First of all: it was a coincidence, but it must have been galling to Putin that both the Queens burial and the crowning of Charles III were two occasions that the British, geopolitical competitors of Russia since the era of the Eurasian “Great Game” around China, Afghanistan and Persia, presented the world with two brilliant military displays of discipline, high-end marching ability, historical uniforms, and with a plethora of Commonwealth troops joining in.

By contrast, the May 9^th military parades for Russia’s VE Day over the “Nazis”, since 1945 one of the main manifestations of Soviet/Russian military might, have been toned down because after the fake “two slow drones attacking the Kremlin”-charade, Russia pretends that NATO infiltrators are attacking the Kremlin, citadel of Moscow, and screams that “they” want to kill Putin (who in reality seldom visits the Kremlin itself anyway; see: Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network | Vladimir Putin | The Guardian ).

But I really want to talk about two recent royal festivities celebrated in public in big cities in our neighbouring countries:

• the 10th anniversary of the crowning of king William Alexander of the Netherlands, celebrated as usual every year by the royal family touring festively through a big Dutch city and seeing (and participating in) musical and other displays and mini-manifestations by citizens (and NGO’s and entrepreneurs) in that city (this year: Rotterdam); and
• the (policing of the) Coronation parade from and to Buckingham Palace, and the further limits on public protest proposed (and enacted) by the Tories at the time of their heavy democratic defeat in the local elections.

This year’s Dutch royal tour was unusual because our crown princess Amalia has been living a restricted life (staying with her parents instead of her students’ digs in Amsterdam) since October because of threatening talk in circles of Dutch organised crime {see BBC: Princess Amalia: Security fears force Dutch princess from student home – BBC News }. Journalists who wanted to cover the tour had to go through a vetting procedure, as newspaper De Volkskrant {Dutch equivalent of The Guardian} reported { Koning Willem-Alexander viert zijn tiende Koningsdag als Rotterdammer onder de Rotterdammers: ‘Geen woorden, maar daden’ (volkskrant.nl)  }; and security was increased to an unheard-of degree.

But that didn’t stop the organizers (the royal palace, government and Rotterdam city government} from adding a brand new, political intermezzo to the tour: at a given stage, the king and queen sat down on a square at two debating tables along the route to discuss with activist citizens

• a social security scandal of defective algorithms deciding (and government departments mishandling) childcare benefits to low-income households; this is seen as a point of concern in citizen-government relations {see: Dutch government faces collapse over child benefits scandal | Netherlands | The Guardian }; and
• the recent official government’s excuse for our role in the age of slavery {see: Dutch PM apologises for Netherlands’ role in slave trade | Netherlands | The Guardian }. The King, a graduated Leiden University historian himself, has started an official academic inquiry into the involvement of the Orange royal family (including King-Stadholder William III!) in the slave trade and plantation exploitation {see: Dutch king commissions research into royal role in colonialism | Netherlands | The Guardian }. This follows years of campaigning to let the Dutch confront and accept facts about their slavery and plantation economy colonial past.

Along the route of their Rotterdam tour, the royals and their entourage also passed a cluster of antimonarchist “Republican” demonstrators in the crowds on the pavement; they exchanged some words but no-one got arrested.

This in a Dutch political environment with increasing online threats against government ministers from drugs criminals, and physical demonstrations by radicalized protesting farmers against ministers and party (D66: Sigrid Kaag) leaders (see: Dutch PM given extra security amid fears of drug gang attack | Netherlands | The Guardian and Dutch farmers’ protests – Wikipedia }.

Groups like Extinction Rebellion and animal rights radicals are just as active in the Netherlands  (a country with a famous intensive cattle-farming tradition and petrochemical giants like Shell at Europoort) as in Britain , but the Dutch government (with D66 ministers…) doesn’t use their blockades as an excuse to infringe the right to protest peacefully.

* Dr. Bernard Aris is a historian, a D66 parliamentary researcher and a LibDem supporting member.