Are you in favour of the Royal Family?

[enzomari]

DM and I were discussing this last night, she's now in her Eighties and used to really like the Queen (not so much Phillip for some reason) but now really isn't bothered and thinks the RF, as is, should be abolished . I've always been a Republican but I was surprised at DM as she always seemed very pro RF but actually was pro the late Queen.

IMHO it seems so past it's sell by date but I'd be interested to know others opinions.

I've gone Republican to royalist.
We need a head of state. Do you want an elected protest vote person in the role?
This RF are slimmed down, far more modest than before, don't seem hung up on deference, they are experienced, wield huge soft power, work hard, get it right, they are impressive people. The Wales's live in a 4 bed detached. The working royals work hard.
I wish a way could have been found for Harry and Meghan to stay, they could have complemented the Wales's really well, but I don't think it was a job where Megan could play to her strengths.

Huge assumption there. You can't write off the argument for republicanism based on made-up assertions about republicans. Most on here have advocated an apolitical, ceremonial head of state. I don't think anyone has suggested Keir Starmer.

No the Wales's do not primarily live in a four bedroom detached house, they have a country estate in Norfolk and a massive floor of Kensington palace. Work hard? That's a joke!
None of them are impressive, they are a dysfunctional family that we pay eye watering amounts of money for.

I have turned royalist to republican over the years and even more so hearing today's news with Andrew and a Chinese spy that has now had to be banned from the UK because of the leverage of him as he wanted money, Andrew that is.

The Wales's live in a 4 bed detached.

😅And a 10 bedroom manor house; an apartment at Kensington Palace and a cottage on the Balmoral estate.

And here's a quick look inside that modest 4 bed detached. You can quite see why they would need three other properties 🙄

In which universe are the royals slimmed down ? Yes they do less but they cost much much more than ever before.
Their take from the tax payer has ballooned to half a billion and for what ? To enable this corrupt ‘firm’ to continue to rip off charities and make millions from the NHS while having the best of private health care themselves?

Did you watch the ceremony at Notre Dame? Trump steamrollered William . William sat like a supplicant schoolboy while Trump patronised him . The meeting made the UK look worse than before . And it was unnecessary. A handshake was all that was needed.

And sorry @thankyouforthedayz but the rest of your post re a four bed house is just PR drivel .
Have you missed the other mansions ?

hahahahaha.
4 bed house, lol!

Haha yes, and that royal Edward and his wife really need an Estate and residence with 128 rooms, no kids at home but just the two of them need the space of course!

4 bedroomed detached house has given me a good laugh!

interesting though, isn't it.
Their PR puts out these pieces eg. they've moved to a modest house, they have no live in staff. and I assumed everyone took it with a massive pinch of salt as it can'tpossibly be true ( as has been proven) but obviously some people do believe it.
@thankyouforthedayz do you really, genuinely believe they are living in a modest 4 bed house as their main home? really? He's worth half a billion and his dad £2 billion ( mostly from us).
Can you really not see it's PR?

Ha! Agreed

I remember the time the Mumsnet Ultras were cooing over they said was dry shampoo left in Catherine's hair when one of her children was little. "She must have been too busy to brush it out properly. Awwww she's just like us."

NB. Not all Mumsnet royalists are like that.

PR and media ( with a few honourable exceptions )

Look at the response to the Times/ Channel 4 Dispatches expose . Proper old fashioned journalistic digging - shocking revelations and no response from the Windsors . There is no need - they know the media and their handlers have it covered .
They should be ashamed to show their faces.
The BBC barely covered it and no doubt bigged up some Windsor nonsense to distract .

Hence my username !

Now I’m idly wondering what the UK equivalent of ‘deny defend depose ‘ would be.

@Notmoog Yes, I am baffled by the absence of salt cellars too.🤣After all, you don't need live in staff when there are plenty of cottages round about for them to live in.....

The king has over 40 houses. It’s obviously too many. I think he sold a house in Wales so that’s his idea of skimming down.

Sureky we don’t want a Trump scenario where one president is head of the country? It’s better to have our constitutional monarchy with a PM. As we have discovered., the pm can be removed. That’s good!

Why are the media so in favour of them ( guardian and a few others excepted)?
is it just that they generate column inches?
Do most people really want to see them in the papers every day?

I don’t think it’s so much that the media is favour as it is two weakened aging institutions leaning on each other

I suspect many of the scandals will be suppressed under the guise of ‘national security’ if things get really hot . Andrew is the current lightening rod , distracting from the others

is it just that they generate column inches?
Do most people really want to see them in the papers every day?

Yes and yes. But those numbers are dwindling.

No idea why anyone supports them, there is something nearly weekly that is dodgy. Today it's Andrew and the Chinese spy... sorry to derail but it's shocking... found on chinese spy's phone... communication from an adviser to chinese spy.
"Outside of [the prince's] closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on."
It adds: "Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house of Windsor."

Of course Royalists will say 'ahhhh but that's Andrew, we can't stand him'. But Andrew just happens to have been exposed. Others haven't. All members of the extended family are doing deals, they just don't get found out and don't push it as far as Andrew. And the media will report on Andrew. It won't on the rest.
And yet people revere them.... madness

Can someone explain to me why we need a head of state at all? What would happen if we didn't have one?

lots of people said the country wouldn't be the same once the queen died and we'd all feel the loss of the steadying influence etc.

I assume it would be like that.......

And yet many countries have an elected ceremonial HoS who is changed periodically at the will of the people, and deal perfectly well with completely different people at the helm. Well, if by 'at the helm' you mean a largely ceremonial, non-partisan role that involves officially representing the country and signing bills into law.

This RF are slimmed down, far more modest than before

They've been temporarily slimmed down by illness and flouncing but they're still wheeling second tier figures on to plug the gaps.

None of them are living more modestly. Fred and Willy are skimming harder than we ever realised and Fred's making a show of graciously handing back a proportion of the obscene profits he's trousering from licences issued on what should be national assets his calculating mother annexed on behalf of the monarchy some sixty years ago.

All members of the extended family are doing deals,

Yes.

See Zara and the £100k a year she was pocketing for a six gig a year deal (three of which were phone calls IIRC). She had her lawyers deny it until they couldn't 🙄

ETA apparently two phone calls and four in person appearances:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7342503/Queens-granddaughter-paid-advise-introduce-contacts-Hong-Kong-businessman.html

We don't need a monarchy, we especially don't need a tax avoiding and aquisitive monarchy who have steadily grown their wealth to billions over the last eighty+ years via influence on government policies and insane tax exemptions. I suspect joe and jane public in the UK have no clue just how incredibly wealthy they are.

A president in the UK would be largely ceremonial as it is in some other European countries. We could pay a man or woman in the proverbial grey suit a couple of hundred grand a year to do the meet and greets for heads of state and use the royal acquired wealth as the seed of a sovereign wealth fund. Set the term for five years with a maximum of two terms per president (a limit I'd also set for elected mayors).

All the tourist glitz will still be there, all the lifetime-of-experience diplomats will still be there, the taxpayer will be better off and we won't be raising children in a society which tells them accidents of birth are more important than graft.

Well said .
We know that ‘service ‘ is a joke but the royals look to be a security risk too

Very much so