banners and placards were also impounded, gutting the impact and visibility of their lawful demonstration.
Later the same day, Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested en masse, along with accredited journalists, having been spotted simply standing in the crowd along the Mall. Again, the Met was forced to make substantial payouts and apologies for their overreach.
Police repression is particularly associated with the Met, but can happen anywhere ther Royals are challenged by perfectly lawful protest. In September 2022, at a local Coronation ‘Proclamation’ in Oxford, Symon Hill was arrested by Thames Valley police and held for hours, for shouting out “Who elected him?” – he later received an apology and compensation for his ordeal.
Peacefully protesting anti-monarchists suffered mass pre-emptive arrests at both the Royal Wedding in 2011 and at the Queen’s Jubilee in 2002 where 40 people identified as Republicans were arrested while sitting in a pub miles from the ceremonies. Again the Met ended up having to pay out substantial sums – all tax payers’ money – for their unlawful and repressive behaviour.
Public support for the Royals has been waning for some years, and polls are starting to show consistent results of below 50%, with around a third now calling for abolition. Real Media recently filmed the Republic campaign’s third annual Republic Day in Trafalgar Square which included a march with their 15-metre long dinosaur ‘Chuck The Rex’ to the gates of the Palace. The article analyses the cost and benefits (or otherwise) of the Royals.
