A number of senior left-wing Scottish politicians are plotting to undermine the forthcoming coronation ceremony of King Charles III.
Senior politicians from the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) and Alba Party are reportedly looking to undermine the coronation ceremony of Britain’s new king, Charles III.
The plot revolves around the coronation stone used during the crowning of a new British monarch, with the legendary item having an extremely disputed and contentious history involving conflict between England and Scotland.
Known by many names such as the Stone of Scone and the Lia Fáil — meaning Stone of Destiny in Gaelic — the legendary stone has played a major role in the legitimisation of Gaelic and Scottish kings until it was stolen by the English in the late 13th century.
The Stone of Scone, also known as the Coronation Stone, set into the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey. London, England, UK. (Photo by Angelo Hornak/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey, City of Westminster, London, England. Here seen with the Stone of Scone which was returned to Scotland in 1996. From Old England: A Pictorial Museum, published 1847.(Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The item has since been regularly used in the coronation of English — and later British — kings, though an agreement was reached in 1996 that the stone is to be kept in Scotland while not in use by the Royal Family.
However, now that the stone is once again required for the coming coronation, some Scottish nationalists are now demanding that it is not handed over until the Westminster government agrees to another independence referendum.
“In a context where the legitimate desire of the people of Scotland to at least have a referendum is being denied by the Westminster government, I don’t really see why any Scottish government should just meekly say we’ll give you back the property which you stole 700 years ago,” Alex Salmond of the pro-independence Alba Party told Sky News.
Such a position has seemingly been backed by SNP leadership hopeful Ash Regan, who reportedly expressed a belief that the stone should “remain in Scotland as an ancient symbol of our national heritage”.
Regan has proposed a compromise of the Royal Family holding the coronation ceremony in Scotland instead of England in order to prevent the stone from leaving the country.
“This would be a fitting tribute to the stone’s significance in Scottish history, while still honouring the traditions of the United Kingdom of the Crowns,” she said, emphasising that if she were elected leader, she would not allow it to be sent south.
Leaving aside the fact that “the United Kingdom of the Crowns” is not a real entity, the entire thrust of Salmond and Regan’s objections to the stone being used for a coronation in England is historically questionable, as while an English did carry it off with them in the 1290s, a King of Scots inherited the English throne from the childless Elizabeth I in the 1600s and the British monarchy has been of Scottish descent ever since — rendering the stone’s medieval theft essentially moot.
Indeed, suggestions by Scottish nationalists that the country’s devolved government should refuse to hand the legendary object over has outraged many pro-Britain unionists in the country.
“Ash Regan’s parroting of Alex Salmond’s nonsense really is the silliest appeal to the extremes of the nationalist movement,” one Scottish Conservative Party member, Donald Cameron, remarked.
“Anyone who knows anything about the stone’s history can see why it is appropriate for it to be at the King’s coronation and will see it as a mark of Scotland’s importance in a great event for the whole of the United Kingdom,” he added.
Cameron also insisted that the stone would be returned to Scotland after it was used in the coronation ceremony, saying that nationalists in the country “really should not be losing any sleep” over its safety.
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