Wednesday 4 June, 2014 It's enough to make any republican choke on their breakfasts: the Queen's taxi to Parliament this morning has diamond and sapphire encrusted door handles and more gold leaf than a playboy's seduction suite. It is also a cut-and-paste job that may make it more acceptable in this age of austerity. The coach was built by an Australian who, having been given a bit of Nelson's Victory, scrounged scraps of British history from all over the place. Here's a bit of Scott's Antarctic sled, there's a bit of a Lancaster bomber, ooh look, a bit of Newton's apple tree and a rivet from the Flying Scotsman. But you can't build something like this out of slivers of wood from an array of centuries, the truth is it must have cost a bomb. Some have put a price of £3m on it. What is worth noting, though, is that it has been paid for by the Royal Collection, using private donations.
Its opulence may be eye-wateringly inappropriate, but it's the first new state coach for 100 years, and heritage and pageantry are essential aspects of our tourist industry. How inappropriate would it be, for example, to spend £3m on the Tower of London, Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Westminster?
But that doesn't excuse the diamond and sapphire handles.
Its opulence may be eye-wateringly inappropriate, but it's the first new state coach for 100 years, and heritage and pageantry are essential aspects of our tourist industry. How inappropriate would it be, for example, to spend £3m on the Tower of London, Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Westminster?
But that doesn't excuse the diamond and sapphire handles.
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