[Closed] Thank you Ma'am

https://republic.org.uk/what-we-want

Do you think Cameron would have been available to open the new Borders-to-Edinburgh railway today? Because that's what the Queen was doing.

I'm kind of assuming that was ironic! All that irrelevant bobbins should be the first to be struck off the list of stupid jobs that didn't need doing in the first place.

For me the monarchy is giant symbol of inequity. We live in a society where we try to instil a culture that every man and woman, provided they have the capability, can strive for any role in society. We continue to attempt to break down class divides and we bemoan the number of privately educated people that end up at Oxbridge and in the top paying jobs. As a nation we think we stand for equality and fairness. Yet right up there like a massive belisha beacon shining out for all the world to see is some old dear born into a divine right to be head of state and her idiot son waiting in the wings to take over. A huge symbol to every child that no matter how hard you strive, there will be some things you will never be good enough for. To the rest of the world a giant symbol of our archaic system of governance.

Yet those in the most underprivileged positions in our society with seemingly the most to be peeved about when it comes to equality seems to be her most ardent supporters. Those with barely a pot to piss in are the first to stand on the street and wave a plastic union flag whist shedding a tear as she trundles past giving them a condescending wave. I am baffled by my fellow British subjects.

Given the opportunity I'd happily be the person who got to press the button to eject the lot of them into space (you'd have to get the whole lot of them - leave one behind and the canker would grow again) not because I dislike them personally but because I think the nation would be better for it. I appreciate I would be the most vilified man alive if I did it though. Cruel to be kind and all that.

Which is what we've got at the moment with the PM and political parties. This is just about replacing a hereditary monarch who we're all supposed to bow down before with an elected head of state to open hospitals and meet foreign dignitaries and the like.

I have no idea why you think that would be any different to just having the PM as head of state?

You get exactly the same problems: someone who is power hungry and only in the job for a short period. Basically anyone who actively wants such a job probably shouldn't get it.

I suppose you could rectify these issues by making it a lifetime term, and selecting the candidate at random. But then that wouldn't be much different from a monarch.

I'm kind of assuming that was ironic! All that irrelevant bobbins should be the first to be struck off the list of stupid jobs that didn't need doing in the first place.

Absolutely, what are all these people doing celebrating and having a nice day out to see the Queen today?

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[img] [/img]

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They should all be busy working for the betterment of the [s]U.K.[/s] .. sorry..
the Allied Republic of Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and Previous Empires.

As I said - people are weird. Seeing the Queen and imagining it was a fun thing - odd. But people seem to have an equally nice day out at a shopping centre. I suspect some people as just easily pleased idiots. I've met the queen to talk to and everything - it wasn't all that.

To be fair, in that top photo only one bloke appears to have noticed that the Queen is there - but look how excited he looks! 😀

I don't get the "it's better than an elected head of state" argument.

What you're saying is that someone randomly chosen by accident of birth is always going to be better at the job than someone who's got there by merit, elected presumably because people think they'd be a good choice.

Is this another way of saying that the electorate is stupid, so can't be trusted to choose the head of state?

And presumably, by extension, can't be trusted to choose the government. Down with this sort of democracy thing!!

Have you ever read the comment on YouTube?

If we had a [i]real[/i] democracy then those people would have a say in important decisions that directly effect our lives.

Scary!

Versus someone who [s]got to the top because they really really wanted the power and might only have four short years to make as much money and "social change" as possible before they can disappear and blame it all on their successor.[/s]can be booted out if we don't like them

FTFY.

She's done a good job of everything except the heir, and if she hangs on just a wee bit longer we can end the entire royalty thing on a high

Have you ever read the comment on YouTube?
If we had a real democracy then those people would have a say in important decisions that directly effect our lives.
Scary!

Well, now you point it out...

Actually, if you don't like the look of any of Elizabeth's heirs, there's plenty of precedent for just getting rid of them and getting someone else in. You could almost call it traditional...
William Rufus: Killed in a hunting “accident”
Edward II: murdered
Richard II: deposed, murdered
Edward V: deposed, murdered
Richard III: Killed in battle fought to depose him
Henry VI: deposed, possibly murdered
Charles I: Deposed and executed
James II: Deposed
George V: euthanized

With apologies for any I missed.

Cant we just get rid of the scrounging gits who cost us a fortune ,flog their bloody great houses to Arabs and save a fortune ?

...can be booted out if we don't like them

That system must be why we end up with such likeable politicians?

Cant we just get rid of the scrounging gits who cost us a fortune

I'm guessing you didn't watch the CGPGrey "cost of the royals" video posted earlier?

I like the way the media interviewed all the loyal subjects who turned up to cheer to see what we all thought

I have no opinion on her but the institution and her political powers shouls be removed
The UK moves slowly by about the middle of this century we may be like 18 the Century democracies.....fingers crossed anyway.

thanks aracer and toys it works great

Herman Melville in Moby Dick on the coronation of kings and queens:

"It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is gone through. There is a saltcellar of state, so called, and there may be a caster of state. How they use the salt, precisely--who knows? Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it be, though, that they anoint it with a view of making its interior run well, as they anoint machinery? Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. . . . But the only thing to be considered here is this--what kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils? Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff."

😀

She's been an outstanding Monarch and Head of the Commonwealth.

With the talk of a Republic it's worth noting when the Australians had a vote it was conclusively in favour of retaining the Queen as head of state. Any such vote in the UK would be even more supportive. Personally I think we'd be better off with the Monarch having greater powers, we'd have more consistent centrist government as a result

55 v 45 is conclusively ?

conclusively
Also found in: Legal, Wikipedia.
con·clu·sive (k?n-klo?o?s?v)
adj.
Serving to put an end to doubt, question, or uncertainty;

Its about 25 % to little hence the debate still rumbles on

Still I am sure she admires your noble support and excellent maths

thanks aracer and toys it works great

I'm all in favour of tradition when comes to odd numbered charles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28066081

None of his has any place in a modern democracy. It's ludicrous.

