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How much do you like the royal family?
I like them 6%  6%  [ 4 ]
I like them 6%  6%  [ 4 ]
I dont mind them 25%  25%  [ 17 ]
I dont mind them 25%  25%  [ 17 ]
I hate them 19%  19%  [ 13 ]
I hate them 19%  19%  [ 13 ]
Total votes : 68

SOK
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01 Jul 2005, 1:19 pm

If you are from britain, or are just interested in these things, please answer to ths poll. I hate the royal family. I think we deserve a competent head of state. I also think that they shouldnt get money out of taxes. Taxes should go to useful things like hospitals or schools.



duncvis
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01 Jul 2005, 1:24 pm

I hate the royal family, and the ingrained system of landed privilege and influence which they represent, and which their continued status perpetuates. The royal family are an anachronism and have no more place in a democratic society than the lord of the manor, serfs or hereditary peers with voting rights. :evil:


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Last edited by duncvis on 01 Jul 2005, 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

BeeBee
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01 Jul 2005, 1:25 pm

That's an interesting question.

It doesn't seem like the Royal Family are involved in politics...the real head of state is the Prime Minister, isn't it?

We don't have a royal so I rather miss the point of it.

BeeBee



Sean
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01 Jul 2005, 3:43 pm

British foreign policy after February 17, 1815 is little more than a curiousity for me. I still don't understand why British citizens still put up with having a monarchy, why the Commonwealth countries didn't follow our lead and have a revolution, and why they still maintain their association with England to this day. :?



Fogman
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01 Jul 2005, 4:03 pm

BeeBee wrote:
It doesn't seem like the Royal Family are involved in politics...the real head of state is the Prime Minister, isn't it?
BeeBee


Actually, QE2 is the Head of State in England. I remember reading Frank Zappa's autobiography. One of the things that stood out was the the fact that he had been owed a substantial sum of cash by the Royal Albert Hall.
--In Short, The Royal Albert Hall Broke a legal contract with Zappa.

Zappa then followed through with litigation against RAH, and after a protracted Period of time, this was (The condensed version of) the Court's decision.

The plaintiff is essentially correct in his complaint against RAH, and the court finds his argument favorable, however, The plaintiff is not a British Subject, who is in essence seeking redress, and compensation indamages from a Royal Institution, therefore the court finds favor in the argument posed by the Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Family???? I could care less about them, because as an American, they are essentially irrelevant to us. However, if I lived in the UK, I would probably hate them much worse than Resident Bush



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01 Jul 2005, 4:15 pm

Sean wrote:
British foreign policy after February 17, 1815 is little more than a curiousity

Hmm. Your choice mate.

Sean wrote:
for me. I still don't understand why British citizens still put up with having a monarchy,

I wonder that myself. Although, as 8205th in line to the throne (traced my ancestory at 1 point :)) I can't object :P Just 8205 people to kill...... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[quote="Sean]why the Commonwealth countries didn't follow our lead and have a revolution, and why they still maintain their association with England to this day. :?[/quote]
There, its because they have their own governments anyway. They just have the queen as head of state, like Britain. The US was directly governed from Britain at the time....


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Sean
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01 Jul 2005, 4:44 pm

BlackLiger wrote:
Sean wrote:
British foreign policy after February 17, 1815 is little more than a curiousity

Hmm. Your choice mate.

February 17, 1815 is when President Andrew Johnson signed the Treaty of Ghent and the British withdrew from US territory.



Young_fogey
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01 Jul 2005, 6:03 pm

Lived there and am interested though not nearly as much as many American anglophiles!

I own exactly one piece of royal tat, a Coronation mug from 1953 for Elizabeth II.

Not the 'Princess Diana Commemorative Collector's Plate Set', the kind of thing that naff anglophiles here go in for and I imagine no British person would touch with a 10-foot barge-pole.

Anyway...

I like the Queen. She seems not unintelligent (she keenly follows politics and could run Britain for real) and a devout honourable person of the old school, stiff upper lip, duty before self, etc.

Prince Philip seems, well, über-NT, a sporting man's man who was a complete nightmare of a father for Prince Charles, let alone for somebody with AS or something like it.

There are things I like about the Prince of Wales, like his liking of old things and the spiritual - he likes Eastern Orthodoxy and the old Prayer Book but not modern architecture. Though not blameless in the whole Diana farrago (she was overrated by the public and horribly used by the royals) I feel for his situation with Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall. He loved her all along. (And I don't think she's ugly!)

Prince William lucked out getting his mother's looks and not his poor father's.

I'm fairly sure that Prince Harry isn't Charles' son but Major Hewitt's, so if (heaven forbid) something bad happened to most of the family the UK could see the end of the House of Windsor and the beginning of the House of Hewitt.

Don't know or care enough about the rest to say much. I don't think the Duchess of York was or is hot. The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, is better looking than Charles.

Seriously, there's something to be said for a parliamentary system with several parties, not just two, for coalitions (more representative of and responsive to the people), and a weak head of state who's ceremonial and in theory above politics (that last is a big selling point of monarchists today). Something that the British system is or potentially can be, more easily than the American with its strong head of state who's directly elected and the seeming intractability of the two-party system.

P.S. Happy Canada Day. You, of course, have the Queen too!



Last edited by Young_fogey on 01 Jul 2005, 6:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sanityisoverrated
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01 Jul 2005, 6:04 pm

The royal family are a waste of valuable tabloid newspaper space that could have been filled with photos of UFOs, Elvis sightings, and three breasted women. :evil:



Young_fogey
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01 Jul 2005, 6:07 pm

Think Australia will ever become a republic? I know a lot of people there want that.



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01 Jul 2005, 6:51 pm

I don't really like aristocracy...

That said the Queen is a classy bird... nothing America has ever produced is as classy as the Queen...

She even has Welsh Corgis... no republic has ever produced anything like that...



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01 Jul 2005, 7:12 pm

I don't mind em, it's something to stare at.



Feste-Fenris
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01 Jul 2005, 7:29 pm

Exactly Post!

In all fairness compared to the Bush family and the Kennedies the House of Windsor are almost saintly...



ed
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01 Jul 2005, 8:19 pm

I think you could do a lot worse than a King William.



Feste-Fenris
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01 Jul 2005, 8:45 pm

A President Bush makes King William look like some sort of Arthur or Aragorn...



ascan
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02 Jul 2005, 2:21 am

duncvis wrote:
I hate the royal family, and the ingrained system of landed privilege and influence which they represent, and which their continued status perpetuates. The royal family are an anachronism and have no more place in a democratic society than the lord of the manor, serfs or hereditary peers with voting rights. :evil:

And anachronisms make Britain what it is, don't they? It certainly pulls in tourists, and there are plenty of people happy about that.