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.

god...stop being so angry!!

why?

Also, I don't care what nationality they are, it's equal opportunity hatred round here. And I am not particularly proud to be either English or British. It is an accident of birth like having brown hair or a mole on my knee.

Front page of the Times today was news that the Queen likes to eat Special K for breakfast sometimes . I did chortle at news that she sometimes enjoys a 'well-earned' g&t before the evening meal though.

It is fucking ridiculous, the billions we spend pampering this old woman about whom everything I've ever heard is, to be honest, fairly unpleasant.

Yes I do think there is something British about fetes - the smell of damp marquees and trampled grass...mmm.

The Royal Family give us a focal point for our national celebrations. Most countries have some sort of national day - often independence days or nation founding days. We don't have that, or a president so we'd have to find something else if we didn't have the royal family. St George's day (but he was Libyan or something)? VE day??? It isn't unreasonable to be proud of your country - countries with a lot less to be proud of have much more overt celebrations of nationhood.

What is the point of being proud of a country?

other than as grounds for war?

Mayday?

They do. They represent the very worst of Britishness. The very worst of any country with a raging class system and an undemocritically 'elected' (ha!) head of state. And it pisses me right off. They represent a bloody past. While they exist, that is Britishness. Even though it is representative of precisely no-one but themselves.

Argh.

You on for a bit of the old chip chop then?

I'm off to France on Sunday to escape it all.

Vive la Republique!

Hully, I'm a republican, but

1. Being proud of your country is no bad thing - I'm a patriot in the George Orwell / Heinrich Heine mode
2. Calling them german is a little silly, just because they have german ancestry

I like your last post Psammead.

see above Bennifer ^^

So who among us is English?

I think i am and DP is Scottish,does that mean our DC aren't English even though they've been born and brought up here and identify with being English?

I wouldn't sink to their orf with their heads level.

Put the oldies in sheltered accommodation with a state pension to get by on. Then they will understand Britishness. The young ones can work and try to get a mortgage.

What is this long tradition of Englishness?

I find this all so depressing.Look around the world,read the desperate stories from so many countries,then look out of your window and be grateful to be British

Psammead But why is it such a problem if it's all in name only? They don't actually have any power? The Queen doesn't run the country, even if thicko Americans think she does.

I am a citizen of the world. I claim no partisanship.

Softpaw, it is possible to have views on more than one thing at one time.

Guys, don't let's be beastly to the Germans. Please note my MN name. Like most here, I really come from somewhere else in living memory. So do they. Possibly apt, then.

If they are really German, maybe they could stand for a more modernising meritocracy, then... .. one which spends more on education and the arts.

Beacuse in name only translates into acceptance of an entire system of hierarchy and unearned privilege.

I love Germans. I am a bit German. I have visited Germany. Ich bin ein Berliner. Does that help?

Thicko Americans - lovely.

You've hit the nail on the head though. The queen is the head of state. Our representative in all other countries all over the world. Her mandated power (or lack thereof) is irrelevant. The queen is Britain, abroad. That is a powerful position no matter what.