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Do we need a royal wedding thread

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  1. Rosie
    Member

    Constitutional monarchies work pretty well as a form of government - Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark still have a royal head of state, however irrational this look like on paper. It's this kind of razzmatazz that makes it look sillier than it is. I avoided the shindig yesterday however saw the 3 minute highlights to catch Megan's very becoming dress.

    Don't mind people partying for this kind of patriotism as it's a light-hearted affair, and everyone likes a wedding.

    The last one I was cycling in England - staying in Saffron Walden with a friend. We went out for a cycle and the pretty villages looked very jolly hung with bunting, there were Maypole dances and Union Flag iced cakes and it was cheery and good-tempered. In the end we were miffed we had not joined in with the local street party and drunk beer and eaten sausages with the neighbours.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. minus six
    Member

    @wee folding bike

    excellent segue sir, well played

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. Nelly
    Member

    To bring a touch of levity back...........

    Thought this was tres amusing - and wont offend anyone

    http://www.naden.de/blog/bbvideo-bbpress-video-plugin -->

    [+] Embed the video | Meghan Glasgow Style" target="_blank">Video DownloadGet the Video Player

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    It is objectively true that some of the happiest countries in the world are constitutional monarchies. This is of course an excellent argument for the UK of GB&NI to join their ranks.

    Although I am a committed republican, when the time comes if people want a monarch in this country I won't lose sleep over it provided we chose our own. The present outfit is every bit as sectarian as the Louden Tavern on a Saturday afternoon;

    And it was thereby further enacted That all and every Person and Persons that then were or afterwards should be reconciled to or shall hold Communion with the See or Church of Rome or should professe the Popish Religion should be excluded and are by that Act made for ever incapable to inherit possess or enjoy the Crown and Government of this Realm and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging or any part of the same or to have use or exercise any regall Power Authority or Jurisdiction within the same. And in all and every such Case and Cases the People of these Realms shall be and are thereby absolved of their Allegiance And that the said Crown and Government shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Persons being Protestants as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said Person or Persons so reconciled holding Communion professing as aforesaid were naturally dead.

    'Naturally dead' is a nice touch.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    I was outside the louden tavern on Sunday pm. It looked closed for business. Celtic were playing Ireland at football for Scott brown's testimonial. We were on way back from Arran and dropping someone off at the match. That is certainly the louden tavern's credo. Bizarre given closeness to Parkhead but nevertheless, true.

    Markle a baptist tho not a kafflik

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. crowriver
    Member

    @acsimpson, aye maybe executing the lot of them is a tad harsh. I'll drop those demands if the House of Windsor stop rubbing our collective noses in their wealth and we stop subsidising their family dos to the tune of millions of pounds.

    If the populace want to retain a constitutional monarchy (put it to a referendum) then fair enough. A republic should be an option on the ballot though. If a constitutional monarchy is what people choose then I'd settle for nationalising their private wealth and abolishing the civil list. Bucks Palace, Windsor, Sandringham, Balmoral, etc. can all become museums like the Hermitage, Versailles etc. Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster become state owned worker's co-operatives. A Danish style monarch on a bicycle, paid a diplomatic service salary for state visits etc. would be acceptable.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    I don't think the Danish monarchy is quite what you think it is, CR.

    "As of 1 April 2017, the Danish Civil List grants the royal family £800,813, a month, or £9.6 million for the year. Prince Henrik, the husband of Queen Margrethe, gets 10% of this, while Princess Benedikte, the Queen's sister, gets 1.5%

    The money covers the cost of the Queen's activities and the royal household's operations as well as some more private expenses.

    The royal art collections belong to the Queen in her capacity as sovereign and a private person, although large parts of the collections are on show in galleries and museums for the public to see. Some of the royal palaces are privately owned by the royal family, while some are the property of the state."

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/this-is-how-much-money-europes-royal-families-get-from-their-taxpayers-a3603431.html

    So pretty similar set-up to UK really. UK Royal Family explicit costs per capita less than any European monarchy other than Spain? But then they only got there through Franco...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. crowriver
    Member

    "So pretty similar set-up to UK really. "

    Not that similar at least in terms of scale.

    I hadn't realised that the UK civil list was abolished in 2010 as part of austerity. Instead revenues from the Crown Estate are put into a sovereign grant paid to the royal household which is around £42 million a year. They also get funds from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, over £30 million a year. Also the Queen has private wealth used for "personal expenditure" - her fortune is estimated at some £340 million though the exact figure is not publicly known.

    See here for details:

    https://www.royal.uk/royal-finances-0

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I don't think the financial drain of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas is the most important element of the damage we enable them to do.

    What really bothers me about them is the conflation of wealth, religion, militarism and heredity.

    This damages them by forbidding them freedom of conscience, damages the country by both privileging one religion over others and promoting violence and damages us by instilling the belief that our own children can never be good enough to be head of state.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. minus six
    Member

    @gembo

    I was outside the louden tavern on Sunday pm. It looked closed for business

    both louden and bristol pubs have been attacked past couple of weeks, one of them set alight

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. Nelly
    Member

    "both louden and bristol pubs have been attacked past couple of weeks, one of them set alight"

    Shame......

