Best name suggestion I've seen for the newborn drain on the taxpayer...

[SolidGoldBrass]

I popped into a pub this afternoon for a wee and a pint and they had a Royal Baby Name sweepstake board behind the bar.

Someone had suggested 'Dodi.'

"They are human beings - no more, no less. I do not see why they deserve my respect or why I should be asked to treat them as though they are extra special. I'm sure they're nice people but that's not the point."

You don't have to respect them or adore them! But just be not a cunt about a new baby who just happens, through no fault of it's own, to have been born into that family. By all means, slag off the elders of the institution but not a baby. It's a bit much, even for the hard-nosed hags on here.

Fair enough, a lot of people DO buy into the monarchy. That is up to them. They aren't bothering me by doing it even if I am not a raging royalist myself. I can't work myself into a lather over that.

Its been Crown Estates since 1066. I don't think any of us were around back then!

For the last time, nobody is slagging off the baby. Are you serious about postponing discussion for 18 years? Equality can wait? Oh, it's been hundreds of years, so what's another 18, right? I give up.

But the prize drawn wouldn't be inherited privilege, it would be true randomness. Why keep it to one family? It's supposed to be a ceremonial position so pass it throughout the nation.

I think you're being obtuse, ballwasin.

He has NO OPTION of which family he is born into. We don't know how his life will pan out, do we? From my limited knowledge, William and Harry are supposed to be the progressive royals. They are doing things now that their father/uncles would not have done i.e actual jobs. Who knows, by the time newbie royal is ready to take over as king, he might be more resembling of a person with his own qualities than a product of a finely-tuned machine. But unfair to speculate NOW, at 2 days old, that he is simply going to feed off the state and be a burden.

Who said anything about postponing discussion?! LIKE I SAY, slag off/plot against the elders all you like. Couldn't give a shit.

The Crown Estates - you mean land stolen from the rest of us and claimed by the Monarchy?...
and managed to a high degree in order to make huge amounts of money which grows every year and is given back to the treasury...

i thought the op was funny, it was a joke

like the royal family are a joke to many people and that is not just here in the uk

vileness towards any child is wrong, pointing out what a joke the whole set up is and the celebration around his birth that is projected on to the public to many is a joke this is what people are taking the piss out of not the baby himself

We don't know, Kim. Maybe it will be in 25 years...

William and Harry are the first Royals that I have genuinely liked. They never will be "normal" because of what they were born into. However, I think they seem to be doing an alright job of being nice human beings. They are already doing away with things that 30 years ago, in the Royal family, would have seemed ludicrous, such as Kate and William not having a maternity nurse, or the second in line living a fairly normal existence in Anglesey, or one of them going off to fight in Afghanistan. They seem fairly progressive. They seem the best chance of dragging the monarchy from the archaic style they seem to have favoured for so long.

leave the baby alone! not his fault, he didn't ask to be born into the Royal Family. In fact, none of them did. he's a tiny baby FFS!

it was also reported that Kate would not have a lady in waiting

she has been kept well hidden

Mind you, it would have been... interesting if this baby had been born with some kind of SN, wouldn't it? (not that anyone knows for sure that he hasn't...) Or if something had gone badly wrong during the birth. Even with the best medical care possible, shit still happens sometimes.

(Oh and before the unthinking deference mob need another change of underwear, I am certainly not wishing harm on a newborn baby. Just speculating about whether, if this one had been born with Downs syndrome, or blind, or deaf, or brain damaged, whether that would have led to a wave of public support for help being given to babies who are born with SN, or whether the public services cuts would have continued just the same because after all the Royal baby matters and the peasants' babies don't.)

Can someone explain the Dodi joke to me. Why exactly is it funny.

I'm not being obtuse - just a bit confused.

Your last post is disgusting. Im not a member of the UDM, but it is my opinion that your those comments make you sound like a total twat!

It's NOT funny. That's the thing.

Oh and SGB, people not agreeing with you doesn't mean that they're unthinking, by the way.

I'm not being obtuse at all. The reason we are aware of anything at all about George is because of what he symbolises, the simple fact he was born and who he is. I'm not judging him, the whole bizarre system is one I judge and it is entirely devoid of personal merit - so many people are out there cooing over him for precisely that same reason. I just think it's somewhat ironic to bring personal achievement up in the context of such an enormous hoohah about a tiny baby who as yet (obviously) has done nothing at all.

I don't believe he couldn't have some form of "normal" job in the same way as William and Harry have ostensibly normal military careers. The royals on the continent do it and I think it would be great PR for Brand Windsor.

And wasn't Prince Charles in the military? And Andrew?

Well the fact that he has been granted a role is neither here nor there. All I am saying is that writing him off as a drain already is silly. I can see the parallels that you're drawing but that isn't what I was referring to. Do we EVER judge babies on what we THINK they will turn out to be? Well yes, lots of people do, on benefit-bashing threads so answered my own question there!

I really think that he might have a normal-ish job. William seems keen to veer from what is normal and protocol for the royals, he seems his own man. I hope that the baby gets a good upbringing and a happier one than he had because, for all their money, his childhood was not a happy one.

I'm still surprised. Where does this idea that someone has been "vile" to the baby come from?

Even the (quoted, not original to the OP) joke about the name Dodi seemed to me to be more a joke on the elders of the royal family than the baby himself (as in, what if the new golden child of the family ended up with the name of someone they'd really disapprove of, even if he was loved by Diana). It's news to me that Dodi al-Fayed is actually supposed to be some kind of evil and disgusting person so it's vile to suggest a child would have his name.

And comparing the thread title to someone walking up to his mother in the street and saying to her cold that her new baby himself (rather than the role he's just been put into) is a drain on the taxpayer - I don't really see that. I doubt very much that KM is under any illusions, and it will not be news to her that some people disapprove of the funding of the royal family, so even if she was to read the thread title (is all this response partly down to people being convinced she is going to?) that particular bit is hardly going to shock her. Actual threats would, I'm sure, and they would be vile, but that's not what this is.

I also find the idea that we can't discuss the monarchy and governance of our country in the context of a new prince until he's 18 really depressing.

Someone has just been born - always a good thing, and one way or another this particular baby is likely to have a pretty good life - and it seems as though some posters are acting more as though someone has just died and we need to tiptoe around things until a respectful time has passed.

Andrew was in the military for show. He did the sum total of sweet fuck all. All of his medals were given to him by mummy. He was in the forces for about 6 seconds. At least W and H seem dedicated to actually doing it as a job and not just arseing about in the sea for a few months. He "served" in the navy for 22 years, allegedly, but how much of that was active service is debateable.

Charlie did similar, IIRC. A stint in the navy and air force but for a lesser time.