To think Prince William and his wife are lacking appreciation of their position

[fideline]

and good fortune?

He just seems a bit of an over-privileged posh boy?

I know everyone says he has lovely manners, but we can expect a bit more than that, surely?

They have just hired a 'forrin' nanny a) after making an enormous PR fuss about not having one b) at a time of high UK unemployment.

The list of god-parents for their baby was a bit multi-barrelled and No foreign royals, as is traditional, but Not the slightest whiff of any demographic diversity either.

There seem to be a LOT of luxury holidays going on with these two.

The uni course he is doing has been especially designed for him and seems designed to prepare him for inheriting the enormous (private) Duchy of Cornwall. Not exactly public-spirited?

In the much-hyped first post-baby interview, he was keen to promote a charity saving Kenyan Rhinos. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but the line between animals he shoots for fun and animals he wants to save is unclear and anyhow a charity for under-privileged (UK?) children would have been the nice, publicity-shrewd thing to do, maybe?

For a couple with a great deal of expensive PR expertise at their disposal they seem to be slightly missing the mark a bit too often.

Janine, absolutely, but she was signing off on stuff she'd worked for during her pre-Presidency career, and used the office to reinforce things like gay rights by having gay groups to the Aras etc. definitely 'soft power' compared to her previous life, though.

I'm just arguing, really, against the view that seems to show up on those threads, which assumes that either the President replacing a royal as head of state would be the current PM and/or would inevitably be someone incompetent/corrupt/awful.

Presidential candidates are rarely, if ever, independent of political parties. Yes you vote for the individual not the party, but we'd probably end up following the US system.

Think about it - even the Aussies prefer keeping a foreign Head of State to taking on an elected President!

I entirely disagree, fortyplus: I think if the UK were to abolish the monarchy, it would still wish to separate out head of state from head of government. The US system or even the French system would be v unpopular here.

Mary Robinson was actually an independent candidate, as it happens.

But who would decide upon which system to adopt? The same people who refuse to allow proportional representation. We need to push for electoral reform long before considering the abolition of the monarchy.

"I don't believe wisdom is a currency that PR teams deal in. They do smart grin"

Which could cause a problem Lapsed. Royalty isn't commerce.

Yes, I agree with that fortyplus.

I just wish she would cut her bloody hair - it is too long and straggly.
And stop wearing inappropriately short skirts and too much eyeliner.

If we think they are bad, just wait until Harry gets married ( and we have Princess Cress, fml!)

HA @ Princess Cress

I reluctantly acknowledge that there may be some need for the royals and that they do provide lots in tourism etc.

However, for me, and I think lots of people, it's not Kate and William as individuals, its what they represent. They're figure heads for so many of the things I hate in this country. To me they represent a revolting level of priviledge and wealth, private schools, a divided society, lack of social mobility, knowing your place attitudes.

They just seem like luckier versions of David and Samantha Cameron.

Yes William has done work for other charities but I think it's only the rhinos he bothered to learn to speak about in Vietnamese.

I think that's a fair point too, forty.

But most of the countries that are lauded for having more equal societies - Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, also have royal families. Meanwhile plenty of republics - the US for example, have very unequal societies.

The Scandinavian countries seem to 'do' royalty in a lower-key more modern way than us though though Donna. At least it is C21st approach.

Sorry- that didn't make sense.

I meant the lower key they are, the less the cost to the taxpayer and the less any one cares or comments on their choices as aresult.

Waity Katey could do with showing us a sliver of personality occasionally.

Other than her extreme patience in sitting around for the best part of a decade waiting for him to pop the question has she formed any opinions on anything other than beige shoes are best as a default?

They are just so boring! Whatever happened to that fantastic British aristocratic tradition of eccentricity? Nobody does it as well as we do, and one can't keep watching fawlty towers reruns to get ones fix forever. They are letting the side down.

Scumerloon, Millipede and Clogg also have personality deficits, at this rate we'll bore the Russians into submission!

Anyway I have decided that IABU and it is the protestations of normality that are annoying, rather than the posh over-privileged stuff per se.

I do sort of wish the entire monarchy could be drastically scaled down, though. Now I am definitely not BU.

I mean

Do you think she's allowed boc?

Maybe she has buried it so well, she's mislaid it?

Her personality, I mean.

I have a theory she's a secret pill popper, it's just not possible for a healthy young well-educated woman to be so bland woman to be so bland on a diet of duchy's organic salads alone.

It could be worse though, he could have married Pippa-now there's a pointless existence, running round Europe chasing billionaires. Poor love hasn't got the face to land her catch though, and her writing skills were excruciating so we know she's not got a personality lurking under the tomb at Althorp.

I think the royal family as a whole are parasites & leeches. no personal opinion on will/kate, they seem quite inoffensive and ordinary in a private school sort of way

Boc!

You'll end up in the tower, my girl

Scaling down is definitely an option that I would lend my support to.

But reading this thread you would think Her Majesty and her minions weren't popular although the latest wedding fuss tells us different.

Everyone seems to like a good royal wedding/funeral or both.

I don't Caruthers. I find it really discombobulating when large numbers of people get dressed strangely and lose their sense of proportion about the family events of people they haven't met.

I doubt I'm alone. Crucially though, on such days, I am inside. With a stock of food. And the radio turned off. Therefore I am, by definition, less visible than the hysterics. So are the others.

And I am not even a person who actively dislikes the RF. Doubtless many people leave the country. Or head for the hills.