I personally don't see the need for the British Royal Family anymore. But she took it seriously. The next generation or two won't and they'll finally rid themselves of a Monarchy 100s of years after other countries.
N
The British have done pretty well for 600 years, as far as nations go, with a parliamentary monarchy. For contrast, consider the legacy of abolishing the monarchy in Russia, France, and Germany.
Parliamentary democracy is historically far less stable and prone to paralysis and collapse.
I never have understood it either. She was certainly a member of a generation of the likes we'll never see again, Goddess Bless her - but otherwise the news will only be full of weird looking hats. I'm not exactly a fan of "Perfidious Albion", but the Queen was good folk.Well I wont have to waste any time watching the news for a few days. I've never understood the fascination.
The Queen was a thread of continuity in the UK throughout the entire life of almost all of her current citizens. Even those who are not natural monarchist had huge respect for the Queen, as a person. It is a bit of a cliche these days, but she dedicated her whole live to duty and service. Her message to the country at her recent Platinum Jubilee was signed "Your Servant, Elazabeth R". I think the overwhelming majority of those in the UK believe that was very much her mentality.
Constitutionally the monarch cannot express a political view. But every week the they has a private audience with the Prime Minister. A number of former Prime Ministers interviewed in the last 24 hours have commented on how valuable the Queen's wise counsel was. Based on both the depth of her vast experience and in the absolute certain knowledge that she had no political axe to grind and nothing discussed would ever be made public. If nothing else, the loss of that sounding board for our Country's political leader is a huge one.
Whether the monarchy in its current form will survice Charles III is, IMHO, open for debate. But that is a matter for another day.
This is really interesting as an outsider, thank you for that. I never knew they were prohibited from expressing a political view - but that seems incredibly valuable if you get the "right" person in that role. Sounds like she was one of the right ones.
I'm hearing that there is QUITE the brouhaha over Charles being a globalist and woke. Any truth to this?
I'm hearing that there is QUITE the brouhaha over Charles being a globalist and woke. Any truth to this?
First off, I think we need to recognise that Charles spent almost his entire life trying to define / determine what his role in life is before becoming King. With her very early succession to the throne the late Queen never had to do that.
Initially he had a military career in the Navy. I am too young to remember that period of his life, but my guess is that kept him out of the news most of the time. But as the heir to the throne a militart career is limited, because you are not allowed to do anything too dangerous. So that was always going to be limited.
His popularity was massively hit by the whole Diana saga and despite all the backing of the State PR machinery he came off a very poor second best. Around that time the vast majority would have preferred it if he never became King. It is only really in recent years that the truth of quite how Diana sort to manipulate the media has been coming out, she was not quite the innocent young women, wronged by a powerful man as was portrayed at the time.
He then became renowned for taking on what at the time were considered crank causes, most of which could reasonably be grouped under the lable of environmentalism. Many of his views, considered as those of a crank have become the mainstream in the UK now. So he could be considered far sighted. He also famously has an issue with modern architecture, which is probably less mainstream.
When he married Camilla the Diana saga was rekindled, given she was the third person in their marriage - to paraphrase Diana. But over the lazt decade I think even the views of Camilla have softened as she seems to have worked hard as the wife of the heir, quietly working for a number of deserving causes.
More recently it has been revealed that he used to regularly write to Government Ministers to lobby for or against particular causes. This reinforced the view of him as a meddler and was contrasted with the Queen. The question as to what would happen when he became King was frequently raised. In an interview on his 70th birthday this was explicitly raised, the forthright answer was that he wasn't stupid and knew full well the difference in the role of an heir and a Monarch. Time will tell if this is the case and it has been raised briefly in some coverage.
There are no doubt those who think the best thing would be to skip a generation and install William as King. But hard to ask a man who has waited 71 years to fulfill his destiny to pass it up when he finally gets the chance. His televised address last night seems to have gone down very well, it was notable he could only just hold back the tears when speaking about the Queen.
The Telegraph newspaper summed it up well today - we all kinda felt that while she was alive, everything would be OK in the end, and now she is dead.
