Off Topic Politics Thread

To be fair, we got rid of ours in 1649, but ended up inviting them back just over a decade later

 

Of course! How stupid of me to forget? Where is there a Cromwell when you need one?

 

Not many Royal lovers on here this morning, then? Is the Scandinavian model better where the entourage is much smaller. They are also the countries that score highest in models of democracy and social well-being so perhaps the first step is to do away with institutional privilege such as the public schools like Eton which are stepping stones to attaining high positions in politics, media, finance, law, the armed forces, the Church and so on!!! Time for that to come tumbling down and a more meritocratic society to ensue as Harold Wilson envisaged.

 

Can I like this twice.

We could start with getting rid of the honours system that is used to put “mates” into the House of Lords, on a tax free £305 a day attendance fee.
If there is a need for people to be recognised, it needs to be for acts that don’t include donations or services to political parties.

 

The royal family is completely irrelevant to the day to day lives of 99.999% of the population of the UK, and even less than that to the rest of the Commonwealth. This is precisely why they are always plastered all over the media, particularly when the government are under pressure. In the last week there has been a Court Order ruling that Johnson lied about publishing PPE contracts, and an outcry about the 1% pay rise offered to NHS staff, yet the papers and news programmes are full of Harry and Meghan. What a surprise.

 

I agree with a few of your points, but don't agree with the last sentence. I am a 100% Royalist and it it what make us as a country so great. The Americans are so jealous of our monarchy and 'class' ( I use that word in context of the British way of life not in context of a class system).

I can believe that one of the Windsors questioned how dark Archie would be, and am horrified by it. However, if you are going to pull the race card, you have to back it up with a name. Even if that name didn't mean it and it is out of context or a so called 'joke', you have to back it up.

I'm on the fence with this - I think Meghan has brought a lot onto herself and is craving publicity, but I can also see that Harry has seen it all before with his mother not being accepted into the firm and that went spectacularly wrong.

I think this whole situation may make people realise that the Windsors are like any other family - how many of us don't have family members we don't get on with or partners that the family may not agree with?

IMO they are part of our identity and just need to adapt again - just like they did after 1997.

 

With regards to the 1% pay rise, I fully expect Johnson to “personally intervene” and be lauded on the front pages of the media and first on the news bulletins for increasing it back to what was already agreed and budgeted for.
Johnson will then milk the praise for showing that he “cares” about our nurses and the NHS, and some people will think he is wonderful.
As they say.
A conman doesn’t need to be smart if the people he is conning are stupid.

 

One of those things where no one comes out looking good really.

The most legitimate concern there is the race issue, which is very serious and disappointingly unsurprising.

The family squabble bit about ‘I feel let down by my Dad’ is a poor show imo, sounds like an issue that should remain personal and feels attention seeking.

I think they are right to go after the media for the way they have been treated up until this point, but they have just made themselves fair game imo as well as looking a bit like extremely privileged people having a bit of a whinge.

But all in all you find yourself questioning if this is really the best use of news coverage and pretty low down the list of what is important.

 

I would replace the royal family with an elected president in a heart beat......if I could trust the british public not to vote for a Nigel Farage or Donald Trump type.
I have not watched the interview, only seen some excerpts on the news.
It is apparent to me that Meghan has been treated rather poorly by the press, and she didn't understand how much her life would be restricted by marrying into the Royals.
We will never know the real truth, but if she reports she was suffering mentally and got no help from the 'family and the court officials' that is sad but when they work with mental health charities they should have reached out to them, like they suggest we do.
I think the press and the mechanics of the constitution are the main issues - there may be individuals in the family that did not want Harry marrying a black woman, but that ship has sailed and I think most of them are savvy enough to get over that.

 

They were certainly treated appallingly by the press; the same press that hounded his mother to death. But as they seem keen to invite as much media attention as they can get, presumably so long as it's positive, it's hard to have much sympathy.

 

I would also add that the royal family institution has to modernize, but it is hard to do that with the current incumbent and staying in position until she dies.
The Queen should have abdicated about 20years ago, and now Prince Charles (King) would be abdicating in favor for William, until we get the head of state who understands better the modern society they are 'governing' the better. It is only then that the rest of the institution will modernize too.

 

All you say is true, but nothing will convince me that we actually need the monarchy at all. Tradition? What, like slavery or Empire? Tourism? People would still visit this country to look at the stately homes and palaces, if the historic ruins in the form of royalty weren’t there. Ceremony? Ditto.

Let’s have an elected head of state for purely ceremonial purposes, like the Republic of Ireland. No danger of a Trump situation then. The inbred institutionalism which has become so rife in the Windsors wouldn’t recur, if the whole lot were swept away and replaced every few years,

 

I think it is sad we now cannot say tradition without relating it to slavery and empire. Disingenuous butchering of the past. The only truth ever was power from the start of man to the present day. From the African tribes, the subcontinental warlords, the Amazon headhunters, the cannibal pigmies, the Romans, the Greeks, the Zulus.

The truth is the past was a brutal road and only in its brutality did it make space for all this modern guilt and introspection. Oh how evil was the past. Oh how terrible is my genetic fate. Oh woe is the world and none of it is my fault at all.

 

I agree with most of that, but you have taken what I said completely out of the intended context.

 

Fair enough!

 

Exactly - thanks Chilco. Just what I’m thinking ..... what the hell is everyone getting all worked up about when there are HUGE issues which are a million times more important than who’s upset some minor American TV actress who just happened to get a prince to fall in love with her. I don’t mind WHAT they do to be honest, as long as I’m not paying for it.
I feel the whole thing is perfectly timed to take the media away from all the crap that Johnson and his cronies are getting away with (not that they were being held to account by the media anyway) and give the “great” British public something to divert their thoughts away ......
It drives me nuts how wound up people are getting over it. Shame they couldn’t get so worked up about Brexit, COVID, cronyism and the unbelievable honours system which is open to abuse .....

 

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Apologies for changing the subject, but this song just popped up on Facebook and it sums up my feelings about the B word rather well.

 

Agree with this also read a suggestion that the government would have got a better reception if they had frozen NHS pay in line with other public sectors but given NHS and care staff a 10per cent bonus in recognition their service during covid.