Queen's Jubillee

I think the Royals make a net plus for England with all the tourists, so it is not all bad.:grin:

 

Seriously . . . .I never understood how people hate a dictator but love a king.
They the same thing.
The King just somehow convinced everyone in the country that they are better than them.

"I am king because. . well I am awesome and you suck" - Monarchy

Rocket River
At least a dictator usually had to earn his . . . did some work to make it happen.

 

They're slashing budgets left and right in the UK, but they have money to throw around for something like this. Ridiculous.

Evne more ridiculous that countries like Canada and New Zealand attend, throw off the colonial yoke goddamnit!!! The maori warriors must be rolling in their graves if they knew that their descendants were rowing canoes in the Thames for the English monarch. They celebrated in scotland and northern ireland too.

I just don't understand.

 

I love monarchy. I would prefer monarchies who have more actual power as heads of state, than the British monarchy, though.

I like it, because often the role of the President is to be a leader, and his duties are often symbolic (Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall, and improving the morale of the nation). Those are the things a monarch could do much better and more effectively.

It's also more fun which is what is currently lacking in govt.

I don't like overly lavish monarchs, and prefer Henri IV, and Louis XIII to Louis XIV and his tacky, gaudy version of Versailles.

Elizabeth the current queen was able to rally her people very effectively in WWII. She was able to do it that wouldn't have been possible had there been no royal family. Her service during the war was extremely valuable, and monarchy is what enabled that.

 

Didn't Elizabeth became queen in 1952? After WWII?

 

It is a matter of national pride and ties them to their history. The Royal Family brings a lot of tourism into the UK and marketing, etc.

 

Ya, that's a good comparison.

 

That's correct, but she was a princess and a member of the royal family when she was running around bombed out areas of London, and being a mechanic for military trucks etc. Her images doing that stuff were incredibly inspiring. At the time she was just a princess, and not yet the queen.

 

Just from a different perspective from the American folks, but people in Europe do tend to feel Americans are incredibly patriotic (overly so) and that the flags they have is just staggering, and taking the pledge of allegience every day at school is pretty weird.

You have your cultural oddities, the English have theirs. Perhaps just different ways of expressing pride for their culture, their history?

 

Different culture, different history. Afterall, we do celebrate President's Day with a federal holiday right?

For what it's worth, I do however hate the constant coverage 'From Across the Pond' on GMA. England just isn't relevant to me, a guy in Houston, TX.

 

I just think about Benny Hill. Is that wrong?

 

I like cherries jubilee...
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NEVER.