Well I went to see her to today. The new railway is a really big deal for us who live locally and it felt like an extra special day having her here to open it.

She went of to Bowhill afterwards for a private engagement, perhaps to ride some of the cracking singletrack in the woods.

Well I've just checked back and it seems my gamble has failed to pay off... I was hoping for some over eager bravado and some carbon exotica coming my way, but willard doesn't want to play...

Nonetheless, I'm a sporting man

Here is one of the reasons I was more than happy to lay my bike on the line:

[url= http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-tried-to-use-state-poverty-fund-to-heat-buckingham-palace-2088179.html ]Queen tried to use state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace[/url]

With the talk of a Republic it's worth noting when the Australians had a vote it was conclusively in favour of retaining the Queen as head of state.

Jammers - you are funny, old thing - could you talk us through how having the very epitome of engrained hereditory anti-meritocratic, unacountable, anti-democratic privilege, that would have us all as subjects, or possibly serfs, as opposed to citizens, having more power, somehow give us a more centrist government?

Would it be to finally counter the rabid left-wing, almost communist ideologies we've been ruthlessly ruled by for decades now? If so, then a ruddy great Huzzah!!!! About time too!!

😆

It's been one of those days that comes along every so often - a royal "occasion". It's a curious thing for a citizen of a republic (and more than happy to be one, not a subject) to see the sheer amount of obsequious forelock-tugging that goes on amongst normal people who find themselves feeling inferior by virtue of the fact that they entered the world through a different birth canal. I can never quite figure it out (to be fair with some of the posters here, I can) but it's quite entertaining to read some of it.

British people have been citizens since 1949. That's longer than most republics have even been in existence.

Crikey...lots of them sounded like serfs today.

Monarchy = irrelevant. She probably is a pleasant elderly person but these are not in short supply - so not deserving of special privilege and adoration IMHO.

Personally I think we'd be better off with the Monarch having greater powers, we'd have more consistent centrist government as a result

Jambalaya in pro-establishment shocker 🙂

I can almost picture you going around telling people to know their place. It really is some bubble you live in, must be very comforting.

Nah he has to be trolling
Not even ninfan has tried that argument
thanks aracer and toys it works great

For those on the "it's archaic and undemocratic" side of the debate, have you ever turned your attention to the City of London?

A tiny city within the heart of the nation's capital that has its own laws, its own special representative in parliament, doesn't hold democratic elections and is run by a corporation of medieval guilds older than the UK and the Magna Carta.

GrahamS - I believe that's known as 'whataboutery'. I do know about that and I'm extremely unhappy about that too. However I don't see the City of London constantly trumpeted as some great institution that we all ought to be proud of.

For those on the "it's archaic and undemocratic" side of the debate, have you ever turned your attention to the City of London?

That's archaic and undemocratic, too.

However I don't see the City of London constantly trumpeted as some great institution that we all ought to be proud of.

JAMBALAYA TO THE FORUM
thanks aracer and toys it works great

Well I hope that she has had a very enjoyable day despite the unwanted attention.

Remarkable achievement.

What is?

The best time to celebrate a royal head of state is when you have it on a spike at the city gates.

Must admit,over the years I have gone from 'don't see the point' to a grudging acceptance that the monarchy has its uses: after all, how many Heads of State can you name. Germany? Ireland? The only ones we know are the ones who have executive power like France or the US.

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I mean, we all know who he is ^

For those on the "it's archaic and undemocratic" side of the debate, have you ever turned your attention to the City of London?

The makeup of the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_Council ]Ascension Council[/url] would suggest that despite the ceremonies surrounding it the City of London is tied to the Monarchy:

In the United Kingdom, the Accession Council is a ceremonial body which assembles in St. James's Palace upon the death of a monarch (Demise of the Crown), to make a formal proclamation of the accession of his or her successor to the throne, and to receive a religious oath from the new monarch.
[b]
The Council is made up of Privy Counsellors, members of the House of Lords, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the Aldermen of the City of London and the High Commissioners of some Commonwealth countries.[/b]

Here is a Lord Mayor of London with Leon Brittan's wife, in a situation she seemed to have forgotten before being presented with the photo:

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Here is the same Lord Mayor of London with the Queen, that afternoon she claimed to not be tied to the establishment in her role as head of the child abuse inquiry:

[img] [/img]

Francis Lee's* Irish cousin?

*'one for the old 'uns

GrahamS - I believe that's known as 'whataboutery'. I do know about that and I'm extremely unhappy about that too.

Not my intention - I just thought that if people were that upset by the notion of a Queen (everyone knows about) then they'd also might be interested in those videos about the City Of London (which I for one didn't know).

Also it's another good CGPGrey video and I love his videos.

It would be interesting to know just how many deep rooted links there are (e.g. Ceremonial, Financial, Strategic, Symbolic etc) between The City of London, The Monarchy, The Commonwealth and Foreign Policy, though no doubt it would be a complex web

Well yes. That's how these things work isn't it?

I'd be a lot more worried if we [i]didn't[/i] have a complex web of deep rooted links between those things!

Wonder what financial and strategic interests the City of London and the Monarchy have in the [url= http://www.dsei.co.uk/ ]World's Largest Arms Fair in London next week[/url]?

It certainly helps to sell weapons if you've a recent display of their successful deployment.