Look, it’s embarassing. A nation of supposedly independent minded people, a strong republican movement and at the first sight of the Duke and Duchess it has all gone to jelly.
With the prospect of Charlie and Camilla “running” things the affection for the royals was indeed waning. But now we have good bloke Harry and his ,no sarcasm, worthy and wonderful Invictus games plus the lovely and loveable Megan, It’s a charm offensive to end all charm offensives. She bakes banana bread and brings it to a country fete for heaven’s sake. All she needs is to wear a pencil skirt from Suits and I will be voting for retention of the monarchy.
So send em back before things get too pathetic.
I would ask you to keep them, and have some more to boot – hell, all of them if it comes to that – but I would miss the entertainment value of the vitriol Meghan raises in the comments pages of the right wing press.
Edit – out of curiosity, where are they (and presumably you?)
I am in Melbourne where they were yesterday. Before that in regional towns and a news flash has them on Bondi beach this morning. It seems clouds and rain are following them. Mind you we need the rain.
Another vote for keeping them and flying the rest of the scrounging bastard’s family over. Feed them to the bloody sharks.
As she has been on the throne for all of my life, I have a soft spot for Brenda, but the rest can go to hell (or Australia, whichever is hottest). Brian is a prick, you only have to read some of the ‘black spider’ letters he tried to have suppressed to see how much of an ‘intellectual’ he appears to believe he is, without any supporting evidence. His espousal of homeopathy alone should be enough to disbar him, and any of his offspring to be on the safe side, from the throne.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Son-of-Brenda referred to as Brian before.
Private Eye. Subscribe.
My 89 year old mum who adores anothing royal is really troubled by what the new baby may look like. She just can’t get her head around it. No malice involved at all just a slightly confused aged person who’s whole idea of “Royal” is about to be tipped on its head.
My former brother wastall and skinny. His wife short and no eacaping it , obese. He asked a friend what it would look like and he said … an emu.
Is there anybody who wants them back? I don’t think so. They seem nice enough but very expensive for the tax payer. He isn’t even the ‘spare’ any more. Isn’t he fifth in line now?
Going by the tabloid pics of jolly folk in festive Union Jack attire, cheery of smile and doughty of temperament, camped out at Windsor, preparing for the recent Eugenie nuptials with 5am Thermos and sandwiches, I’d say a fair few do want them back. The Mail Online meanwhile are devoting cartloads of megabytes to the current Harry n Meghan slog through Oz, so I’m guessing there’s sufficient audience to make that worthwhile.
We’ve had royals since time immemorial. What would we replace them with? The idea of an elected President- Blair, Brown, Cameron or May leaves me nonplussed
That was my opinion until I spent a bit of time looking at the recent Irish presidents. Whil they were ‘affiliated’ to political parties, the parties input into the election process is minimal, and when in office they are studiously apolitical, acting as a national figurehead only. The idea of Blair, Johnson, Lord Snooty, Farage, or any other shabby populist being UK president is nauseous, but what about someone like Stephen Fry, or Jennifer Saunders?
That would be the ideal, somewhat like parliament’s Speaker but elected directly by the voters, rather than the MPs and not restricted to being a parliamentarian or former parliamentarian.
Sadly I can’t see any of our current political parties wanting a president who wasn’t under party control.
The idea of President Fry is about as nauseating as I can imagine.
Marginally better than President Clarkson.
Ah, 5am Thermos, so *that* was his name.
5AM Thermos – unreleased KLF remix.
My chortle exactly, @minibreakfast
Suits him too, as I gather he manages an off-license or something similar.
You don’t actually need a head of state – some countries (e.g. Switzerland) manage to get by without one.
In the Swiss case the head of state is effectively held by a 7 member cross-party council, which changes a member every six months.
The debate about who would replace the Royal Family is interesting. Given that they do nothing crucial to life as we know it, I would suggest no replacement is needed. I honestly think that the whole edifice could be disestablished and it would make absolutely no difference.
If we can do Brexit – we can do Rex-it.
I agree. Why have a president at all?
Here in Italy we have a President whose role is pretty similar to the Queen’s, dragged out for state occasions and symbolically approving Parliament etc. Surprisingly for Italy all the Presidents since I’ve lived here have done the job with dignity, despite the often rather unusual antics of their various Prime Ministers. As the UK’s Head of State I think Liz has fulfilled the role with exceptional dignity. I would probably vote for her. But of course there is no vote and I hope the monarchy is abolished when she goes. As an institution it is at best an embarrassment, at worst an obscenity.
My main gripe is that we’re somehow supposed to show deference to them. That’s not so much off a problem with a Queen that I’ve always known in that position but will be a problem when the over educated dimwit takes over. Its pretty much impossible to show him any respect at all.
Mrs. T and I have completely opposite views – I complain bitterly whenever any of the freeloading bastards appear on the ‘news’ and I genuinely have no idea why people are happy to defer to these people because of an accident of birth. As for camping out to gawp at them – what the actual fuck? Mrs. T loves them….except Charles and Camilla….’cos of Diana, natch.
Sometimes it’s handy though. We went down to see the 100 year RAF (I’d rename it the GBAF) flypast. When I saw the footage on television later, it looked like a bit of a crush down by Buck House but back down the Mall, well out of site of the freeloaders there was plenty of room.