Long live Mrs Ethel Shroake

The more I read about the upcoming coronation, the more I’m reminded of this old Nemesis the Warlock image:

After his disappearance and presumed death, the spirit of Torquemada reappears in Termight where “there was much rejoicing”, and at bottom left we see some of Torquemada’s Terminators making sure there’s rejoicing. It feels from this admitted distance that this is what Saturday’s festivities are going to be like, especially with this news from the Home Office:

Official warning letters have been sent to anti-monarchists planning peaceful protests at King Charles III’s coronation saying that new criminal offences to prevent disruption have been rushed into law.
Using tactics described by lawyers as “intimidatory”, the Home Office’s Police Powers Unit wrote to the campaign group Republic saying new powers had been brought forward to prevent “disruption at major sporting and cultural events”.
The new law, given royal assent by Charles on Tuesday, means that from Wednesday:
— Protesters who block roads, airports and railways could face 12 months behind bars.
— Anyone locking on to others, objects or buildings could go to prison for six months and face an unlimited fine.
— Police will be able to head off disruption by stopping and searching protesters if they suspect they are setting out to cause chaos.
“I would be grateful if you could publicise and forward this letter to your members who are likely to be affected by these legislative changes,” says the Home Office letter, which lists the creation of a number of new criminal offences under the government’s much criticised public order bill.
The Home Office claims that the timing of the laws is coincidental. But lawyers have told Republic that the letter could be viewed as intimidatory, days before planned demonstrations in central London around the coronation.

I don’t know how else anyone could view that except as a form of governmental intimidation. I mean… if it is coincidental, the timing is weird, coming just a few days before a very particular “major cultural event” the date of which would’ve been known and confirmed for several months before they just so happened to spring these new rules designed to stop people intending to Not Rejoice on Charlie’s big day. And, like I said in my last coronation post, there will be Rejoicing on the big day, and I don’t think Rishi Sunak will even need to send in the Terminators to make sure of it. The crowd will be intimidating enough… Speaking of which, the spokesman from the Republic group says in that article that the police have been happy up to now for their protest to go ahead, but, frankly, this seems as unlikely to me as the “coincidence”; come the day they’ll do whatever they’ve been told to do, and they’ll have been told to make sure people don’t Not Rejoice.