Posted on 03/02/2005 10:19:33 AM PST by quidnunc
FYI..a good read..
"OFF!, With their Heads!..it was, so much easier in the 1500s."
Not really. You would have been far more likely to lose your own head at the monarch's behest in the 1500s than to be able to even speak aloud, much less act on, a desire to off the monarch!
Remember Wm F Buckley's novel,whe the American spy has an affair witht he soon to be British queen?
He knows zero about King George V - a man who literally saved the country. It's not well known, but in 1931, Ramsay McDonald was forced to enact spending cuts because of the Great Depression. However, he couldn't summon a majority to do it and so went to the King to resign. However, George V knew that if McDonald was replaced by a Tory who would enact the spending cuts, class warfare might ensue. He persuaded McDonald to stay on.
After the spending cuts, the Royal Navy mutinied. The government panicked and King George V took personal control - he sent an envoy to deal with the mutineers, and order was restored.
Dull and uninteresting? Hardly - a pillar of strength. Just because we cannot see the value of monarchy at the moment, does not mean it didn't have value in the past and value that could come into play in the future.
Regards, Ivan
Good post.
Dr. D is correct about the monarchy. It appears to be going the way of all flesh...and so it should.
Cheerio old top!
Well, I was speaking in general terms...the public in general, the Gossip Press specifically.
Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and Quasimodo were all talking one day.
Sleeping Beauty said, "I believe myself to be the most beautiful girl in the world."
Tom Thumb said, "I must be the smallest person in the world."
Quasimodo said, "I absolutely have to be the ugliest person in the world."
They decided to go to the Guinness Book of World Records to have their claims verified.
Sleeping Beauty went first and came out looking deliriously happy. "It's official, I AM the most beautiful girl in the world."
Tom Thumb went next and emerged triumphant, "I am officially the smallest person in the world."
Sometime later, a confused-looking Quasimodo came out and said, "Who is Camilla Parker Bowles?"
LOL!
The British monarchy only survived into the 20th century as the embodiment of British public school values.
It seems to me that the British system was based on a romanticization of the kind of collective child-rearing the Spartans practiced, where boys were taken from their families and raised in barracks to turn them into hardened warriors... and emotional cripples. The upside of all that emotional deprivation and steely emotional control is to convince you that you are a stronger, superior being to the soft people around you who have feelings. The downside is it makes you insufferably arrogant.
And what if you really aren't superior ? When the Spartans were smashed by the Thebans at Leuctra, when they saw that their system really didn't make them stronger, when they learned that free men can outfight militarists didn't they question the price in human suffering their system asked of them ? What is all that stiff upper lip emotional deprivation worth to be king of a minor power ? What was all that sacrifice and loneliness for since you're not really superior ?
Charles strikes me as a man who feels cheated out of a childhood, out of a normal life, out of the simple freedom to marry the woman he loves, and for what ?
The Royals are extraordinary people who have dedicated their entire lives to charity and public service. The Left has been trying to abolish it for decades and with it...English history and tradition.
For a conservative publication to print something so vile about this incredible family is disgusting.
With Charles marrying Camilla - I can see the Brits revolting about Charles being King. I get the impression a lot of Brits still blame Charles for Diana's death.
I can't help but wonder if Charles will be passed over and William will become King. Would the Brits be happier if they saw William taking the throne as somehow justice for Diana ..??
Thank you for your post. You hit the nail on the head. The only people in the UK who do not like the Royals are the socialist. The same people who banned Fox hunting and introduced the liberalisation in our schools.
No, I was hit with a reality stick and bitten by the realization that a majority of the British public — left, right and center — hates President Bush.
Brits apparently feel free to meddle in our elections and generally trash America, but have an almighty Brit snit fit if the hostility is reciprocated.
I don't think they make Royals like they used to, Ivan.
Most Britains view the US as both good and bad. They view their country in the same way. Both have positives that outwiegh the negatives and that is the general consensus.
Focusing on the negatives only is inane.
You could post some threads about the British troops that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq or how the Queen has gone out of her way to send her best wishes to the US after 9/11, even knighting Giulani or how we are at the fore-front of technology or medicine or anything except constant brit-baiting.
The day the Left succeeds in ending the monarchy will be the day the English tourist industry takes a nose-dive and with it goes the economy of the UK.
When I go home to the Isle of Man, I plan on wearing a t-shirt that says: KILL A FOX FOR CHRIST!
Becasuse of his Muslim sympathies he was purposely not scheduled for any American visits because his posse was afraid that he would say something which would cause a diplomatic incident.
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