Lèse-majesté and less majesty

The Spanish royal family may be Bourbons but their reception on a visit to Paiporta today certainly took the biscuit.

Four days after the catastrophic DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) flooding in Valencia, Southern Spain, King Felipe, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, received a less than warm welcome when they arrived to inspect the clean-up operation and console residents - in fact they were pelted with mud by angry crowds and cries of "murderer" were directed at the king. At one point the queen was reduced to tears, while elsewhere in town Sánchez was bundled into his car which was kicked and hit by protesters as it sped off.

The crowd's animosity had been provoked by the regional government's failure to warn of the impending deluge, or swing into action with a rescue operation when it hit. Support from the state had also been slow to arrive and was inadequate when it did, leaving an army of volunteers to start the clean-up operation. There appeared to be a political stand-off between the regional rightwing PP administration and the national leftwing PSOE government. The people's verdict?: a plague on both your houses.

Apparently the authorities were well aware of the imminent 'upper-level isolated atmospheric depression' - a weather phenomenon often triggered in this region in autumn - and the threat it posed but failed to adequately warn citizens of the danger. Consequently, when a year's worth of rain fell in just eight hours the result was truly devastating. People who should have been warned to stay at home were drowned in their cars or in their underground garages while trying to move their vehicles out of harm's way. The death toll stands at two hundred and seventeen but is bound to rise. No wonder the people are furious and feel abandoned.

In the UK, meanwhile, the mud thrown at King Charles and Prince William was metaphorical, but it stuck. A Dispatches exposé aired on Channel 4 last night revealed the true extent of the vast profits made by the Duchies of Lancaster (for the king) and Cornwall (for the prince), all tax-exempt. The evidence had been painstakingly assembled by the  Dispatches team with the Sunday Times and painted a damaging picture of secrecy, greed and mismanagement which will have seriously embarrassed Buckingham Palace.

This revelation comes as the latest blow to the prestige of the British monarchy following the protest by a first nation Australian Senator on the king and queen's recent state visit. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa was also undermined by some prominent heads of government choosing to attend the BRICS meeting in Kazan hosted by Vladimir Putin instead. There was also disagreement over the matter of an apology and reparations for slavery. Then, during Rachel Reeves' Budget announcement in parliament, a highly visible group from Republic protested outside the Palace of Westminster in support of their claim that the monarchy actually costs the taxpayer £500 million per annum to support.

The age of deference is over - it's an uncomfortable time to be a king.


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