What British people think about their monarchy?

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pawelk1986
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26 Feb 2014, 2:23 pm

I wonder what the British really think about the monarchy after Queen / King does not really have any real power, with all decisions are made by the Prime Minister, currently if I am not mistaken David Cameron

My country Poland is a parliamentary republic, once a long time ago was kingdoms, sometimes I wonder if it would be better if Poland were kingdoms, but not such as the United Kingdom, but like France from before the the Great Revolution, or like Saudi Arabia but without the Shari'a law :-)

What I mean is that the King may be actually cared about their subjects, and not as the politicians who make electoral pledges and after the election they forget all about it,

But I would like to know what think about their British monarch. But I'm curious what think about monarchy Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Dutch and all other people who live under monarchy, what do you think about you Queen/King



Pobbles
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26 Feb 2014, 2:27 pm

The monarchy in the UK has one purpose: to attract tourists to our quaint little island.



The_Walrus
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26 Feb 2014, 3:04 pm

I really couldn't care less. I don't like when everyone starts fawning over them because they were born/married/had a birthday/jubilee/funeral, but hey, we get days off.

pawelk1986 wrote:

What I mean is that the King may be actually cared about their subjects,

LOL.



Rakshasa72
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26 Feb 2014, 3:07 pm

A few weeks ago I got done watching a TV series called "Monarchy" on Netflix. It covers the history of the British Monarchy. Although the presenter seemed to be a bit of a "Royalist", it seemed to give a pretty good idea of the what, where and why of the monarchy.



TallyMan
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26 Feb 2014, 3:51 pm

Pobbles wrote:
The monarchy in the UK has one purpose: to attract tourists to our quaint little island.


^ This. Other than that they are irrelevant nowadays and of zero interest to me personally. Though they seem fascinating to some people - I can't comprehend all that fuss about that royal wedding a while back between prince whatshisname and whoever she was.

:shrug:


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Robdemanc
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26 Feb 2014, 4:01 pm

The royal family in Britain still has a lot of support which I find really odd when I hear about it. I have never cared much for them. They are so far removed from what normal life is that they have no idea what our governments are doing to us and that the country they sit at the head of is no longer the country they built.

In recent years I have become fond of Prince Charles for speaking up about various political, economical, environmental and societal issues. But apart from him I don't see what value any of them have to offer.

The Queen is now old and when she came to the throne Britain was a different place. When she goes whoever takes over will have a tough job maintaining any respect.

On the tourist issue I think tourists would still come to Britain even if we got rid of them. Because I am quite sure none of the tourists who come here now get to meet them anyway. They just come to look at their palaces and castles and walk through their parks.

The whole idea of a monarchy is medieval.

I honestly believe that we don't need a head of state.



thomas81
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26 Feb 2014, 6:18 pm

My opinions regarding the monarchy are more antipathic than most.

I believe that if we were to hollow them out, fill them full of sawdust and place them in a glass cabinet we could attract all of the tourist revenue without any of the associated maintenance costs.


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thomas81
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26 Feb 2014, 6:23 pm

Pobbles wrote:
The monarchy in the UK has one purpose: to attract tourists to our quaint little island.


Yet they rarely stay around to greet any of those tourists.

Talk about ignorance.


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slave
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26 Feb 2014, 8:31 pm

The 'CROWN' is the absolute owner of ALL of the land in the 53 nations of the 'Commonwealth' and as such the 'CROWN' has more power than many people think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_st ... of_Nations

Imagine the total value of all that land!! !! 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O



ArrantPariah
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26 Feb 2014, 9:46 pm

They also sell newspapers. Without stories about them, probably very few newspapers would sell.



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26 Feb 2014, 10:10 pm

Never had much of an issue with the Queen. As a person, I have a great deal of respect for her. That being said, I have never been able to really like the idea of a monarchy all that much.


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naturalplastic
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26 Feb 2014, 10:13 pm

slave wrote:
The 'CROWN' is the absolute owner of ALL of the land in the 53 nations of the 'Commonwealth' and as such the 'CROWN' has more power than many people think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_st ... of_Nations

Imagine the total value of all that land!! !! 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O


On the eve of world war two the British Empire comprised one fourth of the dry land on the planet's surface, and was larger than the old Soviet Union, and the USA combined.

But the royal family does not personally own all of the real estate in Britain and its former colonies. They own alot of land. But not that much.



TheGoggles
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26 Feb 2014, 11:36 pm

I've never understood why they get such tremendous press coverage in America. I mean, yeah, they're public figures, but did we really need to cut into regular programming to cover the emergence of the baby from the hospital? Just wait for the evening news and show the highlight reel. We didn't need to see the costumed hobo guy read his cockney scroll of gibberish (though it was remarkable that the American media legitimately thought he was a British official and not some dude dressed up as a court jester).



ezbzbfcg2
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27 Feb 2014, 1:43 am

I'm an American, and I'm pretty sure I have Asperger's, and I have no particular fondness for the British monarchy, or monarchs in general. In fact, I think it would be kind of cool to see it disappear in my lifetime.

Anyway, I don't believe it's simply about "tourists," for at the end of the day, it's the British populace itself that loves its queen. Oh, I realize many aspie Briton's here see the needlessness of it all, but I think, on the whole, most Britons either love their queen, or simply accept it as that which is.

Even Britons who aren't enthralled with the throne would not, deep, deep down, want to see it disappear. Just my observation of Britons, though I can be wrong. I think most of them either love, or cherish, or simply accept their queen, (as much as the sky is blue and the grass is green, it's a staple of their lives).

Besides, how can you have a United Kingdom without a reigning monarch? But if you get a chance, look up the song "Elizabeth Reigns" by Ringo Starr. Ringo has openly stated that he feels once Elizabeth II dies, the monarchy should end.

(That said, I do hope Elizabeth II makes it another couple years so she can surpass Queen Victoria as longest-reigning monarch of Great Britain.)



Master_Pedant
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27 Feb 2014, 4:02 am

ezbzbfcg2 wrote:

Besides, how can you have a United Kingdom without a reigning monarch?


You can have a Commonwealth of Britain, though.


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27 Feb 2014, 5:41 am

Well I think they're alright.


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