The image of the royal family

I think that's what I meant. DH was asking me another question at the same time.

I think I meant the RF we have at the moment are benign - on the whole - although one can always think of an exception to the rule.

A head of state, it is a head of state, is a head of state. To a man and (occasionally a) woman, they are elderly, wealthy and most have political careers behand them. A few wield a lot of power, but the only purpose of most is to be a a figurehead

By the standards of heads of state as a group, the monarchical section generally are the least harmful and most interesting, providing the media with an endless stream of gossip and tittle tattle and possessing an endless stream of badly behaved relatives.

Back in the day, it was the Dutch RF that made the running in the Dodgy Duke (or count or margrave) stakes, then the baton passed the Spanish as the handsome and courageous monarch who saved democracy became steeped in infamy and was banished from the country. Now it is our turn.

Calistemon

^So as we're. looking at climate change this week I wonderedhow many cars the RF actually owns. This is an interesting article^
But they can only use one at a time

Not quite true the Queen has 8 official state cars for visiting dignitaries,, plus Volksvagen people carriers for her security details And Range Rovers. They'll all be out when there's an occasion
Charles has his own collection.

Just wondering how many on GN have more than one car? How many of our families run more than one car?
How many of us are now running electric cars and how many have old cars that probably exceed the emissions levels.
Mumsnetters have no qualms about asking personal questions like that, so I thought I’d ask on GN.

I have one car. My husband also has one car. Mine is smaller, his bigger, to carry grandchildren and elderly mothers. Although, my elderly mother is so very elderly that she cannot get in or out of it any longer, despite the fact that she shouted aggressively down the phone to my husband ‘I can get in a car.’

We have one small car, Fiat 500 well it's mine actually and
Mr. S. traded in his van toward a motor home last year.

Not quite true the Queen has 8 official state cars for visiting dignitaries,, plus Volksvagen people carriers for her security details And Range Rovers.

So they don't actually belong to her, they belong to the State or security services therefore they are ours, not hers.

Just wondering how many on GN have more than one car? How many of our families run more than one car?

Do tractors count?
And sit-and-ride lawnmowers?

Good question Mollygo. We have given up two cars as we do most things together these days or independent interests on different days. So one petrol hybrid between us. Next generation have two cars per family as both work. Now eldest grandson has reached driving age there’ll probably be three cars in their drive.
Public transport will have to improve dramatically outside big cities to improve that situation.

Alegrias1

I think Callistemon's point is that there have been many bad presidents.

Its not like there have ever been any bad kings and queens, is it?

Public transport will have to improve dramatically outside big cities to improve that situation.

That is a major concern; public transport is getting worse here, not better.

I don't have a car. My 3 DS have 2 cars so as a family we have 2.

We have three cars, but have yet to work out anyway of driving more than two at a time.

All our cars are at least 15 years old. We buy second hand cars and run them until they die. My fuel efficient relatively low emission Toyota Yaris is nearly 20 years old. This makes the lifetime emissions of our cars lower than many others because a car is only made every 10-15 years to provide us with transport, unlike the many people who replace their cars every 2 years.

You also need to take into account the amount of energy needed to make the battery of an electric car - the equivalent of driving a petrol car 100,000 miles - , not to mention the consumption of heavy metals, which are poisonous and difficult to dispose of and, are, at times, mined by child labour and almost always with poor safety rules by desperately poor people.

Then there is the electricity you use to power it. Around half of it is made by gas.

No I am not anti- electric cars, it is just that they are no where as green as people think. There main advantage is that, used in inner cities and other area of highly polluted air, by transferring the emissions to the rural areas where gas power stations are, they take the fumes from city streets and improve the air quality there

Well, back to the royal family. They have many cars, but some are for official use and others are for private use. Apparently some are owned by the state, that means us. I haven’t been offered a ride in one of them though.

Grany

William Charles and the rest of Royals are hypocrites #Cop26

Experts say Anne’s trips three trips in October caused carbon emissions of around 3.9 tonnes, used hundreds of gallons of aviation fuel and cost at least £15,000.

It is estimated carbon footprint down to an estimated 0.5 tonnes if she had made the same journeys by car.

Helicopters private jets, private train, multiple large houses.

Burning vast amounts of land for grouse shooting
Did they listen when a petition delivered to Buckingham palace about rewilding land for climate emergency??

Abolish the monarchy

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/republic/comments#start

Totally agree with you. I am sure that the queen is very nice and does a good job as head of state, but it is an outdated institution. It all began with "land grabbing" around 700AD by the bullies of the time who declared themselves monarchs and "royal". Kings of Kent, Mercia, Wessex etc. until when Harold was king the invasion of William the Conqueror meant we were being ruled by foreigners. Kings and queens have no connection to God, he didn't appoint them, they appointed themselves. Some of the present RF are pleasant but it doesn't change how they came into being. All their land was grabbed from the people, there was no one to hand it out. They have far too much wealth of dubious origin. I hope it fades away

DillytheGardener

I’m personally more worried about the Prince Andrew scandal. I think he should have been sent off to live quietly somewhere abroad. His continuing his friendship with Epstein after Epstein was convicted with child sex offences should have seen him exiled by the RF then and there. Colossal lack of judgement. I support the queen, but once she dies I will be happy to see the Royal Family go for good.

Agree with you ^

@Gabrielle. I agree with all you write. I remember old Titchmarsh wondering aloud how the queen did "it all". I could have explained, servants for EVERYTHING no cleaning, cooking, clearing up, washing, ironing, mending, bed making, queuing in supermarkets, trying to get a medical appointment, worrying if her pension will cover the utilities and food, no inheritance tax on her mothers money, the queen has no idea how the majority of people live. For the record when Phil the Greek retired he went to live at Wood Farm in Norfolk, they didn't see much of each other until the pandemic when they were together at Windsor

Phil the Greek

RVK1CR
Great posts. All been said before but royalists won't hear.

On this forum we have often had to hear the racist ‘Phil the
Greek’ but only from one poster

Phil the Greek
Oh dear RVK1CR. You were doing so well with your history lesson but then you had to throw in a bit of racism.
Shame on you. All of us whose partners are not English will now know how you feel about the ‘foreigners’ in our midst-or is it only if they’re royal?

Can anyone tell me why "Phil the Greek" is racist but "Prince Phillip of Greece" isn't?

The former may be rude and dismissive (and wrong, of course) but trying to pretend things are racist when they're not just minimises real racism.

It is rude yes but I too don’t see that it’s racist. “ Aleg the Scot “
Is that racist ? Or just rude ?

Well, its rude, but its accurate

I am not pretending it’s racist,