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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the royal family are a bloody embarrassment THREAD 2

957 replies

MyOhMySimon · 19/09/2021 06:47

Carrying on from Thread 1.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4347032-To-think-the-royal-family-are-a-bloody-embarrassment?msgid=110733144#110733144

Haven't seen the OP around, thread 1 is about to run out and someone asked for a new thread.

OP posts:
TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 21:38

Look, in arguing against monarchy I’m not saying everything else in the world is perfect, I’m sure the judiciary could do with extensive review.

However it doesn’t get me any closer to understanding the justification for support of monarchy.

I’ll try divine providence again?!?!

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 21:39

That isn’t the point at all. It’s a minor aspect. Presumably you support the concept of a judiciary, you have no say in who you get, you can’t get rid of them if you don’t like them, some of them are rubbish. You don’t want to abolish it though.

Members of the judiciary go through a process to get where they are. They start off by getting the right A Levels to go to law school, then they apply for jobs, then they go for promotions. And so on.

Yes, there is the network of people from the "right" schools etc. who form part of that judiciary, and there's also some nepotism, both of these aspects are part of the "system" which includes the monarchy, peers, non-majority government, all of which needs reform.

However, if I were a judge, my eldest child would not automatically become a judge, too, so your comparison falls down on that point alone.

Blossomtoes · 21/09/2021 21:40

Well, in a way, they are born to it. Public school, Oxbridge, having the right friends. A bit like Tory politicians. All resulting from privileged backgrounds.

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 21:40

However, if I were a judge, my eldest child would not automatically become a judge, too, so your comparison falls down on that point alone.

I do think she knows that, this is just frantic distraction to answering the question,

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 21:42

If you don’t like the falling out of vaginas chat, I can offer you Bill Bryson’s definition which always tickled me …

The eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son … of the man who fucked Nell Gwynn

Grin
Blossomtoes · 21/09/2021 21:45

Much better. I haven’t heard that one before. 😂

sammylady37 · 21/09/2021 21:46

I'm proud of this country and its values

Really? Proud of the fact that it puts mediocrity (and that’s being kind) over meritocracy?
Proud of that?

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 21:46

Not really. I’m not an advocate of nepotism which is how judges get elevated to their positions.

Some, certainly, which is not all. For instance, are you suggesting Linda Dobbs gained her position through nepotism?

www.legalcheek.com/2016/03/britains-first-black-female-high-court-judge-opens-up-about-racism-at-the-bar/

I'm not seeing how you're forming your argument for the concept of a monarchy tbh.

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 21:51

Much better. I haven’t heard that one before

Yeah, it certainly stuck in my head 😆

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 21:51

@Blossomtoes

Well, in a way, they are born to it. Public school, Oxbridge, having the right friends. A bit like Tory politicians. All resulting from privileged backgrounds.
It is not a hereditary judiciary is it?

Lady Hale's parents were teachers, she comes from Redcar, and she got a place at Cambridge, the first person from her school to do so. She studied law and was one of six women in a class of 110.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Hale,_Baroness_Hale_of_Richmond

All resulting from privileged positions?

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 21:54

Sorry I mean backgrounds not positions. And the link won't copy correctly.

MyOhMySimon · 21/09/2021 21:55

Speaking of nepotism, isn't the Monarchy the epitome of it? Who else gets to have the 'job' if not family? Nepotism is what the Monarchy is built on.

OP posts:
ChurchofLatterDayPaints · 21/09/2021 21:59

@MyOhMySimon I think they have a special ribbon-cutting gene? Normal people just fumble and drop the scissors, apparently.

Roussette · 21/09/2021 22:00

Of course the monarchy are built on nepotism. Who are these people?

They mean absolutely nothing to me. i don't look up to them, I don't defer to them in any way shape or form. Why are people so deferential to them? Just why? An accident of birth, that's all.

There are many who I admire and actually revere. Not the RF. They mean absolutely nothing to me.
They were born into some family or other but what do they stand for?

MyOhMySimon · 21/09/2021 22:03

[quote ChurchofLatterDayPaints]@MyOhMySimon I think they have a special ribbon-cutting gene? Normal people just fumble and drop the scissors, apparently.[/quote]
😅

OP posts:
HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 22:04

@MyOhMySimon

Speaking of nepotism, isn't the Monarchy the epitome of it? Who else gets to have the 'job' if not family? Nepotism is what the Monarchy is built on.
Sort of. But not quite.

Nepotism in the judiciary will get you that job which will help your career etc. You still need to want to study law, and to make moves of your own volition to get to a certain stage where nepotism helps you to go further.

As others have put more crudely, in order to be monarch all that is required is that you're the first child of the current monarch to enter the world.

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 22:06

As others have put more crudely

Grin Blush

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 22:08

Argh - not even current monarch, first child of any of the monarchs in waiting who will get to do it before you do!

MyOhMySimon · 21/09/2021 22:08

Well yeah. That's my point. @HarrisonStickle

'Fell out of the right vagina' is apt.

OP posts:
HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 22:11

On this and on the last thread a lot of the argument for a monarchy seems to be based on "but our electoral system is crap" or "the judiciary needs reform". Or that people are vile to either not want a monarchy or to dislike the people who make up ours.

HarrisonStickle · 21/09/2021 22:16

[quote derxa]www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/every-single-uk-prime-minister-21474956[/quote]
It's a disgrace.

Not sure what your point is thought @derxa? Is it that our electoral system is corrupt therefore a monarchy is fine?

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 22:18

We all know the U.K. political system is biased towards those who have money and privilege. But a) that doesn’t make a monarchical system justifiable and b) it’s not the full story either. We have had PMs with reasonably humble roots.

TheKeatingFive · 21/09/2021 22:25

You’re not really engaging with the point here derxa

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