Sebastian and Annabelle weren’t mad keen on watching the coronation today. I tried to persuade them, on the basis that ‘it’s history’ but they weren’t having any of it. I do think this is a shame; I’m convinced that by the next coronation they will have done away with all this pomp and ceremony so this will be the last chance to see something like this. But the lure of YouTube was too great.

Of course, they didn’t miss much. My best bits were Floella Benjamin (sadly they don’t know who she is) and Penny Mordaunt’s upper body strength (not that impressive to a young thing with all the energy in the world); but let’s face it the rest was a bit dull. I did call them through for the actual crown bit which they were greatly bemused by. When a gold cape was presented to the king Annie said, “Is that a blanket?” A minute later Hue Edwards said it was the robe of righteousness so I told her this and all she said was, “It looks uncomfortable”. Which, to be fair, it did. After it was done Sebastian said, “Do we have to watch the Queen get crowned too?” as if this would be the worst thing in the world. I said no, and they both scampered back to YouTube.

Should they have cared more? I dunno. They have done a lot of coronation things at school – they made crowns and had a picnic yesterday where apparently the Head Teacher dressed up as the King (?) and they watched a Newsround special – so maybe they have coronation fatigue. Or maybe this is a sign of the decreasing relevance of all this ceremony and formality. Or maybe they are just kids; not sure I would have been bothered about it at 10 or 11 either.

Annie just came back through. “Is that still on?”