Since Queen Elizabeth II’s 2022 death, all of the Windsors’ big, signature events have seen decreased attendance, empty barricades and increasingly large anti-monarchy demonstrations. In June, this year’s Trooping the Colour featured such sparse crowds, most British outlets refused to publish wide-shot photos. The Windsors can’t announce their public events ahead of time because Republic will bring out their inflatable dinosaur and their bullhorns. So, here’s the latest indignity for the Windsors and for King Charles’ sausage-fingered reign: the Metropolitan Police will reduce their presence at future Trooping parades.

The Metropolitan Police is to reduce protection for Trooping the Colour, The Telegraph can reveal. The force has “cut the vast majority” of officers it provides to police the King’s birthday parade, as well as other ceremonial events including gun salutes and Changing of the Guard.

Instead, the Met will provide “minimal” protection, with far fewer police on the ground at events. The bulk of the responsibility will instead be contracted to a private company, The Telegraph understands.

The cuts, due to take place next month, were the result of budget cuts and increased demand for officers to cover front-line policing, the Met said. Police sources insisted the Met would continue to support the military on “nationally significant events”. It is understood the Met will provide support based on “where the threat, harm and risk assessments justify it”.

However, a defence source told The Telegraph: “They are not supporting Trooping the Colour in the same way, nor many other events.”

It was stressed that having a police presence was “vital” to ensuring ceremonial events run safely and that any deployment of police officers was an independent operational decision. An Army source said the decision would cause concern because a private company could not “provide the same level of assurance to the soldiers and the public about safety in the face of any potential security risk”.

[From The Telegraph]

Granted, this move is about more than just the sparse crowds and the declining interest in the Windsors. But I guarantee that if the monarchy was in good shape and those people were still genuinely popular (as opposed to merely tolerated and propped up by emotional-support polls), the Met Police would have a significant presence at all of these big events. Outsourcing security to private companies for these kinds of events shows that the Met Police aren’t actually worried about large-scale threats to the crown anymore. It’s an acknowledgement that police providing security at Trooping is basically just setting up empty barricades, controlling an already sparse crowd and trying to help the Windsors save face from the increasingly loud anti-monarchy demonstrations.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.