Prince Phillip dies age 99

[happyninja42]

Thank God for small favours huh?

seeing as I'm an atheist, no i wouldn't thank gawhd I would just thank the various laws that prevent nudity in public locations.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Didn't the Queen call BoJo to the carpet for Brexit? And didn't he basically lie to her face?

He was called in by the Queen due to her concern over his ability to deliver the will of the people considering the vote (though non binding) had chosen leave and things were dragging out.

There was a claim he lied to her over suspending parliament but that's a case of we may never truly know and he did phone the Queen up immediately after to apologise for if it seemed she'd been mislead. I mean it's Borris he probably thought very little of it and just didn't think the thing through fully.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Well the first one qualifies as a skill.

Only if you're good at it.

And that's the problem with the royals. They've never had to demonstrate their merits as individuals, or indeed to develop merits as individuals, because the entire country revolves around them. Even when they get quote/unquote "real jobs", or go to university, or do normal things which the rest of us have to earn, it's all a stage managed performance because their real job, the only job they will ever have, is to preserve the medieval institution to which they belong by duping people into thinking they're useful enough not to be abolished.

I'd describe the sex parties one as more of a talent; like any chump can organise a party but making it a sexy party takes some clever doings.

It requires money.

Quite a lot of money. Far more than an ordinary person would ever be able to spend on a party, but then we're not talking about ordinary people are we.

As for the Royals well technically if they believe the UK government is working to actively harm the people it can dissolve the government and force it to be replaced.

It's more complicated than that.

While it's technically true that the monarch could refuse royal assent to the government, doing so would create a constitutional crisis because there is no way within the existing law, to resolve that situation. For this reason, it will almost certainly never happen. Our entire political system is built on the assumption that it will not happen, and if it did happen it would almost certainly end badly for the monarchy unless the government is incredibly unpopular.

The armed services are also loyal to the crown ultimately and not the government just in case there ever is a need to depose the government.

Again, this is an oversimplification. In the UK, "the crown" and "the government" are the same thing. Historically, government institutions were the personal property of the monarch and in a very abstract sense that hasn't changed, but after centuries of constitutional reform the reality on the ground is very different. In the event of some constitutional crisis where the monarch and government were opposed, the army would owe loyalties to both, after all they are traditionally the same thing, and intervening on behalf of either side would be a coup. It would fall to the political system to resolve that crisis, and unless society had completely broken down there'd be no reason to involve the army at all.

Also the PM is technically accountable to the crown and should the crown wish it the PM can be called in to explain their actions and justify them to the crown.

Again, I'm repeating myself but the reality is more complicated.

Boris Johnson, for example, was summoned to an audience with the queen because he had previously asked the queen on behalf of the government to suspend parliament during the Brexit negotiations, which again, she couldn't refuse without causing a constitutional crisis. However, the suspension of parliament was later declared unlawful by the courts (because it was a blatant attempt to bypass the democratic process) and thus the queen was put in a really shitty position.

The queen does not oversee the actions of her government. She could theoretically withdraw her assent from the government, but again, that would cause an absolute political shitstorm. The queen is not a politician. She's not a lawyer. She's not an expert on any aspect of the British political or legal systems. Sometimes, the weird medieval nonsense by which this country is governed means that the queen does end up involved in politics, and in those situations she and her staff obviously have to be informed and communicated with because it directly involves her. But this is a long way from her having any kind of power to reign in the government.

Like, I hope it's clear at this point that I hate the monarchy. I absolutely despise it. It's a symbol of everything that is wrong about the UK, but it's still only a symbol. It would greatly enhance my case to be able to pretend that the monarch has a lot of power to intervene in the political system, but she doesn't. That's not the problem with her or what she represents. It's the notion that some people, by virtue of being born into affluence or privilege, are just better or more deserving or more worthy of admiration than others. That's an idea that is still deeply ingrained into the UK at every level, and it's disgusting.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

With patriotism I don't necessarily mean redneck maga supporters or anything but rather that national pride or 'exceptionalism' if you will runs deep in American society. I don't think I've ever been to another country with so many national flags wherever you go.

Someone's clearly never been to the Catalan region of Spain. Catalan flags on every balcony.

 

[Dalisclock]

More accurately, we have the spaghetti Western films of the '50s, which almost invariably feature a white man in a white hat standing in a cloud of gunsmoke while the bandito crumples to the ground, therefore proving the divine righteousness of the gunslinger who "brings his brand of law to the frontier" (and then rides off with the lady in distress).

I think you're confusing this a little. Spaghetti Westerns were made later(70's) and were notably more cynical then the "White Hat, Black Hat" Westerns of the earlier decades but your point does stand otherwise.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I think you're confusing this a little. Spaghetti Westerns were made later(70's) and were notably more cynical then the "White Hat, Black Hat" Westerns of the earlier decades but your point does stand otherwise.

Could be. Appreciate the clarification.

 

[Dalisclock]

Could be. Appreciate the clarification.

NP. Sorry if it sounded Nitpicky. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is one of my favorites so I got a little pedantic there.