badgerx16

So they ARE just window dressing.

So the French, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Greeks, Americans, Chinese, and Russians are all mongs ? Not sure if the Swiss have ever had their own monarchy - true mongs surely ?

I am glad for you

At least the people who put them in their position had the choice of doing so.

Cleopatra

I have no issue with your general point of celebrating being British, goodness knows how much of that will be going on next year with the Olympics. We certainly need occasions that draw us together. It is just in my view the Royal family are an anachronism, if only for all the frippery, fawning, and defference we are expected to show them. I have respect for the Queen, if only because she's keeping her son out of harm's way, but all the peripheral creeping and crawling that people do; all the hangers on and outdated concepts lumped together as 'tradition', mean that all they are now is just another bunch of class B celebrities. They are just another disfunctional family, with very evident family failings - they all belch and fart, Charles preferred ****ging Camilla instead of Diana ( why ? ) even when he was married, the Duke of Edinburgh is a liability whenever there's a foreigner in range, goodness only knows what benefit Edward is to the country. Good luck to the newly weds, I bear them no malice, but don't see the need to go gushingly orgasmic over their nuptials, ( I'll leave that to William ).

So why do we need them ? Is it just window dressing ?

The precise extent of the royal prerogative has never formally been delineated, but it includes the following powers, among others: The power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister The power to appoint and dismiss other ministers. The power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament The power to declare war and peace The power to command the armed forces of the United Kingdom The power to regulate the Civil Service The power to ratify treaties The power to issue passports The power to appoint bishops and archbishops of the Church of England The power to create peers (both life peers and hereditary peers) The power to take all measures to preserve the peacetime safety of the Crown All from an unelected position.

What has it to do with granting them 'special' status as overlords of the country ?

Ouch ! But explain exactly how ? I am not questioning anybody's right to live here, just their right to some form of ancestral and oudated feudal sovereignty over myself and my family. It is undemocratic and totally indefensible.

He claimed to be somehow "related" to them as he is British. There is a VERY small minority of people outside thir clique who can legitimately claim that position. I wasn't being rascist, nor claiming that the royals don't qualify as British - merely querying how that makes us all 'related'.

Are you predominantly German ? Or at least of direct descent from Sophia Electress of Hannover, ( which is a precondition for being in the line of succession ) ? Or perhaps you are descended from cousins married to cousins, going back many generations ?

The majority of MPs at Westminster do not have any form of mandate from the majority of the voters who turned out in their constituencies in 2010. There are NO MPs with a majority of the electoral roll in their constituency. FPTP has led to huge numbers of voters feeling disenchanted or disenfranchised; try being a Tory supporter in a safe Labour seat, or vice versa; try being a Green/BNP/UKIP supporter ANYWHERE - the current system fails them to the extent that many can't be bothered to use their mandate. If there is a NO vote it will be due to the negative propaganda being served up by both major parties in defending their own narrow interests, and, in part, to the fact that many people simply can't be ar$ed because they have lost all confidence in the concept of 'Government of the people, for the people, by the people". If you do happen to be a Tory in a Labour safe seat, or vice versa, you probably don't bother to waste your time, and trust that elsewhere sufficient swing voters in the 20% of seats that actually affect the outcome will support your particular point of view.

I think it is patently clear that the republicans were similarly 'out enjoying themselves', they just found something better to do than sit slobbing in front of the TV gawking at the 'OK' event of the decade. And if it is a debate, it is by definition 2 sided.

Yet again we come back to a favourite quote from Terry Pratchett : "Royalty pollutes people’s minds, boy. Honest men start bowing and bobbing just because someone’s grandad was a bigger murdering bastard than theirs was. "

It's called being a 'MAMIL', ( middle aged man in lycra ). Padded ( in the appropriate place ) leggings do a wonderful job.

No, but you are the one sniping at anybody who disagrees with you, looking to get a rise.

Courtesy of Mrs B: q) Why were there trees in the Abbey ? a) Because Prince Charles was told he could invite 20 of his best mates to the wedding.

Not at all, I started the day in the company of my wife and youngest son, 4 dogs, 2 cats, 4 guinea pigs, 4 tanks of fish, and 6 chickens. On my ride I made 'nodding acquaintance' with many others who had decided to take to their cycles to avoid the hype, and at Devil's Bridge, as usual, there was a friendly horde of motorbikers. I am now happily back with my family and menagerie.

Not at all, I've nothing against the Germans or the Dutch, I just don't see what right they have to Lord it over MY country.

I did enjoy it, I went on a 65 mile long bicycle ride to Kirkby Lonsdale, ate an ice cream at the Devil's Bridge, and am now off to the chip shop for tea. HTH

A few points about the 'British' Royal Family : 1) William 3rd was Dutch, and selected as the best protestant option to oppose the catholic favouring James 2nd, ( he wasn't in the line of succession ), and to support him William brought over a combined Dutch/German army - which is what he won the Battle of the Boyne with. It was effectively the last successful foreign invasion of Great Britain. 2) George 1st was German, and couldn't speak English. 3) The current lot's family name is 'Saxe-Coburg Weimar Gotha', they are a branch of the German Battenberg dynasty, and they only became the House of Windsor during WW1 to appease anti-german sentiment which was in danger of turning into an anti-monarchy movement, ( they anglicised Battenberg to Mountbatten ).

At the same time ?

And God save us from Chuck.

Or you could end up with the USofA.