Updating Gov.uk’s crown

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

UK government websites are updating their crown iconography and royal cypher to reflect King Charles III, prompting both technical nitpicks (like stale favicons and caching quirks) and debate over branding choices. Commenters weigh the aesthetic merits and recognisability of the new crown against the long-familiar Elizabeth II version, while questioning how much time and public money should be spent on such symbolic changes. The conversation widens into arguments over the role and legitimacy of constitutional monarchy, the value of shared state symbolism, and the generally high regard for the GOV.UK design system despite concerns such as reliance on Google Analytics.

Technical favicon / implementation details

  • Firefox appears to cache the favicon aggressively; users report difficulty forcing an update even with hard refreshes and manual clearing.
  • The blog’s WordPress theme still injects a link to an old favicon (favicon.ico) low in the HTML, explaining why the legacy crown persists on that page despite the new branding.
  • Some note this irony, since the article itself is about updating the crown; others point out the favicon has recently been updated server-side, so remaining issues are mostly caching.

Design & recognizability of the new crown

  • Several participants find the old crown more iconic and recognizable, attributing that partly to Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign.
  • Some feel the new, rounder Tudor-style crown looks more like a “ball” at a glance and is less distinctive.
  • There is light historical banter about Tudor vs Stuart associations and personal taste (e.g., St Edward’s Crown looking “better”).

Cost, scope, and bureaucracy of the rebrand

  • Some see the update as a “colossal waste” of time and money in a country with serious economic and social issues.
  • Others argue the cost is negligible relative to overall government spending and analogous to normal corporate rebrands.
  • People with public-sector experience describe large hidden costs: many internal tools, documents, and services, plus extensive guidance and planning across departments.
  • It’s noted that the visual change will be gradual (only as equipment, uniforms, and signage are replaced), similar to transitions between past monarchs.

Monarchy vs republic and symbolism

  • Strong republican views: monarchy labeled inherently undemocratic, “evil” as a symbol of hierarchy and inherited privilege, and tone-deaf in times of hardship.
  • Counter-views: constitutional monarchs today are largely symbolic, can provide continuity and a non-partisan head of state, and may help constrain elected leaders.
  • Some argue public opinion in the UK and some other monarchies still favors keeping the institution, partly to avoid politicized presidencies.
  • Debate over whether tying government identity to a personal royal cypher is bizarre or simply traditional and functional.

Constitutional role of “the Crown”

  • Clarification that UK law typically refers to “the Crown” (the office) rather than the individual monarch, enabling immediate succession.
  • Participants discuss royal prerogatives, Royal Assent, and past examples where monarchic power has been steadily curtailed but not eliminated.
  • There is disagreement over how “sham” versus potentially dangerous modern monarchy is, especially given special legal exemptions.

GOV.UK design system and implementation

  • GOV.UK’s design system is widely praised as one of the best government UX/UI examples: accessible, clear, and consistent.
  • Some non-UK institutions reportedly adopt it, minus monarchic symbols.
  • Criticism focuses on extensive use of Google Analytics on government sites, seen as ethically questionable data leakage to a private company.
  • Others suggest this likely originated as a pragmatic, low-level decision that is now bureaucratically hard to unwind.

Historical and international comparisons

  • Side discussions reference:
    • Old pillar boxes and royal cyphers in the UK and Ireland.
    • Japanese era-based dating and the disruption when emperors change.
    • Other monarchies (Nordic, Japanese, Andorran) and their varying legitimacy stories.
  • These are used both to normalize monarchy as one constitutional option and to show how odd and historically contingent such systems can be.