To feel extremely bloody proud to be British today?

[hehitmeanditfeltlikeakiss]

I take our country for granted because I live in a town that is the polar opposite of what Windsor looks like. But wow - watching the Royal family today I got shivers down my spine and felt so overwhelmed with emotion.

In the past I've looked at ways of emigrating because I've been fed up of living here, but I've just realised that it's a free country and to feel better about life I can actually make the move and go and live somewhere nicer (ok, maybe not Windsor but still).

We're so lucky aren't we?

I know. I still will find it wierd to pledge basic allegiance to a king. Who we don't decide who it is.

Siwel - Personally I would rather have a Royal Family than a President but I know there are plenty who disagree.
Can you imagine the bickering over the referendum result. Say the republican vote won by 51% there would be endless discussions and arguing, just like the EU referendum.
Then the president would have to be chosen and whoever won would be accused of using Russian social media bots and so on.
However although I think the president and his family would attract a lot of press interest and all the gossip - most of it untrue - that heads of state all over the world have to suffer, I don't think there would be anything like the same level of interest about their children's weddings.

Thank you for your explanation expat.

@DappleGray. I agree it would be a ball ache to do but the royals just don't sit well with me

I thought New York was originally called New Amsterdam rather than New Netherland but happy to be corrected.

You're correct, it was New Amsterdam before it was New York. The characteristic "Nue Yawk" accent can be traced linguistically back to the early dutch settlers.

Expat is also correct that many place names here are Spanish in origin, or French or Indian.

Can you imagine the bickering over the referendum result. Say the republican vote won by 51% there would be endless discussions and arguing, just like the EU referendum

So why don't we abandon elections for the Government and just have a dictator then?

And just to clarify the place name history irrelevancy, the Dutch referred to their entire colony on the east coast as "New Netherland" but there wasn't much to it beyond the capital city of New Amsterdam. They held the territory from 1623 to 1664.

www.ushistory.org/us/4a.asp

I don't think there would be anything like the same level of interest about their children's weddings.
That is one of the things i hate about having a monarchy, the damn kids and all the rest of them on the gravy train. With a president it would be just him/her and rightly so.

All paid for by themselves. Bride and groom have worked you know. Bride very successful actor don’t you know?

Kala - l meant it lightheartedly really though there seems to be much more fuss about referendums than ordinary elections.

Three cheers. Me too.

No it wasn't all paid for themselves. We paid the security.

We don't actually need a head of state you know.....

Bertrand - who would do all the things that the Queen does or in the case of republics, the President?

The primeminsiter? The foreign Secretary? The home Secretary?

Currently I think this country is shit. We haven’t got a single politician that isn’t “in it for themselves”. The roads are bordering on dangerous with all the potholed surfaces, there are more homeless people on our streets, prices are on the increase, people are getting g ever more shafted and the levels of general ignorance beggar belief. Still, two people completely independent of each other and who have travelled extensively, have said to me in the last week that we are lucky to live here. I appreciate our freedoms but yes, arseholes like the rich Rees-Mogg and Johnson don’t give a stuff about anyone but themselves and as for the cost to the taxpayer of ‘that dress’ (beautiful as it was) is an outrage. I don’t mind the royals that much but I do mind us forking out for MM’s dress when the NHS is struggling so badly and yes, the Grenfell issue. What sort of country us this?

Toys - do you know for a fact how much the dress cost and did the tax payer definitely pay for it?

Resentment, jeralousy, anger and bitterness are a toxic combination and only poison those who harbour them. I am shocked to the core that people react to a happy occasion on a sunny day when everyone had a chance to join the celebrations with bile and vituperation.

Gratitude and optimism are better guides to thought and conduct.

Getting sick of all the outright lies about what the wedding has cost the taxpayer.
UK tax payers contribute £39 million per year to the royals. That's 60 pence per head of the UK population. They generate about £500 million per year in tourism for the UK.
There were a lot of extra police on the day, funded by tax payers. Also a lot of extra police for the FA cup and all the other bloody football matches throughout the year.
We all pay taxes to the government far in excess of 60 pence per person per year. And then watch them 'earning' huge salaries, whilst enjoying subsidised meals and booze, fiddling their expenses and claiming for at least one household's expenses, often two. The government has caused the poverty. The government is actively seeking to destroy the NHS.
The Royals are just about the last thing I am proud of too. I want to emigrate - I dream of it.
I hate the rabid misinformation and downright lies spread by the media in this nasty little cesspit of a xenophobic country.

No resentment, jealousy, anger or bitterness, just don't agree with the institution that is monarchy or celebrating a wedding of two randoms I don't know no matter who they are. I enjoyed the sunny day by going outside for a long ramble then a BBQ dinner with my husband and son (our daughter chose to go away for the weekend on a weekend long wild camp with a section of a longer route thrown in). I'm not in the habit of being grateful to random people I don't know just because of whom they were born to. Seems rather odd to me.

Reportedly she paid for it herself.

Don't let the door hit your backside on the way out sink

Simiisme that meant to say not sink

I don't know why the wedding of two rich people I don't know would make me proud to be British. I didn't have anything to do with it and I've never met them.

I feel very grateful to have been born in Britain and to have benefited from the freedoms and security associated with being a citizen of a rich democratic nation but I can't be proud of what is essentially a fortunate accident of birth.

I'm happy that two people who love each other got married (as much as I can be happy on behalf of strangers). But people who love each other get married every weekend. Actually, since people seem to gush so much about how wonderful it is to see people in love getting married, why don't we just pick a random wedding to witness every weekend and we could all have the same kind of celebration every Saturday?

simiisme you're spreading misinformation ! That figure excludes many many things such as security!

Plus all of the assets they have that should really belong to the state. We have to pay for the upkeep but they are the only ones allowed to live there

That they generate figure is just made up also. People would still vist london without them.