Farkhund Yousafzai
London, 9 August 2024 (TDI): Britain’s Monarch Charles III has faced criticism for remaining silent on the near-daily riots seen since early last week following a deadly knife attack that killed three minors.
While the king and his wife Camilla conveyed their condolences to the families of the three girls killed in the mass stabbing on July 29, Buckingham Palace has not commented on the riots which ensued.
Historian and royal commentator Ed Owens said that he was surprised that the monarch as head of state has not come out more forcefully, given that it is a perilous moment for the country.
However, the constitutional law expert Craig Prescott said that the monarchy does not comment on current political events.
Once the riots have subsided, you might expect the royal family members to visit places affected and perhaps to see them more in multicultural settings, Prescott said in a post on X.
Charles’s silence is in keeping with his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who remained similarly silent during the last wave of riots which shook England in 2011.
It is typically explained by the expectation that UK monarchs avoid commenting on anything deemed political.
Owens argued King Charles, who has gradually resumed public duties after a cancer diagnosis earlier this year, may not have publicly commented due to two main reasons.
On the one side, the monarch may have been advised by his government that it would be unwise at this stage of intervene directly.
On the other, the king might himself have deemed the matter too “combustible.”
Authorities have blamed the riots, which have seen immigration-linked sites and mosques targeted, on far-right elements and “thugs.”
They are accused of trying to use the stabbing incident and growing mainstream right-wing concern over immigration levels to further their extreme cause.
