On borrowed time - the royals

Why skip over Charles ? His age ? He had an affair ?

Other countries seem to be able to manage a low key , purely ceremonial monarchy rather better than we do. I'm thinking Holland, Norway, Sweden. Let's just cut out all the blessed bowing and scraping and call it a (well paid) job. Not quite like any other, I know, but as I say, other models are available.

Monarchy secretive
Philip Murphy Professor

Wrote article in 2015 explains monarchy more secretive than MI5

A measured and duly sensitive policy of opening up royal papers from the current reign would be in everyone’s interests. It would allow the monarchy to become the object of serious historical investigation rather than simply gossip and scandal. Isn’t it time we stopped learning our royal history from The Sun? What have they got to hide?

Ben Mackentire wrote similarly in 2016

That's why seven rules of public office from the Nolan report and one of them Accountability secretive NellG RF don't live up to any of these seven rules of public office.

No member of the public have to bow or curtsy to a member of the royal family, some choose to do so, others do not.n

Thank you for that interesting link Lisagran. It would be interesting to know what public opinion is outside the social media echo chamber that many people inhabit. My own feeling is that we will get an unelected Head of State foisted upon us after the present monarch expires, and he will be Charles III. The political will to change this doesn’t seem to be there.

I agree with NanKate.

The RF are respected and admired by many people the world and until recently had not adopted the “victim” brigade.

LLTQ ??????????

Meghan was required to curtsey when she met her grandmother-in-law-to-be. She practised outside in the garden. I am not surprised that she was a bit gobsmacked by this!

I have no objection to the monarchy in its present form. They are pretty harmless and I enjoy the theatrical element of it all. If they started throwing their weight about in an unpleasant way I suspect they would soon go.

I've just been chatting to some of my Australian relatives on the phone and they said no-one they know agrees with what Meghan and Harry have done and want the Monarchy to continue.
Surprising really, as most people in that area are not from British origin.

I`m with you NanKate.
The Royals bring in tourists from all over the world,without them alot of business`s would go under.
The Royals are our history.

The tourist thing again....

nanna8

Maybe stop the curtsying, bowing and scraping for a start. Never heard of such nonsense. Straight from the 16 th century.

I've met one or two of the Royal family and didn't bow, scrape or curtsey.

(Posted from my cell in the Tower of London).

Grany If you say so, but calling me a Sun reader and failing to cite your evidence isn't going to win me or anyone else over. It's pretty much just spitting up wind.

NellG

This is where it loses credibility Grany, and all the logical things that came before it get lost too.

The monarchy is corrupt using public office for private gain, secretive, more secretive than MI5, unaccountable exempted themselves from freedom of information laws, above the law Andrew FBI?

If it's so secret, you can't possibly know. Sigh.

NellG
???

If they are a tourist attraction well let's make them just that. Let's cut all their ties with government and power and let them parade around in coaches, open their castles to tourists and have a proper financial arrangement where they pay tax on all the cash they have. Actually I think if you did that you would find they would b*** off of their own accord.

I agree with Blinko. I think we should keep the monarchy but in slimmed down and modernised form. Only the monarch and spouse and their children should be priviledged. All other members of their family should live as private citizens earning their own keep.
The monarchy, with it's history and continuity, is surely better than various elected heads of state who would probably be after the job purely for reasons of power and financial gain.
And, by the way, I think Charles will make an excellent king.
He is utterly committed to doing his best for this country and always has been.
Whoever said the monarch has to be entirely pure and faultless? They are just human beings like the rest of us and therefore not perfect.

Callistemon

nanna8

Maybe stop the curtsying, bowing and scraping for a start. Never heard of such nonsense. Straight from the 16 th century.

I've met one or two of the Royal family and didn't bow, scrape or curtsey.

(Posted from my cell in the Tower of London).

Love it. Off with your head, out to the chopping block with you! ?

Please, I promise to practise my curtesy.
My knees may creak very loudly though.

A very interesting article, thank you.

Ithink the present Queen has done a good job but she has been on the throne a long time and is conservative with a small c. It seems to me that the whole system is still stuck in the 1950's.
Change is needed. It should be drastically slimmed down with HRH's restricted to the direct heirs. The rest of the family should make their own way and not live in royal palaces with all the privileges and perks that these give.

Here you can read see about the Royals and secrecy NellG And by the way I didn't accuse you of being a sun reader It was a statement about the way people in general pick up news about RF m.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQyDNN4BYg&t=162s

the only royals carrying out public duties are the children of the monarch, Charles, Anne and Edward, the heir has one child William, yes the wives of Charles , Edward and William
also carry out public duties, 7 members who carry out public
duties . Which of these should go ?

nadateturbe

nanna8

Is it a good reason to keep an anachronism just because we can’t think of an alternative ,though? We are in the 21 st century now and all that king and queen privileges stuff doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s rubbish.

Agreed Nanna8.

It is never a good idea to throw out any system before you have a better one to put in its place. At the moment I am engaged in reviewing and updating the filing system that my late husband used up until 10 years ago for all the household paperwork, archives and information, and which I have tried (not very succesfully) to follow. If I had just thrown all the contents of the cardboard files into the bin and started from scratch, I would have lost a lot. Every single thing has to be taken out, examined, assessed, changed or thrown out if it needs to be, updated, labelled and filed again in a different sequence. Whether I will still be able to find anything by the time it is all "improved" remains to be seen. it won't work perfectly for some time.

Babies and bathwater!

I wouldn't want a Republic, but------a change in the country's leadership would possibly put paid to the obvious division that we have in this country.
Because of where the palace is situated, obviously the revenue that comes in will be/ is allotted to that particular area which is visible by its high-rise hotels etc. and general commerce with the Royals being a great attraction from overseas.

Would all that stop if we were to do away with the RF, I wonder ? Would the same volume of visitors bother coming ? It wouldn't be for the weather that's for sure

Times have changed and in view of the departure of M&H and the backing that they have it leaves the argument of continuing with a Royal as Head of State in this country, debateable, sadly.

trisher

If they are a tourist attraction well let's make them just that. Let's cut all their ties with government and power and let them parade around in coaches, open their castles to tourists and have a proper financial arrangement where they pay tax on all the cash they have. Actually I think if you did that you would find they would b*** off of their own accord.

True if they had to open up everything for tourists they would soon scarper haha true.

The queen could open Buckingham palace all year round like the popes residence after all it has over 700 bedrooms lots of room for one RF but the Queen outright refuses. The money earned could pay for the palace upkeep. Anyway why didn't the queen and Royals make sure of the palace upkeep instead of letting it get into disrepair they have been given money for this over the years.

The numbers signing the petition for ministers to debate monarchy is gaing steady yay ?