Are the Royal Family losing their touch?

Aveline

Thank you Jane43. Others are obviously not aware of this.

Here we go again. The most common definition of a paedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children. Not to children under the age of puberty.

The legal definition of a child varies from country to country but is not connected with puberty and is definitely not the same as the age of consent.

In England, for example, a child is defined as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday, likewise The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says the same thing.

i have respect for the queen, i am scottish and it annoys me that she is always talked about as the queen of england, as regards to andrew, he did have a right to be there as it was his father, now he should go back in his box and now come out until his mums dies which i don't think will be that long, she looks so frail and heartbroken, you hear of elderly couple dying within months of each other of a broken heart and i think that is what the queen is suffering from. i lost my husband when i was 39 due to a doctor making a mistake, i wanted to go to bed and not wake up, my 16 year old son was the only reason i kept going.

volver what you and Princess Anne doing in a field together?

Can anyone explain to me how "royal families" have evolved please?
When, where and how, did it all begin?
How many other countries in the world have the same thing?

Peters as one who used to work with paedophiles, real ones, and their victims I don't accept generalisations such as those you make. There is a world of difference between children before puberty and 17/18 year olds.
Paedophiles like young children usually under 12 unfortunately. The others are just dirty old men!

DillytheGardener

volver what you and Princess Anne doing in a field together?

The one thing I have in common with Princess Anne is our support of the Scottish Rugby Union Team!

wicklowwinnie

Can anyone explain to me how "royal families" have evolved please?
When, where and how, did it all begin?
How many other countries in the world have the same thing?

Their ancestors were better at fighting than yours and mine.

That's it, really.

And something about Queen Victoria.

Like many people I suspect, I have respect for the Queen, wouldn't describe myself as a royalist, but don't want to have elections for leaders of a republic either! The Carribean trip was a bit of a disaster, all very 1950s in its execution; patronising for those being visited and terminally boring for those obliged to attend. As for Andrew, i do wonder, as someone else wisely posted, if the compromise was him walking in with his mother, through a side door, thus avoiding any embarrassing jeers? I suspect we will see big shakeup when the Queen dies, and frankly, I am not looking forward to the weeks of tv programmes which will follow, all the talking heads, and so called royal experts. It was bad enough when the DoE died.

wicklowwinnie

Can anyone explain to me how "royal families" have evolved please?
When, where and how, did it all begin?
How many other countries in the world have the same thing?

Tony Benn reportedly said: "I don't think people realise how the establishment became established. It simply stole the land and property off the poor, surrounded themselves with weak minded sycophants for protection, gave themselves titles and have been wielding power ever since."

GILLT57 the royal experts , every newspaper has one plus the tv stations , amazing how they know what anyone in the family is thinking, and the ‘body experts’ they know why anyone blinks.

Voting for a president, thinking of our prime ministers , no thank you, and another election !

Oh no, not more democracy! Much better to have someone at the top whose 19th Great Grandfather was handy with a claymore.

Tony Benn owned a lovely country estate and a town house in
Holland Park, such wealth

If Charles and William had the balls they would tell the Queen and the advisers that they weren't going to show up at any events where the favourite is present. Then everyone could draw their own conclusions.
And that means Camilla, Kate and the kids too.

They drive me mad Anniebach, all with their deferential, hushed tones, talking speculatively about things that they have no more knowledge of than anyone else. The palace release information as it suits them, and the so called royal experts are not party to anything secret. Then you get the editors of the fawning magazines such as 'Majesty', usually a home counties woman sitting in her chintz sitting room, giving her breathless opinion.

Aveline

Peters as one who used to work with paedophiles, real ones, and their victims I don't accept generalisations such as those you make. There is a world of difference between children before puberty and 17/18 year olds.
Paedophiles like young children usually under 12 unfortunately. The others are just dirty old men!

Well we can argue about legal and dictionary definitions if you want, although I would say that you worked with paedophiles who were also criminals - paedophilia is in itself not a crime.

But I'm happy just to agree with you that Prince Andrew is a dirty old man.

But Tony Benn didn't use his hereditary title AND he worked for the benefit of the working man .I saw his "one man show" in Edinburgh and he was inspirational,shame there aren't more like him

Democracy is good Ireland elects their president every seven years I think. And the same with Germany There are many good respected presidents. We could have a president something like they have in Ireland.

Or like the Bundes President in Germany. A very well respected figure head, whose sole purpose is to welcome foreign heads of state, represent Germany abroad and sign his/her name on bills which have passed both houses.

The only difference between Michael D. Higgins and our president, Frank-Walther Steinmaier, is that MDH was elected by the electorate, whereas Steinmaier was nominated by and elected by our elected representatives in the Bundestag.

The roles are the same though and both do an excellent job, The fact that they have limited terms of office is a good thing too. The Monarchie in the UK is a waste of space and money and is an anachronism in the 21st century.

The Caribbean tour didn't go well did it. All three countries are now becoming republics

And Andrew who paid out £12 million Charles and Andrew dealings with oligarchs

I liked Tony Benn very much. He spoke a lot of good sense.

Royal families have evolved because their ancestors were better at fighting than ours. They were also ruthless and cruel. I don’t really know how we’ve arrived at the place where we are now, with royals being treated with such deference. They are not one jot different than the rest of us, but people bow and curtesy to the Queen. Just why?

curtsy…….

The Cambridges do seem to have ditched their personalities in favour of the traditional stiff and formal way of doing Royal visits. The Caribbean trip was evidence of that. It’s disappointing really as I was looking to them for change. My children care not a jot so perhaps the existing reverence of the monarchy will simply naturally disappear.

PECS

I hear a this about a mother's unconditional love & that is fine.

However it was a State occasion and not a family one. She did not have to permit him to escort her..she has 3 other children and equerries too. In my opinion it was a very deliberate move to start A's rehabilitation.
I am not suggesting he should not have attended but he could have arrived or sat with his DDs & SsIL

That tells me that the public mood has been misjudged by someone! They appeared got it wrong after Diana's death and back tracked.

There is media speculation that A will be accompanying HMQ to the Derby! It ws not long ago that Royal pundits were saying it would be at least a year from the sex scandal until A was seen publicly with the Queen.

Some mums don't believe their kids ever do bad things!

I agree completely with your comments PECS.
Andrew had a right to be there but allowing him to have a prominent role was a huge misjudgement by the Queen. The last time she made such a huge error of judgement was, I believe, over the death of Diana.
When she goes I feel it is time to bring an end to this anachronism.

Maddyone and Pecs totally agree with last comments.

The host country sets the agenda and the tv shows us what they
want us to see, we saw the Cambridge’s with children behind fencing, no explanation that it was a football pitch and so is
fenced off. .

maddy no one has to bow to the royals, some choose to , I have met some and never bowed or curtsied , little tots who give flowers are told and taught to , by the hosts.

Gill the royal experts , Jenny Bond who had private meetings
with Diana, who can say ‘no you didn’t’.

We have all arrived where we are because we are the offspring of all who went before…. Change Will & does gradually take place, as a country we are probably at a cross roads .
The future for the RF will undoubtably change & adapt as it will for all of us.

Good post Grany. It's actually quite difficult to find information about this on Google.