to wonder why the whole country has gone completely bloody Royalist?

[Hullygully]

Erect the scaffold.

Up the Republicans.

We are ADULTS we don't need a feudalistic Divine Right of Kings addled parasitical bunch of halfwits to live off our taxes.

I do think it's hilarious that the response to comments about millions of people turning out in the rain to celebrate the Jubilee is all to do with brainwashing and the fact that we're sheep.

Maybe the majority just don't have a Republican point of view? Simple as?

This thread = troll fest

'Typical degeneration into class debate. Always smacks of chips on shoulders'

In RL, the people I see with chips on their shoulders are my (royalist) family, who have an inferiority complex and look up to the royal family while looking down on people they consider inferior to them. If they can look down on others they feel better about themselves. It's pathetic.

So I'll put you down as a definite maybe for my 'would volunteer to be Queen for a week' list then Flatbread

A reasoned argument on how the monarchy underpins and supports practices that impact all of us
www.centreforcitizenship.org/monarchy/mon_rights.html

I know you will laugh at me for saying this, but most of this is rhetoric, not about real life. Using the US constitution written 200 years ago as an advertisement for a fair republican country is hilarious, considering they treated black people appallingly only 50 years ago and deprived them of most of their civil rights.

Do you really believe the Royal Family 'abuses your civil rights'? Hmmm, that's why people risk life and limb to escape from republican countries to come and live here.

Threaders - what a fantastic and insightful contribution to enlightened debate!

'that's why people risk life and limb to escape from republican countries to come and live here.'

Really? People from Germany, France and the US are desperate to emigrate here are they? I don't see any evidence personally. People who 'risk life and limb to escape' are probably trying to escape war, they don't see the UK as a desirable place to live because we have a monarchy - what a strange argument.

I don't think it's insulting to assume that people are sheep when they are out waving flags and saying 'God Save The Queen' when they don't even know why..........how else could you accurately describe it?

moronic?

YABU... I just sent a Belgian colleague a few pics from the weekend and he said he envied the sense of national pride.... something they don't share, apparently. Not necessarily 'royalist', therefore. Somewhere between patriotism and national identity.

I think the author is clear that a full democracy will not do away with social inequalities, bu it is a starting point.

The civil rights movement is based the notion that all people are born free and equal. Which is legitimised and promoted by the US constitution. At least the ideal is there.

Do you not agree that the house of lords being appointed is undemocratic and is related to an unelected head of state? Do you not think that people in positions of public power should swear their allegiance to the people, not the queen?

If all this is merely symbolic, then you would be ok, I presume, if only a man could be head of state, as women were considered properties of their husband not so long back? It is tradition after all, and wouldn't impact our 'real' lives as women...

Oh well, if ONE BELGIAN thinks they're great....

I would say it was a mixture of reasons including wanting to show an old lady that 60 years of public service representing the country whilst living in a gilded cage is appreciated, and for many others it is pleasurable to feel a sense of unity and community for a few days which is unfortunately all too often lacking in modern life. Sporting crowds get a lift being together, choirs get a lift from singing together and there is also a lift that comes from being alongside thousands of people in a festive atmosphere where for a while the usual rules of British reserve are suspended and people laugh and chat together.

If you want to stand at the side like a wallflower harrumphing about people being mindless sheep that is your lookout, but I think they were having more fun than you!

Corgito - what are we proud of?

See, this sense of being 'proud to be British' (or anything else) is something which escapes me entrely - I find it ridiculous. None of us have any control over what country we were born in.

I would love to know where all those who are looking for 'true democracy' would like to live.

No harrumphing here.....but I can't pretend to understand something I don't, or make gestures which mean nothing to me.

I presume they want to live in a Britain free from a monarchy.

Perception do they need to know why? That's a serious question, BTW, I'm not being facetious. Why do people buy one brand over another? Because they have emotional connections they can't explain. Why can't non-republicans feel that way about the Royal Family?

I must admit that there is some fantastic debate on here in favour of a republic and I don't disagree with the intellect behind it. But for me, it's not a matter of intellect (and maybe that's being naive); it's about my national pride and the monarchy is a big part of that.

Yes I think they do need to know why.

But why?

"Corgito - what are we proud of?"

For one, I'm proud to live in a country that allows a Republican protest in the middle of a national festival and it's treated in a good-humoured way rather than being suppressed.

Perception, you say you don't understand it, but that doesn't stop you insulting people who engage in it, or worse accuse them of being unthinking sheep. It seems that your inability to understand is being turned into frustration and anger at everyone else (a bit like lashing out at people for laughing at a joke you don't 'get').

As for pride, a country is a collective endeavour of millions of people who live there. I take pride in the success and culture of the company I work for even though I am only a tiny part of it. Likewise I feel pride in being British because I contribute to "Britain" as an entity. Is your lack of pride because you don't contribute anything?

Bluegrass, you're a bit quick with the implied insults there yourself.

Tut tut.

I'm proud of the fact that we can all be British in our own way. As US-born British citizen Bonnie Greer pointed out on a prog I listened to yesterday..... when you become a US citizen you are expected to fall in with a particularly American way of thinking and behaving. Here we say come on in, be part of our culture, but bring your own beliefs and traditions with you. That's definitely something to admire.

No Bluegrass, perception's position is entirely logical.

Q. What is it about the monarchy that you like and admire and want to celebrate and perpetuate.

A. I don't know. I just do.

Q. Does that not make you a bit like an unthinking sheep, just following the crowd without thinking about it, having a reason or knowing why?

A. Wahhhhhhhhhh don't attack me/you have a chip etc.

Proud to be British when it's part of the constitution to espouse inequality in the form of a monarchy?

Is that really something to be proud of?

My mil is one of those who is unthinkingly and ardently royalist and she was shocked by my "not knowing my place" by questioning the validity of the royal family.

What did she mean by that? I suspect she meant that I should understand I am an inferior being to the queen. We all are and we should never presume to be an equal human to them. After all, god ordained it to be so. Right? The divine right of kings.

Ludicrous. Medieval. Primitive.