Unease is spreading – uncertain but palpable – regarding the forthcoming coronation. Because of the opaque nature of the preparations, conducted secretively behind palace walls, the precise details of the event remain obscure; but, as the date approaches, more information is becoming available and it is not reassuring. Among that part of the population – the vast but disregarded majority – that is instinctively royalist and celebratory, there is a growing dread that the coronation will be a drab, disappointing occasion that, so far from uplifting the nation, will be a dispiriting experience shaped by the acolytes of Britain’s managed decline.