By Kathleen Nutt
THE Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer has criticised the significant spending on events to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this week while millions of Britons face a cost of living crisis.
Mr Greer, who represents the west of Scotland, said the huge expenditure made him feel "deeply uneasy".
A series of events are being held this week in London including The Queen's Birthday Parade, Trooping the Colour, on Thursday, a service of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral to be attended by the royal family on Friday and a "Platinum Party at the Palace concert" hosted by the BBC on Saturday.
Former Supremes singer Diana Ross is to headline the special BBC concert bringing the event to a close.
The singer will be one of the centrepieces of the Jubilee concert, which will be staged on a vast circular platform on the Victoria Memorial. Other acts include Queen, which will evoke memories of Brian May playing God Save The Queen on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Golden Jubilee in 2002. Duran Duran and Andrea Bocelli have also signed up.
READ MORE: Scots food banks struggle to meet demand as cost of living soars
Mr Greer, who is his party's spokesman for International Development and External Affairs, Education and Skills, and Culture and Media, said: “It makes me deeply uneasy that vast sums of public money will be spent on the Jubilee at the same time as millions of families are pushed to breaking point by the cost of living crisis.
"I respect people who hold a different point of view and don’t begrudge them their celebrations, but the Scottish Greens believe passionately that in a healthy democracy the people should choose their head of state, and that individuals should be accountable to those who elected them.”
A further concert is to take place, reportedly costing £15m on Sunday in front of Buckingham Palace. It is understood the money has been raised from corporate sponsors and individuals.
On February 6 this year the Queen became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.
To celebrate the anniversary, events are taking place throughout the year, culminating in a four day UK bank holiday weekend from Thursday June 2 to Sunday June 5.
MSPs are expected to pay tribute to the Queen in Holyrood on Wednesday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel