Meghan and Harry

Yes I think you are right, I doubt the monarchy will be abolished in my lifetime, big changes to the HoL, may happen though.

 

Harry is following in the footsteps of the two most recent, 'Spares', in being something of a disappointment to 'The Family'

Look back at the previous two 'spares', those that were Number Two in line till Number One had Children and said Number Two started to become less and less relevant.

Princess Margaret. - Interesting life with some very close friends in Showbusiness. A tendency to Arrogance and a private life that was rarely 'Private'.

Prince Andrew. Started off well. His 'Randy Andy' nickname was smiled at, he was after all a War Hero from his exploits in The Falklands.
Then after his marriage his public image started to slide, ever faster, downhill, until it crashed.

Definitely NOT a case of Third Time Lucky.

Perhaps 'The Family' will be luckier with Princess Charlotte.

 

Who's guiding him. Fail.

 

People without purpose unless the worst happens, but subject to almost as many rules as the heir themselves 'just in case'. I don't doubt it could be a miserable constricting existence, but Jesus look at the upsides.

 

His missus.......?

 

Now saying there's 'just as much truth' in his memories as in objective facts.

Like getting an Xbox four years before they were released.
Or being at Eton when told the queen mum had died, despite being away skiing.

 

Funniest bit is he shopped in tk maxx! As ****ing if!

 

That's how racism works these days, if you disagree or dislike someone who is not white then you are racist, as the only possible reason you can dislike them is because the colour of their skin.
Seems strange that Diana suffered a load of **** from the royals especially when she wasn't always prepared to go by the rules.
She suffered horrendously with mental health issues, many of which were a result of the life she was having to lead, however when someone in a similar position suffers the same but are of mixed race then
it has to be racist and no other explanation.
I don't think for one minute that Philip didn't have racist tendencies as I'm sure he did, as many of the older generation of royals probably do in some way. However had Megan been white I still think the royal family would have looked at her in exactly the same way. A controlling little diva that likes to get her own way and had no idea what marrying in to the royal family meant.

 

No way is she packing the shopping when Harry's there

 

'Abolish The Monarchy', has long been the cry of those who usually go under the banner of Republicans.

And they usually make a good case.
It's the next bit where their argument tends to fail.
WHAT DO WE REPLACE IT WITH?

The two most popular alternatives are voting for a President, every few years. These are usually Political Figures.
Either, this president is just a figure head, such as, say, Germany, OR someone who has real power, above Parliament, such as The USofA.

If it's a figurehead, it's no real change from the status quo.
They are still going to need Official residences and they and their Families will still need security.
If it a President with Power it can get messy, if the President is of a different political persuasion to The Government.
IF only a figurehead is in place there are unlikely to be any, even theoretical, checks, on Government.

Since Poll's seem to be popular here at present lets imagine a general Election for a USofA style President between Boris and Corbyn.

A bit like voting to see which lunatic you put in charge of the Asylum.

I could, (and often do), carry on for long time, but most will get the point, and it's not relevant to this thread.

We, in England at least, have had a monarchy for over 1100 years.
Scotland for a little longer.
It hasn't been perfect, by any means, but, by and large, it has worked.
And I have heard it said that, 'if it aint broken, don't fix it'.

PS,
Before anyone points out the bleeding obvious, I happily confess to being a 'Monarchist', so biased on this subject.

 

This is incredible, Steven Toast reading Spare

 

Air New Zealand openly taking the piss out of them after they claimed Meghan's dad was booked with them first class from Mexico to London - a service they've never run.

It's just comical at this point.

 

As a one eyed giant, of mythical origins, of course it is your right to be Saxe-Coburg Gotha supporter.

My hope is that the younger generation in the main does not have the same allegiance or venerate so called royalty as much as the older generation.

Having said that, even I would admit Madge did the country great service... something I doubt big-ears will do.

 

Give him time. Our Services always pull together for King and Country. I always remember Martin Johnson reliving the semi-final v The All Black's, out gunned and out manned, backs against the wall on our own goal line, scrum against us. The only words he could think of to rally our battered men were... "Think of the country, the Queen. Push"... the rest is history

 

You MUST have heard the old adage, 'History Repeats itself'
Sir Winston was very fond of it!

Our current Monarch may well surprise you, it has happened before.

Queen Victoria was revered by MOST of her subjects, many of who thought that the World would end on her death.
Her heir, was disreputable in almost every respect, (mostly out of boredom as his parents wouldn't trust him with any responsible job).
The Politicians in particular, trembled at the thought of Edward V11.

And yet this dissolute, womanising gambler was generally considered to have done a very good job, when he came to leave the stage.
Compared to his Great , Great Grandfather, King Charles has been a very hard working, diligent Prince Of Wales.
I have high hopes of him, if not his second son.

You could have had even more fun with the name though.
England has traditionally been ruled by Families with foreign origins. (Then again, go back far enough into your own family tree and you are almost certain to find that the same applies to all of us).
Ignoring the Saxon Kings, (themselves incomers following The Romans), we have

House of Normandy
House of Blois
Plantagenet
ALL THESE _FRENCH

Tudor -- WELSH

Stewart - Scottish.

Hanover - German

Saxe Coburg Gotha -German

Ignoring the assumed Winsor,
Next would have been --- Schleswig- Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluksburg (The Greek/Danish Branch of that Family).
(Not Mountbatten as that was assumed by Phillip as his mothers maiden name which in turn was changed from the German Batenburg)

On the bright side, none of our six Geordies have any N/C connections, so it could all have been worse.

 

Although the family name changed, all of these different dynasties were, sometimes distantly, related to one another. Even William the Conqueror was related to the Anglo-Saxon kings of England. That's what Royalty did/does- marry other Royalty. So the idea that we're 'ruled over by foreigners' is nonsense- they're, at most, a pan-European bunch.

Anyway, no one in the British Isles can claim to be of solely Celtic (completely inaccurate term invented in the 18th century- Ancient Britons is better) as there were movements of people to and from these islands throughout prehistory.

The 'ruled over' bit is also nonsense. Believing that is just persecution syndrome and jealousy in my opinion. The Royal family see their role as one of service and they certainly don't rule over us in any practical kind of way. The arguments put forward for getting rid of them by the organisation 'Republic' are tissue thin. And other countries with constitutional monarchies include the two that are consistently ranked as being the most progressive in the World- Norway and Sweden.

 

The joy of this forum, disagreeing, but history lessons as well.

Wasn't their a rumour that one of Victoria's sons was Jack the Ripper, even worse than the nazi sympathiser, (former king) and todays teenager shagger.

 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/prince-albert-victor

 

Good read that, thanks for sharing.

 

The best argument for a constitutional monarchy is the quality of the likely candidates for an elected head of state.

Blair, Cameron, May, Starmer, Patten, Mandelson, Kinnock, Major. All of these and others in the recent past could have been placed candidates.

What a vomit inducing thought.