Royal Ascot.

😂😂😂

I’m so pleased I started this thread……?

And for Allira, Ascot is an event

Every day's a school day on Gransnet!

'Gransplaining' brilliant!

Well Dr Watson, that was a lesson in how to kill an interesting thread stone dead.

Gransplaining…..

And for Allira, Ascot is an event, whether I enjoy it or not is irrelevant, I was just applying some logic to the OP's apparently well-meaning but muddled thought.

Your point re Chump wanting to be Emperor, and our Monarch's limited 'powers', that's perfectly accurate. Chump has already damaged far more folk than most of us can imagine, and will continue until his term limps to a close - unless he can dream up some wheeze to continue. Our Monarchs can do very little to affect our population, our elected duffers (sorry, representatives) can do far more damage.

Thx Magenta, the only 'Straw Man' I had an inkling about was Worzel Gummidge, but I have now looked it up, and it seems to be YOU that's getting muddled, clutching AT straws.

My argument is EXACTLY correct, the OP is attacking freedom of choice (& the wretched inequality), and though it was Ascot in the spotlight, the same argument could be applied to Henley, Wimbledon, Glyndebourne, Glasto, and a mass of entertainments that could be classed as 'needless frippery'. Let's do away with the lot, shall we?

And just HOW do YOU know if those attending in their finery are not already donating vast sums to charity -- more that you for example?

OR, is the attempted argument that Ascot, W'don, etc are all OK as events, but absolutely nobody should get specially dressed up to go, save the money, give it to charity?

IN WHICH CASE, EXACTLY the same argument could be applied in this way, let UsedtoBeBlonde, Magenta, and anyone else who thinks the same make a mid-year resolution, give up buying brand leaders in baked beans, corn flakes, Scotch, frozen veg (whatever), and instead get s'market own varieties, donating the difference to charity. Precisely the same principle -- just differing amounts.

It's quite logical, but if you still disagree, here's an idea :- stand for election at the next MP by-election, on just that principle. Come back and tell us how you got on?

(Oh, and as many comments have said, inequality has always been with us, and thrives even in Communist regimes).

So have I www.

I wonder if DrW has heard of the straw man argument.

Haha. I bet you wish you had never opened this post.
We are all different thank goodness!
I’ve had my head bitten off before.

For TheWeirdoAgain, quoting 'AnimalAid' re the deaths of racehorses, their position - I'm informed -- omits to point out that tens of thousands of horses round the world are specifically bred, every year, for racing.

Animal Aid, and like campaigners, seem to think all those horses just got born and are waiting in fields?

The vast majority live cosseted lives, and all those waiting for an NHS appointment, or operation, can look with envy at the speed with which a vet gets summoned to a racehorse with a limp or a runny nose?!

If animal cruelty campaigners want to ACTUALLY do some good, instead of pointless posturing, then they need to take aim at the lives of chickens, cattle, pigs and sheep, where the 100% (or very close) casualty rate is massively higher than it is for racehorses?

For UsedtobeBlonde --- You may have re-read your original, but the wording is quite clear, even if you're now trying to excuse it.

I see my text got deleted, as being too caustic, but inequality - as quite a few have pointed out - has been with us for a very long time. IF the OP wants a Communist world where we are all 'equal' (which seems the gist of the sentiment, that "food banks" "one hat would pay" etc), then that is just cloud-cuckoo land. Almost everything could be seen as a waste of money if you try hard enough, ordinary folk should not go to Glasto, or Wimbledon, or Ascot, (etc many times over!), or even buy a box of chocs, but should instead buy something basic and donate the rest to a good cause.

Is the Royal Family a pointless extravagance, or do they do a passable job, maybe even make a small profit for the country? I don't pretend to know, but anyone wanting a more democratic figurehead should perhaps look at the likes of Chump, Mugabe, Cromwell and a few hundred of similar ilk and try to devise a better way?!

Sorry meant 2 live in their own homes

There were four female working members of the royal
family at Ascot, three live in their own homes , that’s obscene!

I agree wholeheartedly with Usedtobeblonde. It is obscene that those royals have 34 homes from which to choose, and clothes that cost many thousands. It is an outdated
institution which should go, irrelevant these days.

I suspect half of the US think there is no difference between the surviving monarchs of Europe and King Herod.

Elegran

Witzend

vegansrock

If Donald Trump declared himself king of the USA there'd be a revolution. I guess those who think the monarchy is the best system would approve.

He’s acting rather like a mediaeval monarch already.

Mr Trump's image of a monarchy is based in past ages when a monarch was a rebellious powerful ex-subject who had deposed or assassinated the previous absolute monarch and taken over as an identically dictatorial tyrant.

👍

Anyone who thinks our present-day Monarch has the power of a President is living in an alternative universe to the one I'm in.

The first thing a lion does when he has defeated the previous pride leader is to get rid of potential resistance by driving out any adult males who sided with his predecessor and showed signs of resisting him, killing all juvenile males who had "royal" blood and could grow up to challenge him as a usurper, and make sure all the females were soon pregnant with HIS genes, building up a community who would be loyal to HIM.

All dictators follow more or less this pattern - remove existing opposition, kill off (or indoctrinate by controlling and restricting education) up-and-coming potential opposition, use propaganda against outsiders and non-mainstreamers, and increase the birth rate to provide a good supply of disciples and peasants (in peace) and cannon fodder (in war)

Does this sound familiar?

Witzend

vegansrock

If Donald Trump declared himself king of the USA there'd be a revolution. I guess those who think the monarchy is the best system would approve.

He’s acting rather like a mediaeval monarch already.

Mr Trump's image of a monarchy is based in past ages when a monarch was a rebellious powerful ex-subject who had deposed or assassinated the previous absolute monarch and taken over as an identically dictatorial tyrant.

BlueBelle

Well I hate horse racing whether rich or poor I m very anti
I think the horses should sit on the riders backs for a change

Pam Ayres wrote a very poignant poem about a racehorse making his will before a race. Wish I could find it, but it’s not in the PA book I have.
I’ve heard her recite it live, though, and particularly remember the bit about him leaving his packet of Polos to his stable-mate - and referring to his jockey as the ‘nasty? ….little short-arsed bastard!’

vegansrock

If Donald Trump declared himself king of the USA there'd be a revolution. I guess those who think the monarchy is the best system would approve.

He’s acting rather like a mediaeval monarch already.

Usedtobeblonde

I don't agree with the views expressed in your original post, but I can understand where you're coming from.

The most appropriate answer, I think, is the post with the quote from Shakespeare who always had it spot-on.

Just logged on again after my post in the night.
I certainly was told , I didn’t report that post as it isn’t something I do unless it is spam.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have replied but it was so surprising that I had to.
Does anyone else sometimes feel GN is no longer for them?
No longer the friendly, helpful, comforting forum it was when I joined just after it started.
At its best it is so good, just occasionally not.

Did you enjoy Ascot, DrWatson?

Well that's you told usedtobeblonde! I bet you wish you hadn't bothered to post what must have been a quick impression. I'm not interested in Ascot at all but just wanted to say that I knew a person who's brother made famous hats for Lady Di. His little business grew enormously and created lots of good jobs. I'm sure the finery on display at Royal Ascot has done the same for many other minor industries which otherwise might not exist.