    I always envisage the Louden as a more frightening (to the likes of me) version of the The Rangers club in Trainspotting 2.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. gembo
    Member

    The Facebook post for The Original Louden Tavern of Duke Street for the day of the last old firm game had various rules (yous remember tae drink yer bottles of Buckie before comin tae the pub et cetera)

    Looks like they lock you in whilst the other tribe comes along the street.

    Would be close to a deep circle of hell to be trapped therein?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    In case anyone hasn't seen this rather glorious satyre on the Act of Settlement;

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Player

    Nothing more sectarian in it than in the law of the land as currently enacted.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. paddyirish
    Member

    @IWRATS - brilliant - I grew up near too many like the clientele of that establishment.

    The PIN gag at the end of that was my favourite clip of the whole film.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  15. minus six
    Member

    aye, the PIN gag was truly exquisite

    Posted 5 years ago #

  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I grew up near too many like the clientelle of that establishment.

    I went to the only school in Aberdeen that offered Catholic RE, given by a nun called Sister Pope. We were so far out of the orbit of the sectarian death star that no one thought that was funny. Saw my first Orange march in my twenties. Still struggle to comprehend that people actually take this stuff seriously when everyone knows that the real divide is between the Open and Exclusive assemblies of the Plymouth Brethren.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  17. Frenchy
    Member

    You'd better tell us which side of that divide you stand on, then.

    Edit: I hadn't heard of the Plymouth Brethren, but I've just realised that it is the same "Brethren" that has a fairly significant presence in the village nearest to where I grew up. That village is well known as being incredibly religious, but even amongst the other villagers, the Brethren had a particular reputation.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  18. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    When I was wee there was whispered talk of one of the Macduff branch of my family who joined and was never heard from again.

    Point being that faith, or lack of it, should be a private and not a state matter embodied in the sovereign.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  19. Frenchy
    Member

    I've now spent half an hour reading about the Brethren and related village churches, and have discovered the reason my granny went to the church ten miles away rather than the one five miles away is a bit more complicated than I'd ever have guessed.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  20. paddyirish
    Member

    My Dad's parents were Plymouth Brethren. The only book allowed in the house was a bible. Dad wasn't allowed to do PE at school and a friend ended up taking his kit home and washing it for him. His father attended neither of his sister's weddings as they married men who were Baptists (just not up to scratch) and when Dad married Mum who was a mere Methodist, it must have been a slap in the face...

    My grandfather died before I was born, but when my Gran died, Dad didn't want to expose either my sister or myself to the funeral service (I remember him raging that they claimed her as their dear sister despite the fact that they had kicked out for falling asleep in one of the services).

    Not a lot of love for any Church, but I have less time for that one in particular.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  21. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    http://www.discourses.org.uk/History/TheAberdeenIncident.pdf

    Posted 5 years ago #

  22. LaidBack
    Member

    His titles will be Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel.

    Sure the good citizens of Dumbarton will be very pleased. Expect he'll drop by soon.

    Kilkeel sounds nice too - a large fishing port on the Irish Sea.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  23. minus six
    Member

    @iwrats, i'm astounded that you know sister pope

    went to the grammar myself, not far from harlaw / albyn vibe

    you might be near my vintage, by the sound of it

    childrens home, late 1970s

    many now dead and gone

    higgins, wyness etc

    did you know wee johnny mackell ?

    i stole a crate of sherry, he drowned in a pond

    god bless his soul

    lena martell was playing at the capitol

    i cannnot shake these memories

    Posted 5 years ago #

  24. minus six
    Member

    above confirmed by pm

    all power to the glory of CCE

    bigger than farcebook or fiends reunited

    Posted 5 years ago #

  25. LaidBack
    Member

    That. Is. Amazing.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  26. gembo
    Member

    IWRATS been touting his Aberdonian roots on here for years but one mention of the nun Sister Pope and suddenly We are putting the band back together. Makes you wonder about statistical probability

    Posted 5 years ago #

  27. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Yesterday I got one of those GDPR e-mails with the subject 'We Are Keeping Your Data Safe' but they'd sent it out to everyone so we could all see each other's e-mail addresses. One of them was for a guy I was at school with and it did trigger a bout of Google stalking. He's a lawyer in London and the best looking girl in school is a university administrator in Bournemouth and the girl who had pink hair writes novels and reviews for the Guardian and the captain of the hockey team is a Kirk minister and uses a wheelchair now but none of them seem to have risen to CCE.

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Player

    Posted 5 years ago #

  28. acsimpson
    Member

    I guess they should be glad they didn't send the email today. They could have been the first GDPR breach.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  29. wingpig
    Member

    A colleague has just noted that his GDPR email from ScotRail was late for the deadline, sent at 00:30 this morning.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  30. unhurt
    Member

    @bax, @iwrats that is pretty cool! (what happened to the sherry?)

    Re: video - I almost hurt myself laughing at that part of T2. But then I used to have a house equidistant between two East Belfast band pubs...

    Posted 5 years ago #

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