First off, I think we need to recognise that Charles spent almost his entire life trying to define / determine what his role in life is before becoming King. With her very early succession to the throne the late Queen never had to do that.
Initially he had a military career in the Navy. I am too young to remember that period of his life, but my guess is that kept him out of the news most of the time. But as the heir to the throne a militart career is limited, because you are not allowed to do anything too dangerous. So that was always going to be limited.
His popularity was massively hit by the whole Diana saga and despite all the backing of the State PR machinery he came off a very poor second best. Around that time the vast majority would have preferred it if he never became King. It is only really in recent years that the truth of quite how Diana sort to manipulate the media has been coming out, she was not quite the innocent young women, wronged by a powerful man as was portrayed at the time.
He then became renowned for taking on what at the time were considered crank causes, most of which could reasonably be grouped under the lable of environmentalism. Many of his views, considered as those of a crank have become the mainstream in the UK now. So he could be considered far sighted. He also famously has an issue with modern architecture, which is probably less mainstream.
When he married Camilla the Diana saga was rekindled, given she was the third person in their marriage - to paraphrase Diana. But over the lazt decade I think even the views of Camilla have softened as she seems to have worked hard as the wife of the heir, quietly working for a number of deserving causes.
More recently it has been revealed that he used to regularly write to Government Ministers to lobby for or against particular causes. This reinforced the view of him as a meddler and was contrasted with the Queen. The question as to what would happen when he became King was frequently raised. In an interview on his 70th birthday this was explicitly raised, the forthright answer was that he wasn't stupid and knew full well the difference in the role of an heir and a Monarch. Time will tell if this is the case and it has been raised briefly in some coverage.
There are no doubt those who think the best thing would be to skip a generation and install William as King. But hard to ask a man who has waited 71 years to fulfill his destiny to pass it up when he finally gets the chance. His televised address last night seems to have gone down very well, it was notable he could only just hold back the tears when speaking about the Queen.
First off, I think we need to recognise that Charles spent almost his entire life trying to define / determine what his role in life is before becoming King. With her very early succession to the throne the late Queen never had to do that.
Initially he had a military career in the Navy. I am too young to remember that period of his life, but my guess is that kept him out of the news most of the time. But as the heir to the throne a militart career is limited, because you are not allowed to do anything too dangerous. So that was always going to be limited.
His popularity was massively hit by the whole Diana saga and despite all the backing of the State PR machinery he came off a very poor second best. Around that time the vast majority would have preferred it if he never became King. It is only really in recent years that the truth of quite how Diana sort to manipulate the media has been coming out, she was not quite the innocent young women, wronged by a powerful man as was portrayed at the time.
He then became renowned for taking on what at the time were considered crank causes, most of which could reasonably be grouped under the lable of environmentalism. Many of his views, considered as those of a crank have become the mainstream in the UK now. So he could be considered far sighted. He also famously has an issue with modern architecture, which is probably less mainstream.
When he married Camilla the Diana saga was rekindled, given she was the third person in their marriage - to paraphrase Diana. But over the lazt decade I think even the views of Camilla have softened as she seems to have worked hard as the wife of the heir, quietly working for a number of deserving causes.
More recently it has been revealed that he used to regularly write to Government Ministers to lobby for or against particular causes. This reinforced the view of him as a meddler and was contrasted with the Queen. The question as to what would happen when he became King was frequently raised. In an interview on his 70th birthday this was explicitly raised, the forthright answer was that he wasn't stupid and knew full well the difference in the role of an heir and a Monarch. Time will tell if this is the case and it has been raised briefly in some coverage.
There are no doubt those who think the best thing would be to skip a generation and install William as King. But hard to ask a man who has waited 71 years to fulfill his destiny to pass it up when he finally gets the chance. His televised address last night seems to have gone down very well, it was notable he could only just hold back the tears when speaking about the Queen.
What I have taken from our reporting over here is that y'all lost your nations Grandmother. Adding to it is the 9/11 anniversary tomorrow.
Pardon my French but this is a fucked up week.